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

[TuxDave]

OP: wtf man, you're racist with or without your waiver in your summary. I even had professors with heavy accents, and do you know what you do? You deal with it, you try your best to understand and you ask questions whenever you didn't get anything. I don't disrespect my professors or TAs because they've worked hard and they don;t need some @$$hole undergrad to come around and start insulting the way they speak.

*sigh*

Alright, I'm done venting too...

 

[eigen]

Originally posted by: 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.

Actaully they kinda of are paying for you to learn from a textbook. The lectures should be a time to firm up what you already know or to introduce the new concepts. It is up to you to learn. I am a math major and no one has taught me jack. I have spent countless hours studying proofs and working probs. The lectures only help to clear stuff up.I just found that last statement to be false.I can relate however I have a Pole and Indian a Chinese guy and American as my math prof. Learn to deal.

 

[virtueixi]

I totally get what you saying. Our chem department is full of fresh off the boat chinese TAs. Some of them actually speak decent english, while other's are almost impossible to understand. Give it a few weeks and see if you can begin to understand him, instead of the Ching pong wong crap. I got used to my chem TA last year and started to understand him. I do agree that it is BS though, I would rather have a B student be a TA than Mr. wong with an A, but no concept of the english language.

 

[CanOWorms]

You better get used to it. Not only for college, but when you go out in the working world as an engineer. Consider it a requirement to be able to understand foreign accents.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Originally posted by: 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?

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?

I've truncated it for you so it'll be more clear. Read slowly and try not to hurt yourself.

Afterwards, consider how much your parents paid in state and county taxes because it appears your elementary and prep school education have also failed you. Seek help here. :evil:

 

[Gulzakar]

if you come to this country you should learn english...

if you intend to instruct or lead? learn it well, take some freaking ESL courses.

if I went to Mexico, I'd learn spanish, Japan? Japanese FRance? English...and tell them to suck it

in all seriousness, they really should make an effort to learn the language well.

 

[Goosemaster]

By the time you get to Calc II or Calc III and reading your book before class is not part of your routine, give up or buckle down.

 

[Shelly21]

The more you hang out with "them", the faster you'll understand. It's like ninja training.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Alright, work's over for today. I'm out.

xEDIT409, good post. I think a lot of decent points got made, an it's entertained me as I've been between the office and the lab. Assuming you stick with whatever you're studying, I'd be interested in whether you still feel so strongly about this when you're late in your junior or senior year.

Good luck!


Really man, good luck.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Gulzakar
if you come to this country you should learn english...

if you intend to instruct or lead? learn it well, take some freaking ESL courses.

if I went to Mexico, I'd learn spanish, Japan? Japanese FRance? English...and tell them to suck it

in all seriousness, they really should make an effort to learn the language well.

*looks around at all the foreign students in my department*

I dunno about you, they have an accent but they can understand and speak english very well. If anything, I think people need to learn how to listen better to overcome accents. It's very arrogant to think that everyone needs to speak english the way you do in order for it to be understandable. It's very unreasonable to expect that.

But regardless, I think foreign countries take more effort to learn english than we do to understand theirs. In electrical engineer, it would be fantastic if all our engineers could speak Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, French, Russian, etc... since there is alot of opportunity and business happening overseas. But what do we see instead? Very few bilingual non-native speakers here and many bilingual non-native speakers there.

 

[Peetoeng]

It's easy to say, but hard to do. Have you tried learning foreign languages?
Most foreign grad students or professors very high score of TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, or what have you. They do research and publish papers in their field of expertise. But speaking with little accents is hard to do and I never heard of any school offering diction lessons to foreign TAs or faculty members. They were not hired for their spoken english, but for their research accomplishments.

I have had many foreign professors (asian, middle eastern, european, latin american). But in engineering, I did not find their accent bothersome. Just follow the math.

The good news is you will get used to it and undestand what s/he says. Human brain is capable for that kind of adaptation, unless of course you decide not to care at all.

 

[GreasyBurger]

Originally posted by: 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.

She's also 62 years old. She actually doesn't look bad at all for a grandmother

 

[Gulzakar]

I'm not talking about just accents...I'm talking about english fuc$ed beyond recognition...

There's a difference between accent and gibberish.
if the TA can't speak english well, he needs to step down...arrogant of me? YUP! If I were paying money to go to school I'd like to be able to understand the TA's.

so bleh!

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: Gulzakar
I'm not talking about just accents...I'm talking about english fuc$ed beyond recognition...

There's a difference between accent and gibberish.
if the TA can't speak english well, he needs to step down...arrogant of me? YUP! If I were paying money to go to school I'd like to be able to understand the TA's.

so bleh!

Maybe our threshold of FUBAR'd English differ. I have yet to find a TA or Professor whom I could not understand a single word.

Rutgers University
UC Berkeley

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer
Alright, work's over for today. I'm out.

xEDIT409, good post. I think a lot of decent points got made, an it's entertained me as I've been between the office and the lab. Assuming you stick with whatever you're studying, I'd be interested in whether you still feel so strongly about this when you're late in your junior or senior year.

