<UPDATE> I can't understand my Calc T.A. at all <UPDATE>

[Zontor]

Best upper division math teacher I ever had had a strong German accent.

Most people hated it - but if you got used to the accent you'd find he was an excellent teacher. I sought him out for two more math classes after that....

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
I hear ya there....I had german, czech, indian, africaan, and spansih proffs throughout college...the funniest one was the czech though he was just creepy...everything he said he was like he was behind enemy lines transfering vital information in a whisper like they do in the movies.
The worst was the german, he hadn't mastered about 3/4 of the english language and still wasn't used ot how to write numbers on the board. Half the time he would write everything the opposite way (it was a math class) as they do over there and we'd be lost for a good portion of the class because he would NOT turn around and address us hardly.

fvck you dude, im czech

but yeah i dont have problem with indian accents, thats easy to pick up (they can pronounce all the vowels). Asian accents are lot worse, i had a GSI for some discreen math course and his take on how to pronounce "formulae" was hilarious.

 

[badmouse]

I took a database structures class at FDU several years ago, the prof was Korean (?) and so was 3/4 of the class. He started out in nearly-unintelligible english and it went downhill from there - by the 2nd or 3rd class the whole thing was in Korean (or whatever, I never did figure it out). I stuck it out because it was a requirement (got a C) but what an idiot.

I think he's still teaching there, too .

 

[MacBaine]

My polish CS teacher pronounced "associative" as "ashoshay"

 

[GreasyBurger]

My physics professor from Sweden and she has horrible accent. It took me a while for me to get used to her accent.

 

[huesmann]

All the foreign TAs and profs are helping keep the costs of your education down. If you could take classes from only Americans, college would cost you twice as much.

 

[GreasyBurger]

Originally posted by: huesmann
All the foreign TAs and profs are helping keep the costs of your education down. If you could take classes from only Americans, college would cost you twice as much.

Why is that? A lots of those foreign TA are naturalized American citizens. I thought they could sue the school

 

Yes, the inability of professors to speak english is inexcuseable.

All the foreign TAs and profs are helping keep the costs of your education down. If you could take classes from only Americans, college would cost you twice as much.

That's bullsh!t.

 

[Chu]

For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: GreasyBurger
My physics professor from Sweden and she has horrible accent. It took me a while for me to get used to her accent.

Yeah, but if she was swedish, she was probably hot, so the accent doesn't matter as much.

 

[SearchMaster]

I also wonder how many people on this board know what "racism" means - complaining that a strong accent is difficult to understand hardly meets the definition.

I had the same problem in a beginning programming class in college. I went to class the first day...nobody answered when he called roll because we couldn't understand our own names. I showed up for exams only and turned in assignments from the syllabus, but otherwise never went to class. Still got an A.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Originally posted by: Chu
For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

See my previous post for the answer to your question.

The OP chooses to deliver his point with "CHING CHONG DONG WONG KIM SUM DOW WUU". He's not exaggerating much?

I remember freshman chemistry and physics labs. I know what he's talking about. Freshmen in these remedial classes are being thrown to the FOB grad students. Yeah. Welcome to college. Stick around for a few years and you'll have the "privilege" of being taught by a full prof. At that point, you'll wish you could go back to the TA who might care that you can't calculate a derivative.

Keep in mind who these TAs are. They were at the top of their class in China or India or wherever. They had to beat out some absurd number of their classmates who also wanted to come to the States to have a chance at a grad degree... and (at least for the non-Indians) they have to do it in a foreign language.

As first year grad students, many don't have a research assistantship. They need an assistantship to pay their tuition and stipend. They need to improve their English. How do you do that? Throw them at the freshman!

Enjoy and good luck. It's survivable. I swear that it is. If you stick with it for a couple of years, you WILL look back and see how trivial of a problem it was.

