Re: CHAT: Steg's wonderful .sig (and a question)

nicole perrin <nicole.perrin@...> wrote:

> My father always says "Why don't you learn a *real* language instead of
> making up your own?  Something that's actually *useful*?"  And my mom
> rolls her eyes and makes funny faces.
[etc....]

I'll tell y'all what happens to me... My mother's first question about
the issue, when I told her, was 'What for?' She's not actually a
utilitarian <sp?>, but she thought I was trying to do something that
could either be sold or used as an ornament at home. As for my father,
he really doesn't know what to say, I guess, so he pretends he doesn't
know. My younger brother is not exactly supportive, but he has some
other minority hobbies too (RPGing and anime/manga, which are not
very widespread here yet) so he seems to understand, though he makes
me mad when he cuts off my enthusiastic chat about cool linguistic
matters to say 'OK, I'm going to stop listening now -- no offence,
right?'.

My friends know (more or less) what I do; they usually nod and say
'Yeah, yeah' in a most interesting-looking way. None of them has
ever made fun of it or deemed it stupid; they just see as one of
my peculiar aspects. I've occasionally mentioned some trivia about
languages when we're speaking, and had some genuine attention, and
I actually wrote and read a translation of the Quenya poem 'Nam=E1rie'
*aloud* in front of them once. They all said 'Wow, you really know
what you're doing!'.

As for justification: I don't need it. I don't want it. And I hate
when people try to invent one for me -- like someone who said 'You
invent languages and worlds because deep within yourself, you don't
like *this* world'. Damn amateur shrink! Aarrrgh!

PS: Nicole, your mail is set to reply to your private address, instead
of the list. Is that right?


--Pablo Flores
  http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/