posted
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.
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
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.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Maybe you should take that as a sine, Porter, and go and get your mind onto something else for a while.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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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.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
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.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
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.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
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.)
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
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.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
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.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
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.
Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
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.
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
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?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
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.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
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.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
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.
Posts: 392 | Registered: Aug 2004
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