More Campus English

The last column on Campus English was about some English expressions such as class, which have more than one meaning. You might recall1 that we can refer to each year in university and to the students in that year by using specific terms: freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. We can also refer to the freshmen this year as the class of 2006 because that is the year most of this year's freshman will graduate. Finally, we used class to refer to courses, for example: I have to take so many different classes each semester that I don't have any time to study and learn from them. Notice that a very useful verb to use with this expression is take.2 For example: Do you plan to take any classes this summer?

If there is a class that you are interested in, but you don't want to take it for some reason, there are some other choices besides taking the class. What are they? Well, first, everyone knows that if you take a class, you have to register for3 that class. This means you need to officially sign up so that your name will appear on the class roster4 (or name list) and the credits for that class will help you graduate. Of course one of the main requirements for graduating is that you earn enough credits, right? Registering for a class is the first necessary step to getting credit for that class. (Another necessary step to getting credit for a class is to pass it!) Now, what if you don't need those credits (for example, two credits for a history class) and you don't want to register but you want to attend the lecturers? What choices do you have? Some professors may allow you to sit in on5 their classes. That is, they may not mind if you attend the lectures even though your name is not on the class roster. Some schools have an official way of sitting in on a class. It's called auditing.6 If you audit a class, you have to register in a special way. It may be free since you get no credits for auditing a class. How is auditing a class different from sitting in on a class? If you audit the class, this will appear on your school record. Students who don't need this may decide to ask the professor if they can just sit in on the class. So there is a difference between taking a class and sitting in on a class. We might hear a conversation like this:

A: Hi Sid. I didn't know you had to take this class?

B: I'm not taking it.

A: Then why have you been attending the lecture every week?

B: I'm just sitting in.

A: Wow. How do you find the time to do that?

Of course, when students have so many classes in one semester that they have no time to think deeply or carefully about what they are learning, they may not have time to sit in on other classes or even to think about the idea.

1.recall (n): 回憶；記起。2. take (v): 選（課）；修（課）。3. register for: 登記、註冊（上……課）。4. roster (n): 名單。5. sit in on: 旁聽……課。（不用註冊或事先登記）。6. audit (v): 旁聽（須正式登記或註冊，名字會出現在選課單上）auditing (n): 旁聽（動名詞當名詞）。