So, the other day I am in a conference for my linguistics class. In conferences, we basically go over problems with a TA, and all the different students share opinions and intereact and work things out together. The TA was working through a problem on the board, and was talking about how in the case of a proper noun in English, when drawing a syntactic tree, one will end up with a null determiner represented (won't make sense to people who don't study Linguistics, but it's pretty irrelevant).
So, one of the other people in the conference says in a fairly loud voice "Well, isn't that convenient?"
I pipe in "It doesn't seem very out of place though. I mean, we've seen similar examples in other situations, so why shouldn't this one work?"
Him: "I'm sorry, was I talking to you?"
Me: "You'd made an open remark to the class, I was just giving my thoughts."
Him: "I wasn't making an open remark. I didn't want to hear you or anyone else respond."
Me: "Then you could have just kept it to yourself."
Exchange ends there, but he keeps shooting me glares for the rest of the conference. At the end of the conference, we have a weekly quiz. I finish mine, and am on my way out of the room. Before I can leave, this guy comes up behind me. He calls "Hey hey hey hey hey, you. Hold on hold on." I turn around.
He has a somewhat crazed look to him, he's smiling, and he steps a bit closer. "You really should be careful how you talk to me."
I'm somewhat shocked. It came across in a fairly threatening manner, and I just didn't really know how to respond to that. I mean, it's university, we're supposed to be somewhat mature. And who makes threats over linguistics. So I ask "Is that supposed to sound like a threat?"
He's putting on his hat and jacket at this point, still looking a bit off kilter. "No, no, not threatening. Just saying, you have to be careful, you have to be careful. Do I look normal to you?"
Now, I can sort of understand what he's getting at here. He has boots which go up to his knees, he wears a long coat and a beret. He has a number of tatoos, including one of the word 'hydrogen' on his neck. But I can't find myself accepting that as relevent. "Well, I don't really think normal matters. I mean, me, you, anyone else in this class, we're all different people with fairly unique tastes and personalities. All I can do is try to be respectful and civil, regardless of who I'm talking to. I'm sorry if I upset you in any way, and I'd like to get going now. I hope you have a nice day."
I start to turn around, but he calls "Wait wait wait, hold it. I just need you to know, you have to be careful, you have to be careful how you speak."
I'm still kind of shocked that this whole thing is actually happening. "Alright, I appreciate that, but I really have been trying to be careful, and civil, as much as possible. Now, I'm going to be leaving."
He glares at me and says "Alright, you can go now." with the tone of a rich man turning away a servant.
"Thank you for dismissing me. Have a nice day." It's all I could think of to say. I turn away and walk out. As I leave, three different students come up and thank me for talking to him.
I've found this to be the most confusing situation I've been in while at McGill. I mean, I can understand heated responses to something, but linguistics seems like the class where it would be the most difficult to be personally affronted by something. I've been really uncertain how to handle the situation. I mean, I should probably go to the professor and let him know, but it's clear this guy has something going on, and I don't want to make his life any more difficult than it has to be. But, at the same time, it's pretty clear that he's intimidating other people in the class, and preventing them from participating or enjoying what we do as much as they could.
It's all been on my mind the past couple days, and I'm still not sure how to deal with it.
Blah.
Thankfully, life outside this incedent has been lovely.
Joseph
