Professors and Teaching Assistants, especially in math, science or engineering - ACCENTS HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!?

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http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagl...education/10545867.htm

It's hardly a new complaint among college students: I can't understand my professor's accent.

Many academics, especially in math, science or engineering, --including about 25 percent of the graduate teaching assistants at Wichita State University -- are born outside the United States.

But a recent state audit of 59 new hires found universities are not properly enforcing policies created to ensure that newly hired professors and graduate teaching assistants can speak English clearly. It also found that even when instructors are screened, speaking problems can still exist.

New foreign teaching assistants and professors are supposed to be evaluated by a standardized test and interviewed by a panel of two professors and one student.

"It is clear that some people who have gone through the existing screening process still may have some speaking issues that can hamper the learning experience of students at the state's universities," said the report issued in December by the Legislative Post Audit Committee.

Students interviewed for the audit were sometimes harsh in their evaluations.

"Learn to speak English," one student said.

"I would ask more questions if my teacher could understand me or I could understand her," another said.

A third student said a hard-to-understand instructor just tried speaking louder.

 

[beer]

I have had a lot of EE and math TAs that didn't speak english well. It sucks. But I couldn't move to China and pick up a foreign language immediately, either. Psychologically it's among the hardest, most emotionally trying things you can do - moving across continents, alone, to attend school - so I try to respect them, as long as I feel there's a conscious effort being made.

 

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"It is not fair," Marlow said.

Justin Clark, a freshman majoring in industrial engineering, said he has faced many of the same difficulties in his calculus class this semester.

He said the only way he can understand his professor is if he looks directly at his face while he is talking. When the professor is facing the dry-erase board to explain an equation, it is virtually impossible to understand what he is saying, he said.

Clark said he has approached his teacher several times after class with questions, but his teacher could not understand what he was saying.

"It is hard to communicate with [international instructors]," he said.

http://www.cw.ua.edu/vnews/dis...04/12/08/41b6b4d79db51

 

[ElFenix]

i could barely understand my TA

good thing the professor was whiter than luke skywalker

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: beer
I have had a lot of EE and math TAs that didn't speak english well. It sucks. But I couldn't move to China and pick up a foreign language immediately, either. Psychologically it's among the hardest, most emotionally trying things you can do - moving across continents, alone, to attend school - so I try to respect them, as long as I feel there's a conscious effort being made.

Their "conscious effort" isn't paying my tuition.

 

[0]

Originally posted by: MacBaine

Originally posted by: beer
I have had a lot of EE and math TAs that didn't speak english well. It sucks. But I couldn't move to China and pick up a foreign language immediately, either. Psychologically it's among the hardest, most emotionally trying things you can do - moving across continents, alone, to attend school - so I try to respect them, as long as I feel there's a conscious effort being made.

Their "conscious effort" isn't paying my tuition.

True, you are paying for a service (education), and as such, you are a customer and should get something for that money you put in. Many people don't look at it that way. Sitting there in class, you've got to ask yourself if you're getting your money's worth.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: MacBaine

Originally posted by: beer
I have had a lot of EE and math TAs that didn't speak english well. It sucks. But I couldn't move to China and pick up a foreign language immediately, either. Psychologically it's among the hardest, most emotionally trying things you can do - moving across continents, alone, to attend school - so I try to respect them, as long as I feel there's a conscious effort being made.

Their "conscious effort" isn't paying my tuition.

Then get out of engineering or math.
There are very few European and American students that go to Masters and Doctoral programs in technical fields. It's a fact of life and there isn't a way around it - there aren't enough native english TAs.

 

[beer]

Those of you bitching, how about a solution? There aren't enough native english grad students, period, in technical fields. Learning a foreign language cannot be done overnight, so propose a working solution then.

 

[brian_riendeau]

During my sophmore year in college, I had two classes right in a row where almost no one in the class could understand the teachers.

One pratically needed a pocket translator to say hello, on top of that he was incredibly mean. People could not understand his broken sentences and he would get ticked off and just start breaking up his speech even more.

The other teacher understood English OK, however he really had trouble speaking the words. He also had an incredibly thick Middle Eastern accent and would sometimes have to repeat himself 4 or 5 times before anyone understood him. No one wanted to say anything because it might take 3 or 4 minutes before you got a response out of him you could understand.

Both classes turned into read the book -> take the test with zero interactivity with the teachers by the end of the semester. Each teacher had degrees in multiple fields, but they should not have been teaching.