Otherwise, the sociology and communications departments have hardly any foreign grad students, and they might be more to your capability.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

i just read the book. i'd suggest to take out the stupid "ching chong blah" part out as it is insensitive and offensive.

besides, college calc was stupidly easy.


later on, you'll beg to be taught by a TA (even if they can't speak english) as most professors don't give a rat's ass about you and teaching for them is like a side job, as their main objective at the university is their damn research.

 

[Martin]

My solution was to skip all tutorials. They're completely useless anyway.

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer

Originally posted by: Chu
For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

See my previous post for the answer to your question.

The OP chooses to deliver his point with "CHING CHONG DONG WONG KIM SUM DOW WUU". He's not exaggerating much?

I remember freshman chemistry and physics labs. I know what he's talking about. Freshmen in these remedial classes are being thrown to the FOB grad students. Yeah. Welcome to college. Stick around for a few years and you'll have the "privilege" of being taught by a full prof. At that point, you'll wish you could go back to the TA who might care that you can't calculate a derivative.

Keep in mind who these TAs are. They were at the top of their class in China or India or wherever. They had to beat out some absurd number of their classmates who also wanted to come to the States to have a chance at a grad degree... and (at least for the non-Indians) they have to do it in a foreign language.

As first year grad students, many don't have a research assistantship. They need an assistantship to pay their tuition and stipend. They need to improve their English. How do you do that? Throw them at the freshman!

Enjoy and good luck. It's survivable. I swear that it is. If you stick with it for a couple of years, you WILL look back and see how trivial of a problem it was.

Otherwise, the sociology and communications departments have hardly any foreign grad students, and they might be more to your capability.

I'm not saying these people are not smart. It is just with their english skills - they have NO RIGHT to be teaching in our language. I could probably teach calculus better then most of my TA's, not because I'm better, but because I actuially understand our language (and yes I have taught before).

 

[DingDingDao]

Originally posted by: Chu

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer

Originally posted by: Chu
For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

See my previous post for the answer to your question.

The OP chooses to deliver his point with "CHING CHONG DONG WONG KIM SUM DOW WUU". He's not exaggerating much?

I remember freshman chemistry and physics labs. I know what he's talking about. Freshmen in these remedial classes are being thrown to the FOB grad students. Yeah. Welcome to college. Stick around for a few years and you'll have the "privilege" of being taught by a full prof. At that point, you'll wish you could go back to the TA who might care that you can't calculate a derivative.

Keep in mind who these TAs are. They were at the top of their class in China or India or wherever. They had to beat out some absurd number of their classmates who also wanted to come to the States to have a chance at a grad degree... and (at least for the non-Indians) they have to do it in a foreign language.

As first year grad students, many don't have a research assistantship. They need an assistantship to pay their tuition and stipend. They need to improve their English. How do you do that? Throw them at the freshman!

Enjoy and good luck. It's survivable. I swear that it is. If you stick with it for a couple of years, you WILL look back and see how trivial of a problem it was.

Otherwise, the sociology and communications departments have hardly any foreign grad students, and they might be more to your capability.

I'm not saying these people are not smart. It is just with their english skills - they have NO RIGHT to be teaching in our language. I could probably teach calculus better then most of my TA's, not because I'm better, but because I actuially understand our language (and yes I have taught before).

You do realize that they might be required to teach.

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: DingDingDao

Originally posted by: Chu

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer

Originally posted by: Chu
For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

See my previous post for the answer to your question.

The OP chooses to deliver his point with "CHING CHONG DONG WONG KIM SUM DOW WUU". He's not exaggerating much?

I remember freshman chemistry and physics labs. I know what he's talking about. Freshmen in these remedial classes are being thrown to the FOB grad students. Yeah. Welcome to college. Stick around for a few years and you'll have the "privilege" of being taught by a full prof. At that point, you'll wish you could go back to the TA who might care that you can't calculate a derivative.

Keep in mind who these TAs are. They were at the top of their class in China or India or wherever. They had to beat out some absurd number of their classmates who also wanted to come to the States to have a chance at a grad degree... and (at least for the non-Indians) they have to do it in a foreign language.

