Days of the week

Anyone ever try to learn a foreign language? Maybe actually succeeded at learning a foreign language? I am very definitely in the “tried” camp and learned the hard way in high school Spanish that foreign languages were not something my brain was going to casually absorb.

That being said, I very distinctly remember that pretty much the first thing we learned was the days of the week. You can picture, it, I’m sure: Forced conversations with your fellow schoolmates where you inanely discuss all of the things you were going to do on all of the different days of the week.

I STILL remember the days of the week. Pretty much every other piece of Spanish has slipped from my mind, but I can still count from zero to ten and rattle off the days of the week without conscious thought.

So, if even I can retain that kind of knowledge after <unintelligibly mumbled number> years, I am not sympathetic to the fool in the conversation my co-worker had to suffer through while attempting to schedule an onsite interview with a client.

Coworker: Are you available to interview with XX on Thursday?

Days of the week (DoW): Today is Thursday?

Coworker: No, today is Tuesday. Are you available to interview Thursday?

DoW: Today is Tuesday, so tomorrow is Thursday?

Coworker: No. Tomorrow is Wednesday.

DoW: Oh. Yeah. So Thursday is before Friday.

Coworker: Yes...

The irritation coming through my phone while my coworker was telling me this story made my day because I know I'm not the only one suffering. I do not remember if she was actually able to get the candidate scheduled for the Thursday interview, or if she just gave up because he would have undoubtedly forgotten what day it was on and not shown up anyway. I was laughing too hard to hear the result of her conversation with him.