Professor Underestimates African Exchange Student And Ends Up Needing Help Understanding Their Homework

Rules might be there for a reason, but as the saying goes, sometimes they’re also made to be broken.

OP was studying history in Germany, and one of his classmates had come from Africa. The African student struggled sometimes with the German language.

So, he asked the professor if he could turn his assignments in written in English, because he found it easier to express himself that way.

I studied history in Germany – and while there, an African exchange student enrolled as well.

He had a very thick accent and had quite a lot of trouble putting his thoughts to paper. So when an assignment was due, he asked the elderly professor if he could write the assignment in English, where he had way more ease expressing himself.

The professor, whose English wasn’t great, referenced the University’s rule that stated assignments could be completed in German or Latin only.

The elderly professor didn’t want to admit that his English was rather bad – so instead he referenced the university guidelines that stipulated that (except for language studies) all assignments were to be written in either German or Latin.

He did not realize the African student could write in perfect Latin, and had to get help from an Antiquities professor to grade the assignment.

Little did the professor know that the African exchange student was in fact schooled in a Jesuit monastery. So he did turn in the assignment in perfect Latin.

Since the professor had specialized in Modern History, he needed the help of a Latin professor to grade the assignment.

The University quietly changed that rule soon afterward.

The university guidelines have been amended a year later – assignments in Latin are only acceptable for those studying Latin anymore…

This commenter thought it was a pretty sweet move.

His fellow student definitely nailed it.

This person definitely thinks it’s weird to give multilingual students a hard time.

It would have been nice if the professor was more understanding.

I can’t imagine turning in a paper in Latin, and I studied it for three years.

That kid was going places, for sure.