Look at this reply to an e-mail from my calc 3 professor (I missed class):
quote:We had pop quiz today, you should when we have quiz because it is pop quiz. We will have test on next Friday.
He talks exactly the same way in class ....
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
That's PAINFUL.
It hurts my head.
-Katarain
Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :
Nice. Is he American?
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
He's probably from Brazil or something. They speak all bad.
[ September 20, 2004, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: zgator ]
Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Heh, nope, he's not American, he's Chinese...
Much like most of the Math professors here...
Posted by Stray (Member # 4056) on :
A lot of the profs in my math department had English as their second (or later) language. Add to that that math/science oriented people often don't write well...the people on this board seem to be exceptions to that though.
Posted by miles_per_hour (Member # 6451) on :
What is it about math professors in America? So few of them are American.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
That kind of thing drives me insane. Surely the university can put these guys through some kind of ESL course to help them communicate more clearly. I mean, assuming that they can't get people to teach the classes who speak more clearly to begin with.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Eduardo, I'm almost positive zgator meant that both as a joke and as a compliment to your impressive English skills.
Dagonee
Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
And I thought MY teachers were bad!
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Eduardo and his mad skillz Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
My linear algebra teacher was from China. For the first two weeks I was hopelessly lost because I didn't know what a verter space was.
Once I realized verter=vector, it was clear sailing.
Dagonee
Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
You mean plain sailing, Dag?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Or plane sailing?
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Ah Dag, why must you make this thread a cross product of ths and the punless one?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Hey Raia started it.
Eigen stop if you like.
Posted by miles_per_hour (Member # 6451) on :
I get tensor and tensor each time I think about this thread.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I'm drawing a Planck. Who's Eigen?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Maybe you should take that as a sine, Porter, and go and get your mind onto something else for a while.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I did not!
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Stop going off on a tangent, you guys!
I've had problems with professors who don't speak English as well. Last semester I had a grad student TA who was from India and he had an incredibly thick accent. It's probably because not too many American students go into math anymore, so they have to get people from other countries to teach.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Seriously. You guys need to hold off of the puns for a secant.
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
Yes, that was most certainly a joke, Eduardo.
Smilie has been added.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I would pay you guys to cut it out with those puns, but unfortunately I'm a bit strapped for cash. I'd take out a loan--I feel that strongly about this--but I'm afraid they'd require me to have someone else cosine, and I don't know anyone willing to do so.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
Euclid rob a bank, if you were so inclined.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Too bad. Having money is an integral part in paying someone Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Actually, that's not quite true. My mother would probably volunteer if she knew I was looking for someone to help me out, but I wouldn't want her to go to that kind of trouble. If she were to put herself up as my cosigner, I'd have to denominator.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Oh, how clever of you. I wasn't expecting you to coordinate with your origin.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Too many puns can give you an infection that forms an abscissa.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
quote:What is it about math professors in America? So few of them are American.
This is because Americans can't do math.
<----- American who can't do math.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I had a Chinese TA in my college calculus class. He was replaced about 2 weeks into the semester because no one could understand him.
Math is a universal language, but you can't speak very clearly in it.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
These puns, or their attempts at English, are enough to drive one crazy. Next thing you know, you'll be running around campus with outstretched arms yelling "Look at me, I'm an Oak, Gosh I'm a Sycamore, Geometry!"
(Sorry, I couldn't think of any other angle for a math pun, and they are Add-ictive.)
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
It does seem like math is Taylored to pun-making, doesn't it?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
And with that, kaioshin, I think that you really get down to the root of the matter.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
It's a good series of puns, that's for sure.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Your series is diverging strongly from the original point.
I had a Chinese maths professor once who had learned Swedish (not Norwegian) as a second language. Alas, most of his hilarious mispronounciations do not translate into English, but he did have one translatable habit : He would consistently refer to addition as subtraction, and vice versa. Also he confused division with multiplication, but there he was not consistent. It made for a fun time trying to follow his handwriting.
Posted by Zevlag (Member # 1405) on :
Annie, what about Hobbes?
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
My roommate has a math prof who has only been in the country for about two months and barely speaks English. He keeps letting the class out early and people are starting to get upset because they aren't learning anything.
Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :
I had a prof last semester who was impossible to understand. Not only did she have a thick accent, but she spoke in a very very soft voice. I was lucky if I understood one word in three.
Posted by Eduardo_Sauron (Member # 5827) on :
Hey, Zgator, I know it was a joke! (when you meet the assassin I sent, tell him I know it was a joke, ok? )
I had once a spanish guy called "Olmos" as sociology teacher. His accent was bad. I mean...baaaad.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Georgia State was bad about that - I think they were notorious for just how badly they could select some of their professors.
-Trevor
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
I have a calc professor who can speak English but hasn't quite grasped how to help people distinguish one word from another. At the end of every class, he goes,
"MumblemumblemumblemumbleQUIZmumblemumblemumble"
and we scream, "What?"
and he obligingly repeats himself.
And two Chinese girls start becoming very upset, and we all beg him to repeat himself, which angers him because he thinks we are mocking him.
And that is why I will not do well in calculus.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
I had a Chemistry TA who spoke English just fine, but he showed up to lab every Friday morning either drunk or hung over.
Which made for an interesting lab session all around.
-Trevor
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Oh but if you were a Chemistry TA you would drink too!
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
The puns and funny stories are all entertaining but I think this is a serious issue.
Do we not owe it to the higher education students in this country to give them teachers they can understand? I mean, higher education ain't free, and if you're not learning anything or you're failing tests because the prof can't explain things to you in your language, that is a problem, no?
And please don't tell me that we don't have an official language, I know that. But fact is we expect college students to be able to speak and understand English. Shouldn't their instructors do the same?
Should we give an English competency exam to any foreign-born instructor? When applying to the education program, I was informed that I would be given an interview where I had to demonstrate my ability to communicate in English. So, that's required of an elementary school teacher, but not a college professor?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
The cause of this problem is that universities don't hire their instructors primarily for their teaching abilities. Instead, they are hired for what they can bring to the university in terms of research (and research grants), and what they have and will publish. Teaching is very much a secondary concern. This lack of focus on teaching has been something that I've found irritating for quite some time.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
There is an additional complication, which was mentioned above. Due to continued dilution of math and science classes at the elementary and high school levels, and the fact that being a mathematician or scientist is seen by many as "uncool" (I know, not so much this crowd ), the pool of American math and science grad students continues to shrink.
My dad courts grad students (for positions at Caltech, you sick person! ), and has complained about this frequently.
Posted by Jess N (Member # 6744) on :
I had an English teacher in high school that would be drunk by 2nd period. If you had literature after 2nd period class would turn into English free-for-all.
I think one reason we have such a problem with communication, especially in mathematics and science, is because the instructors that have the most experience and best track record come from other countries. I know many, many American English instructors, but I can count on one hand the number of American Math instructors I know and work with--and I work in a lower class Technical School.
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Eduardo and his mad skillz ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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