• Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      13 hours ago

      I think, it’s just used as in “late bloomer”, so someone who needed a bit longer, but now found their true potential. “Bloom” as in the thing flowers do.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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        3 hours ago

        I don’t see how that explanation makes sense in the context of the “bloomer”'s description in the post …

        • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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          1 hour ago

          Well, if he just got his tenure at 40, that means he presumably did something else in his life before tackling this path. Him saying the students can just call him Jeff is also maybe linked to him having still been a student until recently. I assume, it’s a case of this being funny, if you actually study history and know a professor like that. 🫠

    • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      I had an engineering professor who grew up during the Iranian Civil War. He was interesting, and while the anecdotes were rare, they were crazy

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      I had a math professor from Nigeria

      The dude spoke like 6 different languages, but when he first came to America, he barely spoke a word of English (which is how he ended up in math, numbers work the same in any language, and probably why he was really good at teaching math)

      But the dude had seen some shit in his day, and we’d occasionally get some absolutely insane lore drops about armed militias and such rolling through his village, I’m pretty sure he spent some time as a child soldier, he’d occasionally get a little nervous if he heard a helicopter fly overhead, etc.

      I’m glad he taught math, because like I said, he was really good at it, but man, I would have just signed up for a class to hear him talk about his life.

      • prettybunnys@piefed.social
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        17 hours ago

        I had a calculus professor from Haiti.

        He spoke with the thickest African / Caribbean accent I’ve ever heard.

        After 3 classes I found myself paying the most attention I’d ever paid trying to just understand his words.

        Aced his class, I auck at math and school generally, but the struggle to understand his words turned into “understanding his words”