The DU Lounge

to translate the general gist into everyday language for the other guests.

I dated an English lit grad student years ago. He had a friend who was a physics major. There are topics in physics that interest me but I do not have the math and science background to read up on them. Sometimes I asked the physics major questions about physics concepts and developments and he was good at communicating concepts in language that I could follow.

However, my English lit grad student boyfriend was bored with physics even though he could understand the way it was being explained.

It worked out OK when the 4 of us were together. The physics major's girlfriend was an English major, so she discussed literature with my boyfriend while I discussed physics with her boyfriend.

One topic we all were interested in and agreed on was politics. This was the Watergate hearings era. Eventually we all turned to discussing it.

The physics major was not trying to impress anyone with his knowledge. He only answered my questions, very patiently. Our dates were not inconvenienced since they had a topic to share.

But the setting you describe sounds inconsiderate, especially since it was done to impress people.