tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed May 01 13:25:22 1996
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Re: Thesis
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>Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 10:55:11 -0700
>From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
>That's not a problem for me. *Everyone* I work with has some unusual hobby.
>One person shoots deer almost religiously every fall. One competes with
>other people pulling heavy objects with modified farm tractors. Someone
>else collects comic books and is building a temperature- and humidity-
>controlled cabinet in which to keep them. The beer-brewer isn't treated
>quite as skeptically as the others (like the family whose son thought he
>was a chicken; they didn't want to cure him, because they needed the eggs).
>So I speak Klingon. In the great scheme of things, it's not a big deal.
Heh... I have more hobbies than most extended families or large towns.. :)
One that you mentioned is brewing... hmm, maybe someday I'll design a good
recipe for a beer or mead worthy of a Klingon title.
>I *do* get a few head-shaking comments -- "Why not learn a language you can
>actually use?" But as soon as I explain that it's a hobby, they usually
>recognize that hobbies are *supposed* to be enjoyable ways to waste time!
>And as time goes on and more and more honorable people learn to read and
>write and speak the language, we'll be creating more and more truly great
>literature and possibly even a real subculture. Hey, it could happen.
You get that sometimes... and people who really get all self-righteous at
you, like you're morally decrepit for studying linguistics while people are
starving in Europe. We live in a country where billions of dollars are
spent each year in an industry devoted to watching other people get
physical exercise (and whose adherents can quote chapter-and-verse trivia
as well or better than the most geekily stereotypical Trekker), and where
billions of dollars are spent each year studying new and exciting ways to
drape fabric around our bodies... And you're complaining that I choose to
expand my mind, learn how languages work, and how the brain processes this
most complex of human achievements? Where is YOUR sense of priority? :)
You can make that stick, too, with a little effort.
~mark
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