Unintelligible Professors

[Mkrop]

I had three professsors like this at Saint Joes in Phila and I graduated in 91. One was a Pakistani professor who taught Statistics a hard enough class without the accent. The first day of class no one could understand a word, I wrote down nothing and my roomate attempted a few notes. We laughed hysterically at what she wrote, "churro" wound up bieng zero and "up set" wound up being the null set. On day he compensated for this by writing EVERYTHING and I mean everything on the board even answers to questions asked in class.

Chinese professor taught to accounting courses, could nto understand a word he said UNTIL the day before the test when he said, "question similar to question 4 on test, 7 etc. I change a little bit" So we all trudged to the library to figure out these questions, well we qucikly learned that he did not change the numbers or the format to the question, all he changed was instead of ABC corporation it became XYZ corporation. Talk about studying only to a test. I got A's.

Last was my Middle Eastern professor, could not figure where he was from who taught Intro to the Stock Exchange. He took mandatory attendance. Many of us complained bc we were Finance majors and this class was vital. He didnt care, even a few parents complained but parents complianing on the college level were just laughed at. I barely and I mean barely squeaked by with C. I graduated with a degree in Finance and knew nothing about the stock market. Luckily I got an entry level accounting job and they helped me learn what I need to work.

 

[mickeyfan2]

My entire college career was like this. You know what, in a short time you can completely understand them and now that I work with others from other countries or in other countries I have no problem understanding them, well maybe the quiet Indian with a speach impediment. I may have him repeat himself, but I do get it the second time. College helped me greatly with this.

A few months ago DH and I were watching a medical show that was performed in Taiwan. It was almost half over when DH and I noticed the sub-titles. We both laughed, since we understood them talking.

 

[grlpwrd]

My DH looks there every so often to see what people are saying about him. I couldn't resist, I gave him a hottie point, but since then so have a lot of other people.

He is rather well liked, but some of the other professors at his school get pretty ripped up. I wish they had a site like this back when I was in school.


I have a number of friends that teach so I have to look them all up to see what they are saying about them.

I remember when DH was getting his PhD he was the only TA that spoke English as his 1st language. All the students wanted him for that reason. In DH's lab group he was also the only one who was educated in America. Many came over seas to go to grad school. Maybe that is one reason too.

Anyway, if you think it is bad now, just try taking a class like that and being hard of hearing or deaf. Then things get really tricky!

I use that site, too, for my community college classes. So far the ratings have been accurate.

 

[Cindy B]

I use that site, too, for my community college classes. So far the ratings have been accurate.

See I find those ratings horrible. Many of the reviews I have read are just immaterial things which really don't help me. For example, I am in class every time so a comment about how the professor takes attendance doesn't mean a thing to me.

I don't really even bother looking at ratemyprofessors anymore because of a few reasons. The grammar and style or writing is awful in these reviews as well.

I am an adult student so that may be just from my perspective though.

 

[yearbook50]

Thats very common nowadays. I have had quite a few professors that did not speak English well. However, you learn to teach yourself from the book and work with the other students to understand the material. Often, there are TAs that speak English better you can work with.

I'm lucky this year since I only have one class (which is strictly labs & using LabVIEW) and my MQP (senior project) so I don't have have to play the lets understand the professor game.

 

[Mkrop]

My entire college career was like this. You know what, in a short time you can completely understand them and now that I work with others from other countries or in other countries I have no problem understanding them, well maybe the quiet Indian with a speach impediment. I may have him repeat himself, but I do get it the second time. College helped me greatly with this.

A few months ago DH and I were watching a medical show that was performed in Taiwan. It was almost half over when DH and I noticed the sub-titles. We both laughed, since we understood them talking.

Maybe it is something I am lacking in the hearing dept bc I never understood these guys at all. I took the Chinese guy for two semesters bc he was the only one teaching the class. So I spent a whole year with the Chinese guy and never understood him, taught myself with the help of my three friends who were in the class and made sure I was in class the day before the tests

Heck I have a hard time understanding my mom's next door neighbor who is Greek or my BF's Parents who are Italian immigrants and I grew up with these people.

 

[Patch'sD]

Durring college, I had a Chinese Teacher for Calc II, The broken english was bad enough but he also stuttered. A very challenging course, but He was the nicest guy in the World. We cringed everytime he had to say function and avoided the front row at all costs.

 

[mickeyboat]

I hear you.

Actually, the worst teacher (I think it was a TA, and not a full professor) was an English-speaking, all-American guy, who could not teach pre-calculus to save his life. I pray to God he isn't still there. I ended up having to teach myself the entire course from the book in the four days before the final. I aced it, but most of the class bombed.

 

[Pooh Crew]

You know, it's not only foreign accents! I had an Art History prof. w/such a strong/thick Boston accent that it was difficult to understand him. He also talked with his jaw clenched, so that on top of the accent made it more difficult!!

I was in a geography class with a teacher from Texas who talked about water wells--most of the class thought she was saying "whales" instead of wells. When she asked something about how the wells could get from one place to the other, one girl asked, "Well, wouldn't the whales just swim to the other place?"

