If you are studying English in college, I am sure that you have been asked the same series of questions each time you tell someone what you're majoring in. You have also probably become fully prepared for these questions. You have a set of answers running through your head like a script. Sometimes it is fun to stump them with an answer that is different than the "I don't know" they were expecting.

Here is a list of comments and questions that I have gotten in response to being an English major.

1. Why?

Probably the most insulting, but common response to saying that I'm an English major. I don't ask why you're studying business or biology. Common sense would reveal that I am going to classes about Shakespeare and analyzing literature because I like it. I like it, simple and good enough reason.

2. I could never be a teacher.

Neither could I. I do not intend to become an English teacher. In fact, the thought has never crossed my mind. I do not think I would make a good teacher, nor would I ever want to. There are other occupations you can take with a degree in English. In fact, I want to work in publishing and editing.

3. What do you do as an English major?

I have gotten this question more often than I ever thought I would because the idea never crossed my mind. People are confused as to whether I study grammar or literature. Trying to explain what sitting in an English class is like is very difficult. A lot of discussion goes on. We talk about books, plays and poems; we analyze it and write about it.

4. What are you going to do with that?

This is possibly the second most insulting question after "why?" I have plans that do not include sitting in a classroom, although I am not saying that teaching is not a good job, just not the one for me. I want to go into business and work at a publishing house.

5. Lots of shrugging and brushing off.

English is an important major. Although reading books may not seem to be life-altering, businesses often look for English majors because we are able to compose adequate emails and complete other forms of paperwork in a world that has been taken over by technology and shorthand.

No, I may not be a business major or a biology major, but I still have hope that after graduation I will be successful. I still work hard for my grades and spent an incredible amount of time reading and interpreting great works of literature. Maybe you do not understand it, but keep in mind that I do not understand your reason behind studying chemistry, but I am not questioning you.