Wednesday, June 09, 2010

College Silliness: Report from the Front

RL writes:

Pre-midterm, an ESL student came to me this morning with some questions about some terms she was unsure about.

One was filibuster. She was confused about the definition she found on the internet.

She showed it to me: noun, a male candidate that completely overwhelmes [sic] and defeats his female opponent in the political areana [sic]

I was (understandably, I hope) confused. Then I noticed above the text she had written fillybuster. A harmless typo? Not if you type that into Google. First hit is from "addictionary.com"

Sure enough, according to that website, the definition of fillybuster is
"noun, a male candidate that completely overwhelms and defeats his female opponent in the political arena."

I think I set her straight and showed her what turns up if she spells the word correctly. Perhaps it would have been better if she used wikipedia! On Wikipedia, the definition is clear and correct!

No comments: