By EnglishLearner - 09/11/2012 16:23 - Switzerland - Mannedorf

Today, I had to present a program to my supervisors in University. Not being a native English speaker, I used my own invented abbreviations for parameters in the program. Apparently STD is not an appropriate abbreviation for "standard deviation." I can still hear them laughing. FML
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Quiet_one 22

As a native English speaker, I've seen "STD" used as an abbreviation for the word 'standard' before and it was no big deal. I think your supervisors just need to grow up a little. Don't worry about it, OP.

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Acik91 26

Well, that was not professional of them. Don't worry, we've all done some stupid mistakes. You should still be proud of the fact you're able to study in a foreign language.

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Cinn_fml 22

It's not exactly an uncommon abbreviation for Standard Deviation, I'm fairly certain I saw it on more than one thing during University. Sure, it might make people snigger immaturely on time to time, but they probably knew what you meant and just have a bit of a childish sense of humour. Which isn't always a bad thing. Also, I highly doubt you're the first person to do this, even in front of them.

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ICATiger 13

"By the end of the month everybody will have an STD!"

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awkward_gothlady 32

Apparently, there's also an STD degree. Not sure what, exactly, it is, but it's something religious.

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Epikouros 31

Yes, it's an abbreviation of Sacrae Theologiae Doctor, Latin for Doctor of Sacred Theology, the Roman Catholic doctoral degree for pontifical universities (universities approved directly by the pope).

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awkward_gothlady 32

Ah yes. My sister and I noticed a book in my dad's library that was written by someone with STD after their name, and we had a good laugh about that. We wondered if, after getting the title, people said, "I got my STD" or "I am an STD."

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perdix 29

I'm sure your ANAL* was excellent. *That's our widely-used abbreviation for "analysis," you should be using that in class, if you want to look knowledgeable.

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Rukkus92 16

Don't worry OP, I once made a similar mistake on a project about "saving the daisies".

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WishfullThinker 18

Actually, it IS the standard abbreviation (I've taken more than one statistics class). I guess your English was better than theirs.

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aj94w 4

STD actually is a valid acronym for standard deviation. It shows up that way in Microsoft Excel and I believe calculators as well. Were the supervisors ten years old?

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