Why can’t people realize that.

I can’t tell if my linguistics class is either helping me improve my grammar, or making me question my grammatical usage every time I type a sentence.

I went to a social last Monday, hosted by a club I’m a member of. They were serving fried plantains, re-fried beans, and cream (a typical Salvadoran breakfast). While I was in line waiting to get some food, I overheard one of the girls from the club, she’s a junior, talking about her Italian 002 class and how it’s very difficult. 

I took three years of Italian in high school, so naturally I was curious about her experience in it. Also, I took the Italian placement test and was placed into Italian 004 (Intermediate Italian).

I commented, “You’re taking Italian?”

“Yeah, I’m in Italian 002.” 

(My college is in the quarter system, which is technically ten weeks. There are three quarters in a year. Italian “002” meant she was taking her second quarter of Italian.)

“Oh, man, I wish I had taken the placement test sooner. That way, I could have registered for Italian this quarter.” I reached for a plate as soon as I finished talking.

“You know, don’t have to take a placement test,” she replied, “you can just start from Italian 001 and go on from there.”

“Well, I took the placement test and placed into Italian 004. Unfortunately, it’s not offered this quarter. I swear, if I had taken the placement test at the beginning of the year, I’d be in Italian 101A right now.”

Italian 101A is Advanced Italian.

“Oh.”

She then turned around with her friend and moved somewhere else. 

A-hole alert.