Are you a practising nurse? No, I'm doing it for real... I can remember, as a child, hearing about the test match between England and Australia, say the third test. I wondered when they were going to play the real game.
"medical practitioner" is pretty common parlance. "nurse practitioner" the first time I heard it (one of my friends was one of the first in Australia to get the qualification) I immediately went to medical practitioner. (Advanced) practice nurse, as you so rightly point out -- to me -- sounds nowhere near as competent or something. I'll have to ask my friend if it's the same here.
I don't tell people I'm a writer. If anyone asks what I do I say either that I'm an English teacher or an MA student. I sometimes get from that 'Oh, so you must be a writer' to which I say 'Yeah, I've had a few things published', and if the other person is honestly interested then I don't really get any annoying questions - if they are interested they'll be more thoughtful and considerate. Mind, when someone asks me what I like to do in my spare time I do say I write, because saying 'I kill' (which might be a joke) gets me weird looks, and saying 'I like to translate Roman and Anglo-Saxon poetry' used to make people go '... ya' what, mate?' and then comes the inevitable question 'Speak some Latin for me?'. ... URGH! I usually said 'Talis petitions, deus. Nihil novi sub sole' and try to get out of explaining what it actually means. Mind, if they know I read it's a whole other story. I've had irritating questions like 'So, read 50 Shades of Grey/Twilight/Harry Potter/Insert recent fad book here?', 'What you reading for?', 'Why do you read such old books?' <- I got this a lot when I was reading Ovid for some reason. Mind, someone once said 'Oh, so I guess you think you are too good for The Da Vinci Code' which honestly offended me, Dan Brown isn't exactly a good writer - but if I was stuck somewhere with only Dan Brown to read you'll not exactly hear me complaining, he's good, clean fun - like Die Hard or something.
It's still not exactly polite to say 'Such questions, God! There's nothing new under the sun'. Some might take it the wrong way if you don't phrase it right, and I can be pretty socially inept at times. :3
When people ask what I do I tell them I'm working on my BA in Film science (roughly translated from Norwegian). Usually people then follow up with "Oh, so you wanna be a movie reviewer?" Sometimes you just wanna slap people you know?
I typically don't tell strangers I'm a writer (The story in the OP was purely fictional. ) But my husband LOVES to tell people, which is what spurred this topic. lol We went to a dinner party last Christmas with his work. We were put at a table with a couple he didn't know, so there was a lot of getting-to-know-you conversation. They asked me what I did, and I said I didn't work. (That's normally my go-to answer.. However "I'm a domestic engineer" can be a fun response too!) But my husband wasn't having it. He said, "That's not true. She doesn't give herself enough credit. She's a writer!" So I spent the rest of the night talking with the husband, who has his own experiences with writing and who's daughter was in the process of getting published. He even asked me, "What's your publisher's name?" And I wanted to crawl under the table and die. Just last night, my husband came home from a business meeting and said, "I was telling a guy at the meeting that you're a writer. He said his son is 20 and just got a copywrite on his stuff and is starting to send it out. Maybe when he gets published, I can get his information for you to help you out! It's all about who you know, not what you know!" My poor husband.. lol He tries, but he doesn't realize how frustrating it can be to hear that someone way younger than me is already in the process of trying to get published.. Meanwhile, I'm over here just trying to finish writing chapter three.... lol
Do you start nearly every sentence with the word "Mind"? And Dan Brown's plots are preposterous. End of story.
I am very closed lipped about writing and I have a few other distractions to throw out there when asked what I do But if it's wheedled out of me - oh I have a great idea for something you can write! From people who have read what I write - (referring to something I wrote) Oh you are brilliant! I understood exactly what you meant by (x article, poem, story etc.)...........and then they proceed to expound something that was the OPPOSITE of what I intended and I have to fight the urge to burn my entire body of work.
As soon as I read this I noticed how much I do it in my head, and now I'm driving myself crazy. ... god damn it, minstrel. Yeah they really are, and what he talks about is often a load of nonsense - his recent book Inferno has some weird ideas and observations about Dante, based clearly on a casual reading of Dante's Inferno, and his comments about Botticelli's 'Chart of Hell' makes me think Dan Brown hasn't actually seen the painting he describes in the book. But he's fun, he's an airport novelist if there ever was one.
