Small talk

[cosmolinguist]

Since I was the first one in the lecture theatre today (why do poeple stand outside an empty room and wait? I thought they might grow out of this when they stopped being freshers, but no) except the lecturer, and I sit in the front, she asked me if I'd had a nice weekend.

I said I did and that I'd been to a gig with friends. "Who did you see?" she asked.

"Richard Thompson," I said.

Her reaction was a sort of "oh, as expected, I have no idea what the young people of today are listening to," even though she's probably about Richard Thompson's age.

Comments

[momentsmusicaux]

Richard Thompson as in 'I'm gonna break somebody's heart tonight'? I had that song as an earworm for YEARS without knowing who is was by. I must have heard it on the radio as a teenager and it stuck!

[cosmolinguist]

I had to google the song but yes it seems to be him!

[meepettemu]

Hah. I’m a Teddy fan! :)

[softfruit]

"why do poeple stand outside an empty room and wait?"

If they went to schools like ...one of mine... because they just spent seven years having to do that for every class, being given detention if they don't, and it takes a while to undo that training?

[cosmolinguist]

It didn't surprise me as much last year because I figured it was a high school thing but now I really don't get it. :)

[softfruit]

It's hard to remember 1991 but I think we used to peer round the door and if the previous lecture was over, pile in...

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah that makes sense but here they do it at 9am when it's the first lecture of the day! (Which is what the one from this anecdote was.) Or when they've just seen the previous group leave, like happened today.

I'm probably more than usually annoyed by it because a lot of these rooms don't lend themselves to me being easily able to see whether or not theirs people in there, when others could manage it. So I have to rely on them, I figure if they're standing outside I must have to stand outside too. And sometimes it ends up being for no reason, like this (this is the only perk of 9am classes, I can walk in past everyone waiting outside!).

[softfruit]

I just remembered I don't have to defend 18 year olds. I'm old enough now to just dismiss them as Beyond My Ken.