As first year grad students, many don't have a research assistantship. They need an assistantship to pay their tuition and stipend. They need to improve their English. How do you do that? Throw them at the freshman!

Enjoy and good luck. It's survivable. I swear that it is. If you stick with it for a couple of years, you WILL look back and see how trivial of a problem it was.

Otherwise, the sociology and communications departments have hardly any foreign grad students, and they might be more to your capability.

I'm not saying these people are not smart. It is just with their english skills - they have NO RIGHT to be teaching in our language. I could probably teach calculus better then most of my TA's, not because I'm better, but because I actuially understand our language (and yes I have taught before).

You do realize that they might be required to teach.

That doesn't change the fact they make HORRIBLE teachers.

 

[DingDingDao]

It's a discussion section. You should be doing the majority of your learning A) in lecture and B) studying at home. The TAs are there to grade your papers, provide assistance, and re-teach concepts discussed in lecture. Whatever your TA is saying, while incomprehensible, is more likely than not a repeat of what your prof said in class.

 

[xEDIT409]

Alright, I want to clear some things up. The only reason I used that stereotypical phrase in my original post is to try to express my frustration. I'm Indian, and how it is to be mocked at times, and I mean no dis-respect towards this TA, but the fact that I have to struggle to even comprehend what he's trying to teach pisses me off. My parents don't pay $1000's dollars so I can teach myself from a textbook.

 

[Mo0o]

Its math, just follow along with what hes writing. you're smart enough to understand numbers written on the blackboard aren't you?

 

[ucdnam]

You don't get American TAs, because in those fields there aren't many. If you look at the roster of grad students in your major, how many Americans do you see? Also, TAs do that work to pay part of their tuition. They can't afford not to do it. They pay a lot more than in-state students. That's probably another reason why you won't see American TAs.

I've had all sorts of TAs and you get use to it. Atleast here in California, you grow up with kids with accents, so you get acclimated to it. You get the Russians, various Asian languages, Europeans, etc.

Everywhere else in the country, minority is black.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Originally posted by: Chu

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer

Originally posted by: Chu
For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

See my previous post for the answer to your question.

The OP chooses to deliver his point with "CHING CHONG DONG WONG KIM SUM DOW WUU". He's not exaggerating much?

I remember freshman chemistry and physics labs. I know what he's talking about. Freshmen in these remedial classes are being thrown to the FOB grad students. Yeah. Welcome to college. Stick around for a few years and you'll have the "privilege" of being taught by a full prof. At that point, you'll wish you could go back to the TA who might care that you can't calculate a derivative.

Keep in mind who these TAs are. They were at the top of their class in China or India or wherever. They had to beat out some absurd number of their classmates who also wanted to come to the States to have a chance at a grad degree... and (at least for the non-Indians) they have to do it in a foreign language.

As first year grad students, many don't have a research assistantship. They need an assistantship to pay their tuition and stipend. They need to improve their English. How do you do that? Throw them at the freshman!

Enjoy and good luck. It's survivable. I swear that it is. If you stick with it for a couple of years, you WILL look back and see how trivial of a problem it was.

Otherwise, the sociology and communications departments have hardly any foreign grad students, and they might be more to your capability.

I'm not saying these people are not smart. It is just with their english skills - they have NO RIGHT to be teaching in our language. I could probably teach calculus better then most of my TA's, not because I'm better, but because I actuially understand our language (and yes I have taught before).

#1 - I've highlited your initial comment in bold letters so you can get a better idea of what you said. Your second comment has no relevence what-so-ever to what you said initially.

#2 - It's not a matter of whether they have a right to teach or not. That's up to the university or department. It's highly likely that they don't want to teach some dipshit freshman who got out of high school without picking up calculus. These guys come over here to get a masters or PhD (or with some hopes of getting into the workforce and staying in the States). They didn't come here to teach. Look back at the part about them being first year grads without research funding.

#3 - As a favor to my research advisor, I taught the first course in semiconductor devices to junior and senior ECE and materials guys at UIUC for two years on top of my research assistantship. I ridiculed them they bitched about not understanding simple concepts that were clearly explained in the text. I chastised them for not being able to do simple calculus. I was voted TA of the year by the students.

