Them: So, what’s your major?
Me: Sociology. [Well, putatively, since I haven’t officially declared yet.]
Them: Oh, so you want to be a psychologist?
Me: [Trying not to look visibly confused/crestfallen/WTF-ish 'cause I don’t want to make anyone feel bad.] Um…no, I [think I] want to be a sociologist.*
*And yeah, I can see the *potential * for linkage between sociology and psychology, but, honestly, does sociology =/~/—> pyschology really have to be the **first ** thing that comes to mind?
Am I the only person who thinks it’s pitiful that people think it’s bad to be smart? And that smart people here are busily trying to pretend they’re not? Am I the only person that thinks it’s appalling that it’s ok to be very talented in any other field, but somehow to be intelligent is a negative thing?
Right out the window. Good-bye, nice to have met you, please go away now, you scary, scary person.
Fuck it. I just say I’m a translator and I save the politics part until we’ve already slept together and they find the stray recruitment forms on my end table.
I was studying political science in college. I should probably note that I’m a woman. I was chatting with a slightly older bloke and he asked what I was studying, and when I told him, replied with “Oh, that’s great, you can be a political secretary.”
Guffaw.
At the time I was considering the possibilities of working my way through the local green/independent party to some sort of candidacy (runs in the family) but since then have lived well and truly colourfully enough to rule that out
I think most people with an identifiable profession are subject to the type of response under discussion in this thread. For example, I am an editor. When people find this out, they often say “oh no, now I’m afraid to ever send you an e-mail – you will see all my writing mistakes.”
That sort of response can be isolating, if it makes you feel like the interlocutors are holding you at arm’s length because they regard you as more intellectual than they are, or it can be ego-gratifying, or both. But there’s no point in reading much into it either way; people are usually just trying to make conversation and they can’t think of a better response.
Given how predictable this type of response is, you can come up with a coping mechanism and move on. I usually laugh and say “oh, I never judge anyone’s writing by their e-mails; it’s just a quick form of communication where errors are no big deal” and then ask them something about themselves or otherwise make a comment to move the conversation forward without dwelling on my allegedly superhuman linguistic abilities.
(Now feel free to search this post and find writing mistakes in it.)
I’ve tried the “Smart is Good” tack and people don’t like it. The last thing they want is for you think you’re better than them, even if they’re thinking it. So you have to minimize your own abilities to appear modest.
Try telling someone you’re a Geography major. The one permitted response is, “So what do you do with that?”
I’ve rewritten my response about five times now and this is by far the shortest. I agree with what you’re saying. I just didn’t get that from most of the other posts.
We, in the west and probably more specifically North America, need to make science cool. That isn’t exactly an easy task considering all of the battles it has right now. It gets attacked from certain pockets of society and people hated it in school, it’ll be tough.
I just say something like “Oh, I mostly work with mainframes, so I can’t helpwith desktop support” or “Heh. I’m a manager. I pay people to figure that stuff out for me.”
When I went back and got my MBA, lots of classes would start off with “let’s everybody go 'round the room and introduce yourself.” There were lots and lots of accountants, and other business-y types.
When it got to me and I said “chemical engineer,” this appalled silence would fall on the room. And then the jokes about how I’d be ruining the grade curve would begin.
Comparing notes with another engineer in the MBA program, she had the same reaction with her EE degree. (and we both ruined the grade curves, thankyouverymuch)
It used to be when I told people that I was a ChemE, they’d ask if I knew how to make crystal meth. :dubious:
Now I just tell them that I make motor oil additives, to avoid the hopeful druggies. Instead, they ask if I can help them change their oil. :smack:
(nb: I don’t change my own oil. I’m a lazy motor oil ChemE.)
I’m right there with you, stucco. Its really annoying.
On the other hand, my job is the ulimate conversation killer (IMHO):
Person: So, what do you do?
MM: I work in immunology research.
P: Wow, that’s must be very interesting. What does that involve?
MM: Gathering white blood cells, testing for proteins that are on their surface, some surgery.
P: Surgery? You’re a doctor?
MM: No. (Regretting what I just said.)
P: What sort of surgery?
MM: I’m training to do heart transplants in animal models.
P: Animal models? Like gunea pigs?
MM: Mice mostly, sometimes rats.
At this point, they conversation dies or I get an earful of “How could you do that to cute little mouses?”
Yea, Nava you really nailed the reason it is so irritating. It’s a fundamental flaw in American society. No wonder we are still debating evolution when everybody has this “science is icky” attitude.
We’re just lucky that most of them want to stay in the USA after their graduate career is done.
the really fun conversations happen when you tell someone you are a SAHM. “oh, that must be so fun!” followed by a quick change in the conversation. If you think science is unintresting to the average individual, imagine how unintresting my job is to them. It’s still not quite as bad as the responses I get when I tell people I have a BA in English Lit. btw, no I am not a teacher. I have never trained to be a teacher. I never wanted to be a teacher past the age of six.
I like what I do though, so it’s all good. This way I talk with people about themselves and that always makes me more intresting to them.
When I was a math major in college, I would get comments like “oh, I’m no good at math. I’m an English and history type of person.” The implication being that you can be good at science and math OR good in humanities, but not both. I always found that those people ended up having no writing skills and limited reading comprehension skills.
Now I’m a computer science grad student, so everyone thinks I can fix their computers. I have no interest in fixing computers, or programming computers for that matter. I doubt that I know any more about those things than an average physics or biology grad student these days. My dad is shocked that there’s math in my papers.
::evil grin:: I was a cultural anthro focus, and I have a horrible habit of over analyzing things. For a while, I thought I was going to become a museum curator, which is also all sorts of fun to explain, as it’s a pretty “fluid” career to describe.
The worst part about dealing with the responses is that my pharmacist decided for a few months to play “let’s bat about the theory of evolution with the customer!” on me. I’m really good at evading questions in this regard, as, well, it’s none of his business; I’m just here to pick up my meds, damn it.
I’m going back to school in August/September and entering a Library and Information Science program. I can just imagine the responses now: “So, what do they teach you to do there? alphabetize books? Type up all those funny numbers to stick on the side? Dust?” I realize someday, I’ll have to come up with a better retort than “No, they teach me how to fool around in the stacks without getting caught.”
IT major here, and I just gotta say that while CS is much more math and theory oriented, IT is most certinaly not “as studied at high school, i.e using MS word.”
:eek:
It’s still not quite as bad as the responses I get when I tell people I have a BA in English Lit. btw, no I am not a teacher. I have never trained to be a teacher. I never wanted to be a teacher past the age of six.
I realize someday, I’ll have to come up with a better retort than “No, they teach me how to fool around in the stacks without getting caught.”