<p>Thanks everyone (well…almost everyone) for the suggestions. She will definitely follow some of the advice given in this thread. I’m sure she’ll eventually get it worked out.</p>
<p>How is that ■■■■■■■■. I stumbled across this thread by accident. I assume your daughter is taking NUR 0012 (anatomy & physiology) and NUR 0002 (lab) at the University of Pittsburgh through the nursing school. I am in the same class and our TA is from China. The labs fill up quickly so it would be difficult to change to the labs taught by either the professor or the other TA.</p>
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<li><p>I would think this would be an issue for the Dean of whatever unit offers this course. </p></li>
<li><p>At most universities, graduate students have to demonstrate some basic level of English proficiency to be allowed to TA (or to be admitted to the program). I’ll bet this woman’s English is not as bad as it seems. </p></li>
<li><p>Apologies to those of you who have read my periodic prior repetitions of this story. When one of my cousins was in graduate school (at an Ivy League university), he learned quickly that he hated teaching. At one point, he said this to me: “About the only thing I like about teaching undergraduates is watching their inexorable progress from the first class session, when they are overjoyed to find that their TA is a native English speaker, to the point five or six weeks later when they finally realize that they would have been much better off with someone who only spoke Mandarin but who gave a [crap] about them.”</p></li>
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<p>In other words, watch out what you pray for. English isn’t the only relevant skill, or even the most relevant skill.</p>
<p>What ever you “assume” is incorrect. The TA in my daughters class had undergrad assistants circulate around the room at the end of the class and they tried to explain what the TA was “attempting” to explain. Perhaps because of your age (22) you’ve had more experience with foreign speaking TAs.</p>
<p>Once again: She may have been VERY sweet but her command of the English language is very weak.</p>
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<p>Two wrongs making one right? </p>
<p>Not speaking English well is only one (small) part of what is wrong with the use of TAs in higher education.</p>
<p>This is a big problem at many large universities. I had a calculus teacher from Pakistan over 40 years ago. Many in the class had a difficult time with him. One of the big problems was he didn’t have a huge vocabulary. If you asked him about a problem he did on the board, all he could do is to do the problem using the exact same words, in the exact same order. Going to his office gave the same result. He was dreadful. We think he knew it, too because no one got less than a C in the class, and very few people learned anything from him. It was sad.</p>
<p>You weren’t in the class. How do you know how well she spoke English? Like I said before, she was not difficult to understand, and the people I sat with had no problems either. The undergraduate TAs walking around were not that helpful and had to look questions up in the book that they should have known. Your daughter just needs time to adjust to a large university and the common problems that come along with it. She is probably just overwhelmed and thinks that changing the lab will solve all her problems.</p>
<p>In response to the initial question…the best place to go is the department manager or the staff person in department who handles enrollment. In some cases faculty handle enrollments for their own courses. But it varies, and the student needs to find out how it works in this particular major or department.</p>
<p>Writing to an administrator may help get the matter off your chest, but probably it will not have much of an effect. Administrators do not usually deal with these matters – plus most faculty and admin believe that students should be responsible for navigating their way through the university/college.</p>
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She is not overwhelmed with her other classes and ALL the people around her also could not understand the TA. Let’s just agree to disagree. </p>
<p>On a somewhat unrelated note, I am amazed at what a small world it is. What is the chances that you would see a post about a young lady having difficulty understanding a TA that is posted in a parents forum without any mention of the college, AND just happen to find it worth your while to research my posts to determine which college my daughter is attending AND also attend that college AND be in the same class AND join CC the same day. Wow…amazing.</p>
<p>People have differing abilities to understand accented English, but it usually gets easier over time; hopefully this will be the case for your daughter. katliamom was correct about the low numbers of U.S grad students in math and the sciences. Internationals are also sometimes harder for the regular faculty work with. The lack of writing skills can make turning an early draft of a dissertation into an acceptable final product onerous at times. There are always students who don’t show up because of visa problems. The support the incoming students (and often their young families) can require is often much greater than that of American students. Senior faculty are well aware of the problems undergrads can have in situations like your daughter’s, but unfortunately there really is no easy answer. (Paying more would not change the situation.)</p>
