The other night Huyen and I went to a concert with my friend Quynh from Language Link and some other people from work. At some point Quynh introduced me to a friend of hers -- whose name I can't remember -- who promptly said to me in broken English, "It is nice to meet you. Thank you for editing our paper." I turned to Quynh, confused, and she informed me that "her" paper that I edited a few months ago was really "their" paper. I had no problem with this since I was happy to help out Quynh since she has helped me countless times at Language Link (including once tracking down a visiting friends lost luggage from the airline).
Well, what I did have a problem with was what Quynh's friend said to me next: "Can you help me edit my thesis?" I looked at her and asked, "Isn't a thesis really long?" She looked back and said "Yes."
Quynh and her friend go to Foreign Trade University, the same school that Huyen went to. Like Huyen they have to write a thesis to graduate. Huyen's thesis was 100 pages long. If this random friend of a friend's was even half that, it would be a tedious task to say the least (it took me about 30 minutes to edit their group project paper which was only two pages long). Well, I told the girl I'd be happy to help her out if I have time...so now I'm really hoping my schedule gets jam packed this next month.
