When I moved to South Africa I was very confused by the word matric. “My daughter is in matric,” someone would say, or, “My son is studying for matric exams,” and I would smile and nod, wondering what they meant. Eventually I figured out that matric is short for matriculation, and “passing matric” is sort of like graduating from high school, but more than that because the matric exams are also university entrance exams. (You can finish high school without passing matric, but you need to pass matric to go on to university.) South African 12th-grade students are “in matric”. And once they finish those dreaded matric exams at the end of the year, the students go to a banquet called “matric farewell”.