I dragged myself out of bed early today and came to the office when I didn’t have to in order to accommodate a student who couldn’t make it to a meeting at any other time. The following bizarre conversation is what I got for my efforts.
Student: I need your course on the culture of Spain to graduate but I forgot to take it this semester.
Me: This course is only offered once a year.
Student: I know. But I’m going on a trip to Ecuador for a week so I thought that maybe this trip will count instead of the course.
Me: How can a week in Ecuador count instead of a semester-long course on Spain?
Student: Ecuador is a Spanish-speaking country. And I will probably even get a chance to translate a bit in Ecuador.
It is very heartening to know that a student believes my course can be substituted with helping friends order beer at a bar in Ecuador.
This student is a native speaker of Spanish, by the way.
Now, do I or do I not have the right to feel crabby today?
Clarissa's Blog 
How does one ‘forget’ to take a Semester long course? And isn’t there a rather big difference between knowing the complexities of Spanish culture to degree level, and being able to speak the language (which the student could do perfectly well in the first place anyway)?
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I should also mention that this student is 28 years old. So, hardly a kid.
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Your student is 10 year older than me. Bad times :L
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28 years old??? This child is in danger to be molested! 😉
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Euh… this is an administrative matter. Not your problem!
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