"English as a Second Language"
◄   Season One, Episode Twenty-Four  ►
Air date	May 13, 2010 on
Written by	Tim Hobert
Directed by	Fail Mancuso

“	Good luck passing your exam Winger! At one point I was teaching you Klingon!	”
–Ben Chang

Summary: The study group's preparation for their finals is made even more stressful when Señor Chang gets replaced by a tougher Spanish teacher. Meanwhile, Troy discovers that he has a hidden talent for plumbing.

Contents 1 Plot 2 End tags 3 Recurring themes 3.1 Continuity 3.2 Running gags 3.3 Pop culture references 3.4 Meta references 4 Quotes 5 Comments

PlotEdit

The group arrives in the study room just as the Dean makes the usual morning announcements. Annie lays out the study plan in detail for the upcoming Spanish finals. When she mentions the group taking Spanish 3 next year, Jeff corrects her. He doesn't really have to take any more language courses once he passes Spanish 2. Annie makes an impassioned plea to the rest of the study group to continue taking the course. She admits that she likes the group and would hate for it to break up. The rest of the group agrees until they find out that the Spanish 3 class starts early in the morning at 6:00 AM. Later in Spanish class, Annie tries to find another class for the group to take together. She proposes Anthropology to the rest of the group.

Jeff mentions his strict four year plan to replace his bachelor's degree which doesn't leave a lot of time for additional classes in his schedule. Señor Chang arrives and asks to speak to Jeff alone. He makes the class leave in a hurry and asks Jeff about his fake law degree. Jeff correctly assumes that he needs a fake degree himself, and Chang admits he conned his way into his teaching position. He threatens Jeff to keep quiet by telling him that if the Dean were to find out, the class' grades would be invalid, and everyone would flunk. Unknown to both of them, Annie's digital recorder was on; she left it behind when Chang asked the class to leave.

Elsewhere, Troy is walking down the hallways and stops to get a drink from the water fountain. He sees that it's broken and uses a nearby wrench to try to fix it. Two custodians appear which causes Troy to run off. They are both shocked to see that he managed to fix the water fountain. Meanwhile in the library, Annie is listening to playbacks on her recording device, and she hears the conversation Jeff and Chang had. The next day, Dean Pelton shows up in Spanish class and announces that Chang has been fired. He says that an anonymous person alerted him to Chang's lack of qualifications before introducing the replacement Spanish teacher Doctor Escodera. As she speaks to the class in Spanish it is immediately apparent that Chang's instruction, like his qualifications, was wholly insufficient.

The class learns from Escodera that their final will cover everything in the Spanish text book. Troy, Abed, and Jeff are walking back from Spanish class, discussing the new teacher as well as how hopeless it seems that they will pass the Spanish final now. They hear a car alarm go off, and Abed tells Jeff that it's probably his Lexus. Jeff runs to the parking lot and sees Chang trashing his car with a keytar. He blames Jeff for ratting him out and getting him fired which Jeff strongly denies. They struggle on top of his Lexus over the keytar until two campus security guards show up and taze them both.

In the school restroom, Troy sees that a sink is broken. Using a nearby wrench, he easily fixes it. Jerry, hiding in one of the bathroom stalls, reveals himself and compliments Troy on his plumbing abilities. He admits to having setting up the situation as a test to see if Troy really did have a talent for the job. He then offers Troy a business card to a plumbing company. Jerry tells him not to waste his time on the abstract like learning and instead focus on something real like fixing toilets and sinks. Troy insists that he wants to be a student and doesn't care about plumbing before running out.

Later in the study room, the group tries hard to prepare for the Spanish finals. Frustrated, Jeff is ready to give up saying it's unlikely that they'll pass, which most of the study group seems to agree with. Jeff becomes suspicious when Annie's reaction isn't as downbeat and resigned as the others. When he figures out that it was Annie who ratted out Chang, he cross examines her and gets her to confess as the rest of the study group looks on. Annie tries to explain her actions, but Jeff is too angry to listen. They get into an argument, and she leaves the study room upset.

The study group is about to take the finals when Jeff finds out from Shirley that Annie has gone to apologize to Chang. Fearing the worst, he and the study group leave before taking the test and go to Chang's office to "rescue" her. It turns out she's fine and has offered to help Chang enroll in Greendale, so he can earn a legitimate teaching degree. They all go back to take the Spanish finals and find that it wasn't as hard as they thought it would be. Believing they just might pass, Jeff thinks they should all decide on a course to take next semester as a group. He puts forth Annie's suggestion of Anthropology to which the rest of the study group eagerly agrees.

End tagsEdit

The study group finds out they all passed the Spanish finals. It is then revealed that Pierce had slept with Doctor Escodera to ensure that the Spanish finals would be made easy enough for everyone to pass.

