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
Collection
Halloween
A failed costume, stolen candy and a very real scare: Halloween, the one night when fear is allowed.
Today, I "answered" an email instead of "forwarding" it. As a result, there is a chance that my Master's thesis supervisor gets a message from me starting by the F-word, and complaining about my bad work and inability to understand a deadline. FML
Today, my supervisor forced me to bring the image of a failed simulation to the group meeting, because he thought it looked funny. So did the others and it's now going on our webpage. I have to provide a scientific description of how I made a mistake in my code. FML
Today, I pronounced FAQ as 'fuck' to my boss. I'm not a native speaker. FML
Today, while not feeling well at work, I had to finish up some papers. I was so out of it, I couldn't remember how to spell my name. I had to improvise by pronouncing each syllable of my name out loud. My boss now thinks I'm a dumbass. FML
Today, I was warned that I was failing too many students and it had to stop, so I showed my boss all of the easy assignments a lot of students didn't even turn in. She told me to stop using so many "big words" in them. I teach at a four year University. FML
Today, I presented the worst seminar presentation probably in the entire history of my graduate department. I kept stumbling over questions, and overall, making an ass out of myself. I probably should leave my masters program at how thoroughly I burned myself. FML
Today, I wanted to look clever during a work meeting, so I used a thesaurus to find a fancy word for “important.” I ended up calling a project "pivotal" but mispronounced it as "pee-votal" in front of everyone. FML
Today, a tourist from an English-as-second-language country taught me a new word. In English. FML
Today, I misspelled the word "failure" in front of all my co-workers. Now I'm not given any writing tasks. FML
Today, I went for an interview at a great company. Everything was going well until I tried to demonstrate my knowledge of their industry by using a technical term. Turns out I'd completely misunderstood the term and used it in the wrong context. The interviewer raised an eyebrow, and I could see "Don't call us, we'll call you" flicker in their eyes. FML
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Top comments
Pleonasm 36
They were all like " WTF LOL."
zingline89 18
Did they Clap?
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Comments (155)
katties 27
Your supervisors are idiots - standard deviation IS abbreviated STD :| Sounds like they're some really immature people.
katties 27
Statistics have a couple of fun words. I think my class laughed at STD only once though. The "outlayer" sounded funnier in our language, it's basically translated "HOBO" :P
erfia712 1
For not speaking English you have very good vocabulary
FaygoAndMiracles 18
They didn't say they didn't speak English, they said they weren't a native speaker. From the post, I think it's safe to assume that they have a fairly good vocabulary, but maybe just not as much in the subject they were talking about in their program?
FaygoAndMiracles 18
Well, it was an honest mistake, and you and your supervisors will forget about it soon. Maybe next time, try looking up the abbreviation before using it, just to see if there are any other common uses for it.
FaygoAndMiracles 18
Just noticed that someone else already mentioned it. Tried to see if there were any similar comments, but somehow, I didn't notice 5's comment. Sorry!
doglover100 29
I would've looked it up.
neurodoc 1
That's ok. Because if your pee value is large, your tail is not significant and so you don't have to worry about STD or how mean others are.
origmichael 8
Standard deviation is usually referred to as sigma. Why didn't you use that
FaygoAndMiracles 18
Well, since she is not a native speaker, she might not have heard of it?
neurodoc 1
79 - native speaker of Greek u mean? Sigma is universal for SD. And I have seen the abbreviation STD being used in Europe and it was even in scientific calculators from about 20 yrs ago.
Tanner1245 4
They are just having fun. Just chill out, be a class clown maybe? Your class is immature so just join in the fun
bernie_mac 7
Umm ... there already is an abbreviation for Standard Deviation. It's SD!?! At least, that's how I've been taught
eternalsunshine2 5
Obviously OP was taught differently if she is not a native english speaker.
tishtashbat 16
I've always used SD for standard deviation... I'll admit if anyone was to use STD in my class I might giggle immaturely with my friends, but if I was a supervisor I wouldn't laugh at a student who used it - especially if they're not a native English speaker.