Vigo Baby's Rhapsodies

Selectie vs Elective

While on the topic of Perspect, I remember reading the official pamphlet about an EMBA program offered by an (equally) renowned institute. It was the English version that detailed requirements for core courses and SELECTIVE courses. (The word that is customarily used in this context is “elective”.)

It was a beautifully compiled 3rd-revision pamphlet, but no one seemed to have noticed the multiple occurrences of the problematic word. Was I the only one who—being bored to death—actually bothered to read the pamphlet?

English is easy to learn, hard to master. But with the invention of the Internet (thanks to our former Vice President, Mr. Al Gore), searching for information takes but a click. Had said renowned institute's EMBA staff consulted websites of U.S. universities, they might have chosen the suitable word. Or could it be that they did not think much of even Harvard or Stanford, that they would not bother to check out the competition? I am not sure if it's snobbishness or sloth, maybe both. Hence, the search was not done, the work not checked, the mistake propagated, and everyone happy in his little world of a “little grain of sand”. That is, everyone except a confused soul who was once admitted (after taking a rigorous matriculation exam) to the program to study “International Business”.

posted by Vigo Baby at 5:40 PM