A quickie, while we wait

[drwex]

I have pictures and stories and words in process and they'll all eventually show up here, but right now a brief interlude:

Desiringsubject made a comment about the situation in which a student (oneself) does only the minimum required to pass a course,

The last time I can remember doing that myself was sophomore year, first semester. The class was French II or some equally imaginative name. In order to get the degree I thought I wanted I needed three semesters of a foreign language (why three and not four? Don't ask. University rules make NO sense.)

I had just barely squeaked by the first two semesters. I think I placed out of one based on testing well in remembering my high school French and somehow got through the other. So all I needed was this one more semester.

Now it's worth noting that I suck at speaking foreign languages. I think it's largely the sheer memorization involved; I've never been good at that sort of thing. Also, verbs. English's notion of how to mangle a verb is a stunted dwarf by comparison with the arcane convolutions most languages put their verbs through. The tense conjugations of most French verbs would do a circus contortionist proud. But I digress...

I had explained to the (young, enthusiastic) French teacher that I had no facility for languages. She, however, was convinced that she could cure me of this problem and so I took her class. She made it easy - you only needed a 60 to pass, rather than the usual 70 (of 100). Having determined this, I averaged 62 and changed my grading regimen to pass/fail. Thus doing almost precisely the minimum possible to pass the class, get the credit the University said I had to have, and spending my time on what I then considered to be Better Things.

In hindsight, I'm not sure that was a correct judgment, but what I remember most was the look on that poor teacher's face when I pointed out that I had, definitionally, passed the class despite doing very little work and effectively learning nothing. Now-me, having spent time as a teacher, has much more sympathy for her than then-me did. Perhaps she was young enough and new enough at the teaching game that she'd never had a student game the system in such a horrid way. But I did, and if I had it to do over again I'm not sure I would act differently. I really do suck at (non-English) languages, you see.

Perhaps to make up for it, or perhaps in karmic payback, I get grief from my cow orkers for using words like "quiesce" on my bug reports.

Comments

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Your facility with the English language is great enough that I'm shocked to hear that you can't handle foreign languages. I was a French major as an undergraduate -- one who took Spanish and German classes just because they were fun -- so I can barely wrap my mind around someone as intelligent as you are who doesn't do languages.

And French verbs are not at all hard compared to some languages! Consider yourself lucky.

I feel sorry for foreigners who try to learn English, because our verbs often have prepositions that are really part of the verb. Just think of "shut down" vs. "shut up" or "take up" vs. "take over" vs. "take down" vs. "take in." It must be so hard!