Categories: phd
Tags: student, research, thesis
Date: 12 November 2008 10:22:36
Yesterday a couple of my students asked me what my own research was about. I told them really briefly (as the tutorial wasn't about my work, so it was just a quick diversion), to which one replied quick as a flash "[Grunt] That sounds really boring!" To which I was tempted to reply "[Grunt] That sounds really rude!", but I didn't. To be honest, I was really shocked, it has actually rather thrown me. I am so used to people saying "Ooh, that sounds interesting, tell me more", even if they work in a different area, and it's made me realise how lucky I am in my department (and wider faculty) that there is a culture of interest in each other's research and a desire to learn and find out about other things - it's a very stimulating environment. So to have someone give a totally different reaction is quite a strange experience - I'm used to being challenged, and questioned, and even disagreed with, but just dismissed out of hand - that's a new one. It was a very weird experience.