Good luck!


Really man, good luck.

From experience:

It's not really luck now is it. Just a sh!tload of work :thumbsup:

 

[falias]

Ahahahahhahaha, yes I've been in your situation before...

 

[Imdmn04]

Blame it on America, we have too many rednecks that builds motorcycles on discovery channel and not enough engineer professors in the classroom.
Thus we look to foreign sources.

Seriously, calc 1 is pretty easy, you can get by without having a good t.a. Just thank God that you didnt get a crappy speaking professor AND a crappy speaking speaking ta.
And start getting used to the asian accent, if you are doing anything scientific, or engineering related, you better understand that sh1t because upper-engineering level classes are all taught by these people, and you will not be gettting by like in calc 1 if you don't understand what they are saying.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: falias
Ahahahahhahaha, yes I've been in your situation before...

We all have That's what makes it...well not funny.....just "cute"

Ah , look at de little baby....so cute in his little engineer uniform...can you say "bring on the mathematical hell" you ingenious little bastard?

Seriously. I have done like a 360^0 turn. I used to be soooo bad at math and stuff (i failed calc1 4 times...3 times officially ) and now I am doing well. I just had to learn a few lessons.

1. Read your book. It cost 450 million ___(insert currency value here)___ for a reason. BY the time class starts, the chapter you will be disscussing should have already been read (by you of course) and if you do not understand it, all the better. That means that you will know what questions to ask.
2. DO not take notes on everything the professor says. If you know it already, only write tricks or tips that you will INSTANTLY understand. Write down parts of complex problems sometimes. Rarely mimic your professors every word as many times it is useless afterword. This is different for many people, but usually accurate.
3. TELL THE TA THAT YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND THEM, BUT DO IT BEFORE OR AFTER CLASS AS TO NOT EMBARRASS THEM. TELL THEM THAT YOU NEED HELP IN THE CLASS AND HAVING THEM SPEAK SLOWLY (AND ENNUCIATE...explain that word to them slowly )WOULD BE A GREAT HELP.

COMMUNICATION, Bitch. Someone taught YOU english WELL for a reason.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Seriously. I have done like a 360^0 turn. I used to be soooo bad at math and stuff (i failed calc1 4 times...3 times officially ) and now I am doing well. I just had to learn a few lessons.

360° turn?

Did you fail geometry too?

 

[xEDIT409]

Originally posted by: Rumpltzer
Alright, work's over for today. I'm out.

xEDIT409, good post. I think a lot of decent points got made, an it's entertained me as I've been between the office and the lab. Assuming you stick with whatever you're studying, I'd be interested in whether you still feel so strongly about this when you're late in your junior or senior year.

Good luck!


Really man, good luck.

Hey man, thanks. Definately gonna stick with calc seeing that it's required for engineering, and I think I should be able to understand him alot better as time passes. Sorry if I came of as a dick in the original post, but still gonna stand by my words since I was just venting.

Maybe if you're still on ATOT, as well as me, in 3-4 years, I'll look you up.

 

[ucdnam]

Hahha I love it when people say 360 degree turn! Do they even know what they just said?!

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Seriously. I have done like a 360^0 turn. I used to be soooo bad at math and stuff (i failed calc1 4 times...3 times officially ) and now I am doing well. I just had to learn a few lessons.

360° turn?

Did you fail geometry too?

 

[rgwalt]

Originally posted by: Peetoeng

It's easy to say, but hard to do. Have you tried learning foreign languages?
Most foreign grad students or professors very high score of TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, or what have you. They do research and publish papers in their field of expertise. But speaking with little accents is hard to do and I never heard of any school offering diction lessons to foreign TAs or faculty members. They were not hired for their spoken english, but for their research accomplishments.

I have had many foreign professors (asian, middle eastern, european, latin american). But in engineering, I did not find their accent bothersome. Just follow the math.

The good news is you will get used to it and undestand what s/he says. Human brain is capable for that kind of adaptation, unless of course you decide not to care at all.

You would be surprised to meet many of the student I know who scored well on the TOEFL and the verbal portion of the GRE, but still cannot speak or write a coherent sentence in English.

At the University of Kansas, where I did my undergrad, all foreign TAs had to pass a "speaks" test, on top of the TOEFL and the GRE. They had to get up in front of a panel, do some reading, and answer questions. If they did not pass the speaks test, they could not TA courses.

I wish more schools would adopt this policy. Now I'm a TA, and my students love me because they can understand what I'm saying.

R

 

[Mo0o]

Most of the time they really need the money because they're basically over here making what a student makes while supporting a family w/o support for their parents.

 

[n0cmonkey]

My C professor oh so many years ago had a thick accent. I could barely understand anything. I managed an A in the class due to independant studying.

 

[vegetation]

Sorry, but if you aren't already at least 75% prepared for the day's math lecture, then you're already in bad shape. Class time should be almost entirely a review session for you, and you ask questions on things that you aren't clear from the book. This isn't high school, where the teacher gives you a month to study an entire chapter. Better get with the program before it's too late.