<p>I didn’t get the sense from your original post that your daughter’s TA isn’t fluent in English, only that she has a thick accent. But in any case, what you’re describing above is an ideal scenario, while, sadly, so many things are far from ideal in our lives these days that I won’t even attempt to enumerate them. So one can engage in a philosophical debate about the state of higher education in the US, or one can accept the realilty for what it is and try to adapt to and even learn from it. What students and parents alike have been trying to say is that 1) the problem is not new, 2) the problem is not limited to Pitt or even to public universities and 3) the problem is neither insurmountable, nor widespread. It isn’t an easy thing to adjust to for an 18-year old, especially if she comes from a sheltered background and hasn’t had a lot of exposure to foreign accents, but like countless others before her she’ll manage in time. Good luck!</p>