By EnglishLearner - 09/11/2012 16:23 - Switzerland - Mannedorf

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
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Same thing different taste

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katties 27

Your supervisors are idiots - standard deviation IS abbreviated STD :| Sounds like they're some really immature people.

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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

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erfia712 1

For not speaking English you have very good vocabulary

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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?

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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.

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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!

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doglover100 28

I would've looked it up.

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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.

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origmichael 8

Standard deviation is usually referred to as sigma. Why didn't you use that

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FaygoAndMiracles 18

Well, since she is not a native speaker, she might not have heard of it?

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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.

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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

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bernie_mac 7

Umm ... there already is an abbreviation for Standard Deviation. It's SD!?! At least, that's how I've been taught

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eternalsunshine2 5

Obviously OP was taught differently if she is not a native english speaker.

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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.

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