#4 - Q.E.D. - I PWNZ all of jou! Stop your bitching and go read the book.

#5 - xEDIT409 should be ashamed to be Indian and be complaining about this sh!t.

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer

Originally posted by: Chu

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer

Originally posted by: Chu
For those accusing the op of racisim, have you ever been to college? He is seriously not exaggerating much.

See my previous post for the answer to your question.

The OP chooses to deliver his point with "CHING CHONG DONG WONG KIM SUM DOW WUU". He's not exaggerating much?

I remember freshman chemistry and physics labs. I know what he's talking about. Freshmen in these remedial classes are being thrown to the FOB grad students. Yeah. Welcome to college. Stick around for a few years and you'll have the "privilege" of being taught by a full prof. At that point, you'll wish you could go back to the TA who might care that you can't calculate a derivative.

Keep in mind who these TAs are. They were at the top of their class in China or India or wherever. They had to beat out some absurd number of their classmates who also wanted to come to the States to have a chance at a grad degree... and (at least for the non-Indians) they have to do it in a foreign language.

As first year grad students, many don't have a research assistantship. They need an assistantship to pay their tuition and stipend. They need to improve their English. How do you do that? Throw them at the freshman!

Enjoy and good luck. It's survivable. I swear that it is. If you stick with it for a couple of years, you WILL look back and see how trivial of a problem it was.

Otherwise, the sociology and communications departments have hardly any foreign grad students, and they might be more to your capability.

I'm not saying these people are not smart. It is just with their english skills - they have NO RIGHT to be teaching in our language. I could probably teach calculus better then most of my TA's, not because I'm better, but because I actuially understand our language (and yes I have taught before).

#1 - I've highlited your initial comment in bold letters so you can get a better idea of what you said. Your second comment has no relevence what-so-ever to what you said initially.

#2 - It's not a matter of whether they have a right to teach or not. That's up to the university or department. It's highly likely that they don't want to teach some dipshit freshman who got out of high school without picking up calculus. These guys come over here to get a masters or PhD (or with some hopes of getting into the workforce and staying in the States). They didn't come here to teach. Look back at the part about them being first year grads without research funding.

#3 - As a favor to my research advisor, I taught the first course in semiconductor devices to junior and senior ECE and materials guys at UIUC for two years on top of my research assistantship. I ridiculed them they bitched about not understanding simple concepts that were clearly explained in the text. I chastised them for not being able to do simple calculus. I was voted TA of the year by the students.

#4 - Q.E.D. - I PWNZ all of jou! Stop your bitching and go read the book.

#5 - xEDIT409 should be ashamed to be Indian and be complaining about this sh!t.

Reply to #1 : No, but it has a lot of relevance to the person who replied to me, you know, that block of text between what you bolded and the reply you said isn't relevant?

Reply to #2 : Guess what? I don't care. It doesn't change the facts they are not good teachers, and it doesn't change the fact we're paying $10K a year to be taught by good teachers.

#3 : Again, I don't care. That has NOTHING to do with the language issue.

#4 : Yup, assuming there is a book to read. In calculus there is a book, in some others where you are lectured by english-challenged TA's there is not.

#5 : What does him being indian have anything to do with this? His cash is as good as mine. Face it -- at the undergrad level Universities are purely a business. You pay them X amount, you expcet Y in return. Part of that Y is a decent lecturer, and there is little excuse for them to ignore this.

 

[rgwalt]

IF you are in engineering at MSU (or most any state college) then get used to it. Many of your TAs will be foreign. By the time you graduate, you should also qualify for a degree in Mandarin and Hindi. Seriously, you won't have a problem understanding the TAs by the time it is over.

As far as this calc class goes, just stay ahead in the reading. Good luck!

Ryan

 

[RabidMongoose]

Yeah, it's hard to understand some of the TA's and professors, but that is not an excuse to fail or drop out.