<p>“My family is proud of me, but I still get from a lot of people “so, what are you going to DO?” as in, a job.”</p>
<p>If you view their question as just expresing their general interest in and care for you, you could answer something like, "I don’t know. That’s why I’m exploring a variety of fields by taking … [courses] and participating in [clubs, activities]. I find that I’m enjoying [fill in blank] so may want to eventually enter a career that allows me to [fill in blank]. How did you decide on your career? Did you know as a college freshman what you wanted to do or did you figure it out later? " Then continue to draw them out about their lives.</p>
<p>To the students on this thread: What are your suggestions for topics that adults could introduce when attempting to converse with you? These need to be topics that both the adult and young person can contribute to a conversation about.</p>
<p>Do you attempt to introduce those topics yourself?</p>
<p>Maybe ask about a course you really liked this semester, any good professors you’ve had this year, something like that. I tend to bring that up as well to kind of turn the topic to where my interests are taking me in terms of classes, to get it away from the career questions. For instance, “I had this great class on WWI-WWII in Europe that REALLY interested me…” and go a bit from there.</p>
<p>I must reiterate that to impress other family members, esp those with formal edications, you want to speak well. “My Mom doesn’t want to see them neither,” isn’t a good example to impress educated people. It may be you posted that here, and in your haste didn’t give it a proofread. If educated people hear you speak like that they will think you need remedial English, and will not be impressed with the education you are getting. </p>
<p>Others are correct that not knowing all the answers now isn’t a strike against you. But I recommend you speak clearly and speak well.</p>
<p>NSM: Kids love talking about their projects and opportunities to teach others something new. THAT never gets old. It can be their thesis, a big paper, a big event coming up, study abroad travels, etc. As a college professor, you could glance at the boards for student events and look at the school paper to see what’s going on campus. Find out what they’re involved in and ask questions about it. Every September as our rush week approaches, at least ONE of my profs usually comments something and asks how we would get our work done, etc that leads a short-lived but lively and educational conversation with the prof on how things work. Profs are usually pretty surprised, not just by the info, but how talkative the class can be! Show interest, show that you want to learn something new… students, especially within your department, might feel a little intimidated to talk about what they’ve learned because they assume that you know it all, and for them, what’s the point? Remember how you might be perceived by students, especially freshmen, as someone who holds a PhD and how our society views on people with PhDs. You need to de-bunk that myth of yourselves as “walking encyclopedias.” Even with grad students, I’ve seen them fly out of seminar rooms in fright because of their insecurity (their problem, I know, but the profs can sometimes come across as such).</p>
<p>For all adults, please don’t get bored when we talk about our projects/interests/etc. I’ve had people find out that I’m a history major and they’re just at loss for words because they’re in the business world and don’t feel up to discussing liberal arts. Ask us to teach you a little and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you want us to be a little more simple than discussing feminism in Russian literature, ask if we have any other favorite books. Try to look at the big picture of things.</p>