Not writing-related, but it seems everything in my life warrants some annoying question/comment lol. My degree: Art History "Oh. So, do you paint or something in class? You learn all the dates and names of the paintings and stuff?" "Cultural and political contexts? That's not what Art History's about!" (says the person who's studying something like, Maths) My origins: Chinese-born, raised British, live in the Czech Republic Baffled silence. Confused blinking. Awkward smiling. "You're from England? No, I mean where were you born/originally from?" (sometimes I feel sorry for their confusion and simply offer, "Born in Hong Kong" as an afterthought) "Oh wow, where did you learn your English? It's so good!" (the being raised in England thing is more of an error in the system for them) "Say some Chinese for me." (this one doesn't annoy too much, but I'm always stuck for what to say beyond 'hello') "No, you don't speak Chinese!" (like... what?) "Konnichiwa!" / "Ni Hao!" (yes, I know them both, and I simply reply with the same greeting. But I actually speak neither Japanese nor Mandarin. I speak Cantonese.) "Oh you speak Cantonese. That would be so useful for the future! You know, people are always looking to learn Mandarin these days - maybe you could teach it!" (two different languages man. Two different languages! So different they're not mutually intelligible without studying. I don't know how many times I've had to clarify the difference because some people keep telling me people are interested in Mandarin and I could help them) My job: freelance English teacher "So which school do you teach at?" (No, I freelance. It always makes me feel like I'm not a proper teacher or something) Where I live: Prague "Oh I've been there!" / "My sister's been there!" / "I've always wanted to go there!" (followed by them awkwardly trying to think of something more to say) (this, thankfully, happened just once) "Oh Prague! That's a beautiful place. I went there with my friend when we visited Poland! What was that main square called?" (my response: "Staromestska?" knowing full well she wouldn't have a clue. She blinked at me, and carried on telling me how wonderful Prague in Poland was.) My Writing "You still haven't finished? Haven't you been writing this book for ages?" "Maybe you should just write less, so you can finish faster." "You need to be confident about what you write and stop changing things. I think you lack confidence." (No, seriously, I don't. I'm a good writer and I'm not shy to say it either. But if a story doesn't work, it doesn't bloody work and it needs to be changed!) "What's it about?" (and then they regret they ever asked)
Indiana Jones is like my hero, and I love adventure/conspiracy/myths and legends kind of stuff, so Dan Brown's stories interest me, but his writing is preposterous. It's heavily padded, very repetitive at times, drags on in parts, and some of the descriptions are a bit bland and contradictory; also, he seems to have an obsession with the words, reverberated and scowled. However, saying that, he does have a reasonable sizeable vocabulary and I've learnt a few new words reading his stuff. After recently finishing Angels and Demons, I started Treasure Island, and boy was it like a gasp of clean, crisp air; the prose from the late 1800s is just on another level.
People never fail to ask silly questions. lol When I was in college for Graphic Design, people would often ask me, "Oh, what do you want to do with your degree?" Um..... Design? "Well [play slap], I know that. Where do you want to work though?" I literally don't care. I just want a job. lol Or since I've moved to Virginia, I've been voluntarily unemployed. So when I tell people I don't have a job, I get the same ol' stuff every time.... "Are you looking?" "There's this great place down the road from me that's hiring." "You should come work with me!" "Do you have kids?" And specifically from my parents... "Have you found a job yet?" "You enjoyed banking. You should try to go back to that." "You really should be more independent." Man... Y'all leave me alone. lol I can be unemployed if I want to be unemployed. I like it and my husband likes it, so it's none of your business what we do.
Ah Dan Brown. To this day, I still can't forget my sheer frustration with reading his stuff. I tried twice when I was 16, 17 or so, long before I even knew what good writing was. In Digital Fortress, the handpicked geniuses of the world struggled to decode something. Guess what the answer was? Isotopes. I was doing my A-Level Chemistry at the time and was literally screaming ISOTOPES at the book as the characters scratched their heads for the next 10 pages. In another book, forget which one now, this guy had to find this ring. Think his name was David. It goes as follows: David finds clue that leads him to A. Runs to A. Person there tells him the ring's been sold to B. Runs to B. Person there tells him the ring's been given to C. Runs to C. You guessed it! Person tells him the ring's been taken to D. Runs to D. The ring's somewhere in E... At that point I closed the book
The place where I worked had a guy from Hong Kong (so I'm guessing he was the Cantonese speaker) working in IT. We had a visit from a guy from one of our sister factories in mainland China. The two guys had to converse in English; fortunately they had that in common.
@Lea`Brooks - oh, the job! I get that too! When I tell them I studied Art History, they look at me and ask, "What can you do with that?" (a more polite way of saying what was written all over their face: Why would you study something so useless?) @Lemex - I don't mind so much really as they're just trying to be friendly. But it's just one of those things that doesn't take the conversation anywhere lol. Oh, one more comment I get! "So how was your trip to London?" I get that whenever I visit home in England lol. I'm not from London and while I do visit there sometimes cus my friends are there, that's not where home is.
I can't say I mind people asking such questions. They're just trying to be sociable and searching for ways to break the ice. I feel a bit awkward saying 'I'm a computer game designer, though since we sold our company I'm having a break to be a dad and write a novel.' Bit of a mouthful, but always goes down better than saying 'I'm not working at the moment'. Gives people the option to talk about computer games, books or kids depending on what they're most comfortable with.
Since we are expanding this out to other things: sometimes when I mention I studied classics I get 'So, you went to a posh school, then?'
The poshest school that a depressed Northumbrian mining town could afford! Which meant that the walls were crumbling apart.
@Lemex spent a couple of terms at St Cakes, as we already know. Back off, and don't worry yourself Lemex. Find a different crowd and this condition shall turn topsy-turvy. You'll feel suburban, inferior, invited to that flat in Chelsea, you'll hear your own voice in your own ears: 'I loik classics and I loik riting.' 'Oh, how wonderful, little man. Why don't you pop outside, buy us a pint of milk?...[door slam] Ew my god, who invited the gremlin?' 'I'm sorry Dorothy, he is my university chum.' 'Get rid of him!'
You left the advanced part out. It's an attempt to fix an image problem. But that's the problem with nurse practitioner, people asked if we were practicing to be nurses or they asked, "is that like an LPN?" Were it up to me I'd keep the ARNP title. But the profession (whoever they are) decided to change it to APN and I'm trying to get used to it. I'm also an 'ICN' Infection Control Nurse and 'they' want that changed too, so I have to get used to 'IP' Infection Preventionist.