 

[Pigeon]

I'm faculty at a large state university, and have served on the campus-wide promotion and tenure commitee. The administration has, in the last several years, reinterpreted our promotion and tenure criteria to make teaching performance almost a non-issue. There is some lip service paid to teaching, but it really is immaterial as to whether or not you get tenure. Service, which used to also be important, is now also a non-issue. Publication is everything.

For the most part, my experience is that our faculty do put a great deal of effort into their teaching, but I wonder if that will continue.

Re the language issue, sometimes it really is a problem, but sometimes it's an excuse for students. Some of the most brilliant minds in the field may have an accent. Going to office hours may help, if the student feels that the professor is otherwise good.

 

[froglady]

This is one reason that our daughter chose to attend a small, private COLLEGE rather than a larger UNIVERSITY. Every teacher was a full professor; they didn't have TAs in charge of classes. (she did have a couple to assist in studio art and dance, but they were not the primary instructors). Even though many of them had conducted research and were well published, that was not their primary pursuit. They were there to teach, and that's what I was paying them to do.

 

[starrzone]

Oh, I can feel your daughter's pain! I had a first year math class (in a very large Canadian university in a big city) with a prof like that, and I could BARELY understand him. It also doesn't help these days that some of these classes have 500 people in them, so unless you camp out overnight you're not likely to get a good seat and end up neding binoculars to even SEE the prof!

Kudos to your daughter for switching classes- it's all about doing what will help YOU do better. Maybe if more people make an issue out of not understanding the profs, universities might think twice about hiring them. I highly doubt it, because so much is about money these days, and it's either hire the prof who no one can understand, or raise tuition to cover the money that these profs aren't bringing in. I'd rather go with the former.

jmho,

starrzone

 

[maelstrom]

I once had an ENGLISH teacher in college who not only had a thick Pakistani accent, but also had a lisp! I couldn't understand the majority of what he said.

 

[Rozzie]

Yep, I passed Chem 213/Intro to Chinese. Nice guy, but it was a collective group effort to master the Mandarin language.

 

[Beth76]

I got two Ds in college. The first one was sociology with a prof that was very hard to follow. His voice was clear, but his thoughts were not. Skipped that class a lot and he took attendence. So that played a big part in the D.

Second D was an Econ teacher assistant. He was Korean and very hard to understand. But I still had a hard time with that subject. It never occured to me to switch teachers. (eye roll directed at myself not at the OP)

 

[Toby'sFriend]

It was only bad enough for me to switch sections on a class once -- I think it was a Statistics class and the study section was taught by a TA from --- I think it was India....I really can't remember.

His accent was so bad that none of us could even recognize our own names when he called attendance the first day.

My husband has degrees in Nuclear Physics, Chemistry, and Math and of course those are all HUGE fields for International Professors. I didn't see nearly as many in the Business College as what my DH had to get through.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

More than half my college courses were taught by professors with thick accents. Some were difficult to understand, a few were a little easier. I had a Russian physics professor that was very difficult to understand. Thank goodness the same class was being taught at the same time by another professor in a different classroom. I sat in on those classes instead.

I did have an Indian math professor with a heavy accent. During first class I thought for sure I was going to fail that course. I gave myself 1 week of classes to try and understand him. And I did. He ended up being one of the best math professors I have ever had. Many students didn't give him the chance and they failed. Even my boyfriend who rarely gives professors a chance was able to pass this professors class. If you took the time to listen to what the professsor was saying, he made the course understandable and easy.

So yes, trust me I have been there. Indian, Russian, Chinese, unidentifiable accents...I have sat through many long lectures that should have came with an English to whichever translator. You have to at least give each one a chance. Some really aren't as bad as they come off. Also, ratemyprofessor.com isn't always completely true. For some professors it gives dead on descriptions...some not so much. One of the best professors at my college gets terrible reviews on there. All because he expects you to study a little. (And by a little I mean that 1 hour would be sufficient.)

 

[Crankyshank]

Well I find the whole thing very discouraging then, that the colleges cater to the personal pursuits of their professors instead of the practical issues in the classroom.!

It's not catering to personal pursuits. Research brings grant money, which is extremely important to colleges.

 

[hopemax]

When I went to college, it was well known that the physics classes would be taught by research professors fulfilling their mandatory teaching requirements. Which meant, lots of unintelligible lectures, or just bad teachers. They were known as "weed out" classes. If you wanted to go into a hard science or engineering, you had to pass these classes with a minimum grade. And to pass required a lot of out of class studying, self-instruction, bonding with other hopefully smarter students, visiting the TAs, etc. All which were vital, when you got into your major, had great professors, and still felt like you never going to get it.

 

[Parkers_girl]

Oh I have been through that! My first semester at college I had a terrible professor who was also Indian, and nobody in the class could understand what the heck that guy was saying. Unfortunately, as a freshman I didn't realize I could drop the class during the first week and switch to a different one. So I was stuck with him.

And it's not only school, I swear, everytime I call the HP computer people I get a representative with a strong accent and can NEVER understand them.