Recurring themesEdit

ContinuityEdit

• Streets ahead: When Annie says she records every class, Pierce says "Spoiler Alert!", foreshadowing the recorder becoming Chang's undoing.
• A sweet ride: Jeff's Lexus is damaged by Chang. It appears in the following episode "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" still chang'd up.
• Mad skillz: This episode shows Troy's plumbing skills for the first time. In the Season 2 finale "For A Few Paintballs More", he uses his abilities to help in the paintball war versus City College. In Season 3, his abilities becomes a major plot point.
• First appearance: Jerry the Janitor makes his debut in this episode.
• School supplies:
  • The Spanish text Dos Mundos is featured prominently in this episode.
  • The necklace Annie got from her a member of her rehab group is seen again in the Season Three episode "Contemporary Impressionists" worn by Ben Chang as part of his security guard uniform.
• Familiar faces: Troy and Abed's security guard counterparts from "Football, Feminism and You" return in this episode to taze Chang and Jeff.
• History lesson: Annie explains to the group how she and her rehab group drifted apart and never saw each other again.
• A nice gesture: Abed does his fist pump when he thinks Troy has gone off to become a plumber; he does it again when he finds out he passed the finals in the episode's end tag.
• School uniform: Annie mentions to Jeff that she dressed a particular way because she was going for more of a "professor thing". This is a reference to Professor Slater and is a hint that there is some lingering feelings from the kiss she shared with Jeff in "Debate 109".

Running gagsEdit

• Attention!: Dean Pelton makes the morning announcements using the "soothing sounds of nature".
• Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?: Annie asks the rest of the group if they want to take Anthropology 101 next year by repeating the word "Anthropology" three times while pointing at them.
• Disney face: Jeff calls out Annie for using her "Disney Face" to manipulate the group.

Pop culture referencesEdit

• Shout out!: Jeff tells the study group to imagine Annie as character actor Paul Giamatti.
• IMDB: Apparently, Britta is the only study group member who disliked the sci-fi blockbuster Avatar.
  • Jeff convinces Abed to look away from Annie by calling her The Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• TV Guide: The gritty urban drama The Wire is mentioned by Troy; apparently, he finds it hard to understand. Actor Michael Kenneth Williams, who portrayed Omar Little on The Wire, joined Community's third season to portray Professor Marshall Kane.

Meta referencesEdit

• Up against the wall: Jeff's "unmovable appointment" on "May 23rd 2013" is a reference to a possible date in the future when Community's fourth season finale will air. As each year of the show represents a school year, the fourth season will be when the study group graduates from Greendale. Also Jeff's remark that he has a four-year plan to graduate.
• Parody: The episode contains a Good Will Hunting parody with Troy's plumbing storyline that also directly references the movie itself. In the DVD commentaries, Dan Harmon makes his dislike for the movie known. Shirley's comments about the film in the episode can be seen as his own opinion about the movie. The equation shown on the blackboard before Troy fixes the water fountain, is taken from the movie.
• Everyone's a critic: When Jeff sees Chang destroying his car, he asks him about the safety goggles he is wearing to which Chang replies "safety first." This is an indirect reference to criticisms of the paintball episode which had the characters not wearing safety goggles; in paintball competitions, it's a requirement.

QuotesEdit

“Someone make her a dude, so I can punch her.”— Troy

“Now she is going to make the Disney face. Her lip is gonna quiver, and her eyes will flutter, but they won't ever actually close, BUT DO NOT feel sorry for her. She stole a year of our lives, and we're right to be pissed.”— Jeff

“The only thing that makes sense is this (points at his head). Learning...thoughts...so I can think and get a student loan and grind my own coffee and understand HBO.”— Troy

Season One Episodes
1. "Pilot" 2. "Spanish 101" 3. "Introduction to Film" 4. "Social Psychology" 5. "Advanced Criminal Law" 6. "Football, Feminism and You" 7. "Introduction to Statistics" 8. "Home Economics" 9. "Debate 109"	10. "Environmental Science" 11. "The Politics of Human Sexuality" 12. "Comparative Religion" 13. "Investigative Journalism" 14. "Interpretive Dance" 15. "Romantic Expressionism" 16. "Communication Studies" 17. "Physical Education" 18. "Basic Genealogy"	19. "Beginner Pottery" 20. "The Science of Illusion" 21. "Contemporary American Poultry" 22. "The Art of Discourse" 23. "Modern Warfare" 24. "English as a Second Language" 25. "Pascal's Triangle Revisited"
Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five

Start a Discussion Discussions about English as a Second Language

• 

  Why does Britta cuddle Abed?

  3 messages
  • 
    Ultimateatomicbuster
    I think you are reading into things too much. There was an interview Gillian Jacobs did at the end of Season One where she talked about Harmo... 2013-03-04T12:27:02Z
  • 
    A Wikia contributor
    Wow. I am really stuck on Abed and Annie getting together and I am clearly trying to justify it from any angle. How do you know all this stuf... 2013-03-04T20:39:12Z
• 

  Cool Hand Luke Reference??

  3 messages
  • 
    Ultimateatomicbuster
    It's from the movie "Good Will Hunting". On the Season One DVD commentary for this episode Dan Harmon explains at length his dislike of that f... 2013-03-04T12:28:54Z
  • 
    A Wikia contributor
    Wow. Thank you. Would you possibly know what movie Abed is thinking of when Annie makes the Disney face and cries and Abed doesn't cover his e... 2013-03-04T20:32:20Z

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