Re: "Coming out" about conlanging to people in Academia [was Re: Caryatic]

Personally i haven't spoken much about my conlang publicly as there's always a
fear of being seen as a nerdy type...

The reaction from my non-linguistically-enthusiastic friends were from
indifferent to welcoming. One guy wanted his name to be used as one of the
characters i've created! And he loves his role of having relation with a
Prince! ahhaha (that's another story for another time...). My roommate thinks
that the whole Fyksland deal is full of bull but very funny. hahhaha

Among the friends from the linguistic circle, reactions were more or less the
same, but more positive. One suggested a headline topic for a future Fyksland
news article. He also shows considerable interests as he asks me questions
about Fyksland all the time (he's not a conlanger per se.. but a speaker of
Esperanto).

But yeah... no bashing as of yet... so i'd say it's pretty safe to come out...
it makes conversation... well.. coming out about other things... that's another
story...  :o)

Kvasir


--- "Thomas R. Wier" <artabanos@...> wrote:
> J Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
> > He knew that I was a conlanger (I 'came out' to him about it at one
> of our
> > dinners)--but, like most people, he expressed no particular
> interest in the
> > details.  Neither did he discourage me, though.  There are plenty
> of
> > conlangers in the linguistics field, most of them flying just below
> the
> > radar.
>
> How many of us here have "come out" to people in academia, and what
> have the responses been like?
>
> An anecdote:
> A couple months ago I attended a session of the UT Linguistic Circle,
> after
> which everyone customarily always goes over to the Texas Union's pub
> for
> some beer and good conversation.   Somehow, the topic got onto
> languages
> people knew, and someone mentioned that they knew some Esperanto, at
> which point I quietly affirmed the same.  I then mentioned that I had
> gotten
> disillusioned with Esperanto and thereafter began trying to make my
> own.
> There was a weird dichotomy:  the people who weren't in tenured or
> tenure-
> track positions gave the verbal equivalent of a blink, and politely
> asked
> about it, while those who were, while not acting impolitely, gave me
> a look
> like "What a bizarre thing you have just said".   I immediately
> noticed this,
> and tried to play it down by quoting the joke my friend occasionally
> says about
> me needing to find someone else to hold up the other end of the
> politcal banner
> demanding language rights for speakers of my language.  The guy I was
> talking to
> gave a kind of nervous laugh and immediately changed the subject.  It
> was a
> weird experience, and has made me chary of opening up publically
> about my
> conlanging.
>
> ===================================
> Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier
>
> "Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
>   entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
> autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
>   erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos
--
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