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Contrary to popular belief, there were many subjects at which he did not excel.
He had been asked on several occasions by his colleagues and students what those things may be, and he would give the same answer in each instance to result in stilted laughter at the plain fact that the science of psychology was most certainly one of them.
However, more realistically while no less truthful, a conventionally pleasant singing voice was also a gift that he did not have. He was proficient in the mastery of many stringed instruments, and held a great appreciation for music, but the deep, almost gravel roughness of his cadence left the need for vocal accompaniment up to the whim of literally anyone else. His mother would tell him, specifically in order to draw amusement from him, that he could not carry a clear tune in the event that it would save his life from a pack of wild Earth bears if they were to give him such a grave ultimatum for it. It was one of the more illogical things she ever said.
Additionally, he was hardly an acclaimed chef. He did enjoy the exactitude that was required by most forms of French and Vulcan baking, and cooking simple dishes for himself when he would be considered in many places a bachelor was not difficult, but in the area of entertaining, or in the accommodation of dietary preferences far dissimilar to his own, he was woefully lost. Generally, he was able to avoid such an issue by his preference of supporting the large number of diverse establishments that lined the downtown metropolitan of San Francisco, and he was content to leave cooking to the expertise of a skilled professional.
Finally, and perhaps most unnecessarily while still no less unfortunate, he was soundly inept at deciphering the confounding nature of romantic involvement, or even merely acquainting himself with someone new. He was inescapably a diplomat's son, and so could charm easily in many ways when it was culturally imperative, yet when it was not, he found himself quite troubled when faced with interactions purely social. This was not an inadequacy he had ever been raised to give much thought, but there was a female, a Human who had petitioned into his Advanced Phonology course to which those thoughts seemed to be drifting with increasing frequency.
She routinely sat in the front rows for his lectures where her classmates saliently avoided it, and while she had proven herself over the course of her first year to be fluent in more languages than he would have thought possible for one of her species, she was a woman of surprisingly few words in class discussion, though what she did say had enlightened him to expand the detail in his syllabus. She was undoubtedly attractive, astoundingly so, and her gaze was so direct, he had had to avert his own in an effort to avoid drawing back to it more often than was strictly professional.
When he had inquired after her recruitment file, he had been told by the head of his department, and now was quite certain for himself that she was peerlessly intelligent despite her rather young age, her ambition practically catapulting her to the top of her class with a quality of work that impressed him, and he had no doubt that she would be the most qualified candidate to fill the newly required position of his teaching aid in the next academic year.
It would be a post highly sought after as a fine addition to any well rounded resume, which is what led him to be quite sure that she would apply for it when it became available. Perhaps, if he were to be counseled that it were not too presumptuous, he would introduce himself more formally to her as an attempt to make her feel more comfortable with his mannerisms beforehand.
There could be no harm in that.