Tag-teaming

It’s been a while since I attended university, but I head back into it next Monday after an 8 year absence.

My good friend Chris has also started uni this week. Tackling computer programming at the ANU.

What I find amusing and interesting about this situation is that Chris previously studied Chinese and can speak it well, and is now studying programming. I previously studied programming (and can probably still code my way out of trouble), and am now studying Chinese.

Somewhere along the way we’ve tag-teamed each other into studying the others’ discipline/skills.

Today Cathryn and I went to our campus to do a level test and pick up our schedules. My level test consisted of the following conversation:

Teacher: “Can you speak any Chinese?”
Me: “No.”
Teacher: “Right, you’re in the beginner class then.”

Cathryn on the other hand had a brief conversation with the teacher in Chinese and then sat down to do a 10 minute test. During the test she got her electronic dictionary out and punched away at a few buttons. I’m not sure what the deal with that was, maybe she was cheating!

After submitting her test, the teacher disappeared for about twenty minutes and came back with our schedules. We pointed out that we had only signed up and paid for ten classes a week, but they had scheduled me for sixteen and Cathryn for fourteen. The teacher said she that we were the only two students who had enrolled for the ten class option, so she had made a mistake with our schedules. I said I’d be happy to sacrifice/skip/drop the six-or-eight writing/reading classes a week and focus on speaking and listening which is what I really want to master. The teacher said that she would talk to one of the higher-ups and decide what to do with our situation.

This afternoon we got a call back from the teacher to say that, despite only paying for ten classes per week, they are willing to let us attend the extra ones. I think we just have to promise not to tell the other students that we’re getting much more than we paid for!

I’ll post a more detailed run-down of my class schedule in the next few days.