Two Questions

[erastes]

and nothing to do with anything, just my curiosity.

What does "101" mean? I hear it all the time from E.R to Buffy. "That's basic trauma 101" "That's Psyche 101" etc etc. What does it mean?

And why have Americans started to say "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less"?  The former literally means that you COULD care less, so actually - you DO care!!!

*confused of Norfolk*

Comments

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Can't help with the second one, but "101" denotes an introductory course at a university. Hence "Psych 101" = "basic/elementary psychology".

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yeah - but why 101?

[angrboda]

First year, first course perhaps? And they thought it looked smarter than 1.1?

[aunty_marion]

I suspect the "I could care less" thing is meant to be ironic... if Americans understand irony. *g*

But yes, the "101" thing is the introductory course to something. I forget where I picked it up from myself...

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

I always associate 101 with that re-education/torture room in "1984".

"I could care less" is just sloppy, like "could of" instead of "could have".

*'disgruntled at sloppy English' of Hampshire*

[adela-nightmoon.livejournal.com]

101 is the uni/college code they use for the intro courses. So literally, the first thing you learn when you take that course.

I could care less is just people forgetting what the proper way to say it was.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I'm just wondering why 101. Why not just 1?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'd like it to be ironic, but nah - we'd be saying it first, if so.

:)

I wish I knew WHY 101 though, it just reminds me of 1984

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Mine would probably be heights, what's yours?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Could be. It's a puzzlement. And procrastination, of course.

[adela-nightmoon.livejournal.com]

Because we like making it complicated for ourselves? There was probably a reason for making it 101, 102, instead of 1, 2 -> But I for one have no idea.

Possibly because 101 refers to the first course of first year - the very first course you take, 102 -> second course of first year, 201 -> first course of second year and so forth.

I'm not too sure on that though because I'm in an Aus uni where codes actually are 1101, 1102, 2101 etc.

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

frogs

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

I think the first 1 denotes "year one" and the second 1 "module 1" (with a 0 in the middle as a seperator.

So second module first year would be 102, third year first module would be 301. Like that...

I could be wrong though.

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

The 101 is a referral to something very basic or something someone should have learnt a long time ago.

In college, I took Eng Comp 101 as my first English and Math 101 is Math for people that failed the placement test. So, it was just slipped. I suspect because most language has a musical quality to it, 101 instead of 100 or 102 or anything is chose because of the meter.

And the second, because people fail at life. The same reason why people say stupid shit like irregardless until it becomes a non-standard saying.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

All courses intended to be taken first year have 1 as the first digit, followed by 01-99 to indicate which of the many first year courses it is. In a subject which offers only limited choices, there may be only 101 and 102--the classes intended to be taken during first year first semester and first year second semester. However, in a subject with many more choices (such as English literature), the options for a first year student could easily be more than nine, so two digits are required to code all the options.

Many subjects have an introductory course (101) which is required before the student can take any other courses in that subject.

For example, during first semester first year, Joe Smith took English 112, History 101, Logic 101, and Art 101. During second semester, he took English 120, History 104, Calculus 101, and Geology 102.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Thank you!!!

[gweneiriol.livejournal.com]

The other comments handled the 101 but here's an answer regarding, "I could care less." http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. Thank you for that - too much information!!! :)

Excellent!

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I think you're right -- because as you progress through other classes, you get 121s and 345s and so on.

[carrielofty.livejournal.com]

101 thing:

Also, if a course is labeled "100," generally with regard to maths or the English language, it denotes remedial subject matter--so high school material taken at the uni level because of stoopidness.

Later years progress. So second-year courses would be 201, 242, etc. Sometimes these help denote prerequisites, in that you have to take History 214 (Modern European History I) before you take history 215 (Modern European History II) if they run in order by semester. And some classes are limited by year, so that third year students can only take 300 level maths courses, not 400 level, or exhaust those possibilites at the 300 level before moving on. But at a higher level like that, it's always flexible according to professors' permissions, special exceptions. Courses like 499 are cap courses that had to be completed before graduation (four year system).

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Brilliant explanation. Also when I was at uni (in Scotland in the late '80s) the numbers 101-109 were used to denote elementary courses for the non-specialist, whereas 111 onwards were first year compulsory or optional courses for specialists (what Americans would call their 'major', I think). Hence, as a Mathematics specialist, my first year courses were Algebra 111, Calculus 112, Applied Mechanics 113 (all from the Mathematics dept), Statistics 111 (from the Stats dept), and Physics 101 (my non-specialist course from the Physics dept).

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

The phrase 'I could care less' has always bothered me too - I'm glad you asked the question.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

And why have Americans started to say "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less"?

Because we're so fucking lazy we can't be bothered to say one extra word or even think about what we're really saying. Well, some of us. :P

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Every answer here is wrong! It's a misprint for LOL. As in cats. Cat on a stretcher? basic trauma lol. Cat with a knife in the shower? Psycho lol.

[aunty_marion]

Thanks for that! Very good explanation - it's more or less what I was thinking, I think: "I could care less (but I can't be bothered to do so)".