Tag Archives: Language

Remember, remember

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This weekend was Guy Fawkes Night, which is a yearly UK holiday. It commemorates a guy (named Guy) who tried to blow up parliament in 1605. To show that cruel acts of terror like this have no place in our civilised and peaceful society, we burn Guy Fawkes at the stake. Well, an effigy of him these days. Plus, there are fireworks. It’s one of the British holidays that I find it harder to relate to (as opposed to, say, Early May Bank Holiday, which is my favourite). Therefore I keep forgetting the date.

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My worst exam

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It is a nightmare: I am at university, and I have to pass a difficult exam. It is an oral examination, for which I have prepared, but probably not enough. I am nervous. The Professor’s office is in an old building, down a long corridor. Outside the room, a few students are waiting their turn. I go sit with them. I don’t know any of them. One of the girls greets me and says something.  I don’t understand her. It sounds like what she is saying is “So, how many times have you tried this one?” I mumble something about this being my first time. (And hopefully my last! But I don’t even have the courage to say that. This, I feel, is no time for being over-confident.) I go through my notes, like everybody else does. After a few minutes, the door opens and out comes The Professor. I have never seen this man before.

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How steep are your curves?

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I have been in my new job for four months now, and the learning curve has been steep … Wait a minute.

What has the learning curve been?

I never understood the expression “a steep learning curve”. When people say “a steep learning curve” what they mean is that something is difficult to learn and requires a large amount of effort (typically at the beginning). But presumably a learning curve plots the amount of whatever it is you have learnt on the y axis and time or effort or something similar on the x axis.

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