//Update: I was getting my CS degree at the time

 

[eakers]

it took me half a semester to realise that when my prof said "hash" he meant "h"

yeah, i did REAL well in that course.

 

[Queasy]

I got a 'D' in Calc I in college because I could not understand my professor. I retook it with one of the only english speaking American professors in the math department and got an A. After seeing the long list of math courses with foreign speaking professors, I decided to switch majors from Computer Engineering to MIS w/CS minor that allowed me to skip all the math and excelled with mostly native english speaking professors.

I think the Chem I professor was worse though. He had a horrible Hungarian accent and worse than chicken scratch hand-writing. So you couldn't understand what he was saying and you couldn't read was he was writing. Over 70% of the class that didn't drop the course failed. I got a 'D' in that class as well.

Oh, this was at the Univ of Alabama between '93 and '98

 

[sohcrates]

i'd say at LEAST 50% of my classes in EE in undergrad were taught or at least partially taught by TA's with completely awful english. i'm talking english as a THIRD language type stuff.

Pretty much everyone i've ever talked to has shared similar experiences though. I guess it's part of school, but it certainly makes already tough majors even tougher...

 

[MrBond]

I had a chem lab TA tell us once that "you can eat it in this beaker" when refering to a chemical. He didn't pronouce the H at all. It was a gen chem lab too, so frankly I'm surprised someone didn't actually eat the chemical.

One of my friends had a TA that didn't speak english at all. He came in the first day, handed them the sylabus, and just stood there while they read it. Any questions were met with confused stares. They complained to our advisor about it and they ended up with someone else.

I was kind of annoyed when I started college, they told us that none of our undergraduate courses would be taught by foreign TA's. What they didn't specify was that any recitation sections were mostly taught by foreign TA's and sometimes those were more important than the actual class.

 

[JDub02]

My g/f's math professor last semester (prof was a grad student) was from africa. She could barely understand a thing he said. I had to re-teach her the entire semester.

I had a math prof when I was in school from Chile. She did alright, but was tough to understand sometimes.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: beer
Those of you bitching, how about a solution? There aren't enough native english grad students, period, in technical fields. Learning a foreign language cannot be done overnight, so propose a working solution then.

Don't hire those that can't speak english then? I'll rather have classes be 4x as large, and actually understand the prof, than in a class that i can't.

 

[preslove]

I blame American high schools...

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: beer

Originally posted by: MacBaine

Originally posted by: beer
I have had a lot of EE and math TAs that didn't speak english well. It sucks. But I couldn't move to China and pick up a foreign language immediately, either. Psychologically it's among the hardest, most emotionally trying things you can do - moving across continents, alone, to attend school - so I try to respect them, as long as I feel there's a conscious effort being made.

Their "conscious effort" isn't paying my tuition.

Then get out of engineering or math.
There are very few European and American students that go to Masters and Doctoral programs in technical fields. It's a fact of life and there isn't a way around it - there aren't enough native english TAs.

So because they can't speak english, I should change majors?

 

[BullsOnParade]

Hehe maybe college isn't for everyone.

 

[slpaulson]

The funny thing is, out of all the poor-english speaking teachers I've had, I've only gotten my C's in a few classes where the professor was a native english speaker.

In my experience I can usually understand the teacher well enough after a couple classes. That doesn't mean the teacher can understand anybody else though...

 

[LordSnailz]

blah, you don't pay attention half the time so at the end it's all equal

 

[booger711]

its funny how these 'profs' get hired. its because all their peers have funny accents and are the only ones who can understand each other.

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: booger711
its funny how these 'profs' get hired. its because all their peers have funny accents and are the only ones who can understand each other.

They get hired because they can't find any other work. Either their immigration status does not allow them to work in many sensitive areas of the private sector, or their communications skills are so bad nobody wants them. So they get these teaching positions because they're bookoo qualified degree wise, and they don't get paid squat in comparison to their private industry brethren.

 

[RabidMongoose]

If you can't understand a foreign accent, then perhaps you should take that as a sign that you should not pursue a science/engineering career.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: booger711
its funny how these 'profs' get hired. its because all their peers have funny accents and are the only ones who can understand each other.

I would imagine that most would put a higher priority on research than undergraduate teaching. Anyways, it's not like you have much of an option. The rate of domestic students that obtain a PhD is extremely low.

 

[CanOWorms]

I consider it a requirement to be able to understand accents if you're in engineering. You'll be working with people with all sorts of accents, so college is training for it!