Okay now I have been practicing martial arts for nearly 10 years going from Taewkondo to Karate to Kung Fu. I've learnt what I could and then moved on. My problem really is that when people ask me what I do for fun and I respond 'martial arts' they say "Oh COOL. What belt are you?"

Now the most I have ever done belt wise was a blue belt in taekwondo, but when I was doing karate I sparred with black belts. My point is: do we, as martial artists, need black belts to tell other people that we are good at what we do? I mean should I go and do 5 years minimum training or such to get such recognition? I'm confident in my abilities as a martial artist but when you reply to the above question as "I've done a variety of disiplines and as such didn't need any specific belt" they look at you like you are talking complete crap.

How do you guys deal with this?