It's still cheating if it's in another language.

In my Master's CS classes we have a lot of Indian grad students. Most of them are just like many of the American grad students in that they are generally unobtrusive and I don't know or care much about them. A fair number of them, however, irritate me to no end by constantly speaking to each other in their native language during class, loudly enough for the whole class to hear them. That's rude when it's done in English, never mind when it's done in a language most of the students (and the professor) don't understand. That's my opinion at least. I think it has something to do with my personal level of parnoia being high enough to think that maybe they're making fun of someone that doesn't know what they are saying.

Today in Automata it reached a level I've never seen before. It's a Hayes class, which means each class starts with a short quiz about the previous classes's material. Sort of a combination attendance/homework policy. At the end of today's quiz, the Indian kid behind me had only answered one of the two questions, and asked me to hang on a minute before he passed his paper up. I saw no problem with that, until he started speaking in not English to an Indian kid next to him. After a short conversation, he started furiously scribbling the answer to the second question. I stared for a few seconds and then yelled "Hey! Yo! Cut the crap and give me the paper," at him. The two of them both looked terrified. I don't plan to make a big stink about it to Hayes, since everybody does somethig stupid once in a while, but if that crap happens again I think I'll re-evaluate my position on the matter. I just can't believe they thought they could get away with it just because I didn't know what they were saying.