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Writing he*l. I’m visiting with the admin if my daughter can’t get this resolved herself within the department. She has advised them that she is attempting to be responsible and work her way through the system to get this resolved, but failing a solution at the department level then the tuition/ R&B payers will discuss it with the university admin. And I can certainly understand WHY a college Administrator would rather deal with 18 year olds and it isn’t all about how they need to learn responsibility. </p>
<p>Letter writing may eventually be necessary but those letters will be directed to people other than Administrators. My daughter might have to put up with paying $500+ dollars per credit for a class that is being taught (at least partially) by a non-English speaking TA, but neither she nor I need to just go with the flow because that is the way it has been done in the past. It would be far easier for the school to just accommodate her reasonable request for a TA that she can understand.</p>
<p>Thanks again everyone for the help and suggestions.</p>
<p>Actually I was google searching something else related to TA and this site was at the top of my google search (coincidence), so I joined just to respond to your question. It is a small world, but I did not search any of your posts. When I read your OP and it mentioned the TA had only been here for three weeks and someone mentioned it was an anatomy class, I knew it was the same class I am enrolled in. But the lab is in 227 Victoria Building, and yesterday we also looked at a dissected cadaver of an 80 year old man who died of a heart attack and may have had pancreatic cancer. The TA’s initials are Y.Z., and our first lab exam is the week of 10/4/10. I don’t know how else to convince you I am in the same class.</p>
<p>If your D makes enough noise, she will probably get a transfer to another section. That may not be the route she wants to take, but so be it. The reality is that she will have her hands full dodging professors and TA’s with accents for 4 years or more, especially in a large university. Did she consider this before enrolling there? In the future she will want to make sure the professors and TA’s are native english speakers BEFORE enrolling in their courses. </p>
<p>I agree with some of the others here who have suggested she fight it out for a few more weeks and see if her comprehension of the accent improves. It helps to sit in the front. If she has never listened to someone with a Chinese accent before, it takes a little time to pick it up. </p>
<p>When my DD (15) met my boss (Indian) she said after she couldn’t understand anything he said to her. He has been in America at least 25 years, and speaks excellent english, but he has an accent. I only occasionally have trouble with a word here and there. For the most part, he sounds like anyone else to me. It takes time.</p>
<p>To the OP –</p>
<p>Why should the school favor your d. over all the others in the class? </p>
<p>This IS a common problem at large universities – I had the same problem in my Chem lab at a UC, 40 years ago – and my d. had the issue in classes taken at Columbia (so its not just a problem with public U’s.)</p>
<p>The way that undergrads cope, typically, is by forming study groups and working with others in their class. There is actually something to be said for the process of having to work some things out for yourself – you often gain a better understanding and retain information better when you’ve gone through that process. </p>
<p>Another option is to purchase supplemental materials, like study guides, that will help. I’m sure there are plenty of materials to choose from for Anatomy and Physiology – see, for example, [Anatomy</a> and Physiology Study Guides](<a href=“http://www.squidoo.com/anatomyandphysiologystudyguides]Anatomy”>http://www.squidoo.com/anatomyandphysiologystudyguides)</p>
<p>I would note that my d. did, at times, manage to either get out of a section she didn’t like or get into a course that was labeled “full” – though not over language issues – and basically she lobbied hard and was very persistent. In order to switch sections, she also had to come up with a plausible reason other than dislike of the instructor – and all that lobbying didn’t always end well. (That is, sometimes she found that the the prize she had worked so hard to get was worse than what she started out with).</p>
<p>I want to note that I think you have been extremely rude to windsor88, and while I understand your feelings of frustration, I find this statement of yours to be extremely inappropriate in terms of parental hovering and interference:
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<p>Hopefully, you were just venting here. However, if you really want to call up the university and yell at people, just consider that someday down the line your d. may need something from one of the people you end up talking to, like a recommendation for grad school or an internship or fellowship. The message you would be sending with such a phone call would be that your kid isn’t able to manage in a class that other students can handle; and that your kid can’t cope with problems on her own, but relies on a parent running interference – so yes, it might be “memorable experience”, but the part that they might remember down the line may not be the part that you want them remembering.</p>
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<p>Your daughter is no different than any other student in the class - her request is NOT “reasonable” if it is based on the same set of facts that apply to everyone else. If there are different facts – for example, if your d. has a disability – then she should try to work out the issue via the college’s disability office. </p>
<p>Have you asked your d. whether she wants you making those phone calls? I’m sure that my own d. would have been mortified if I had called administrators at her school and told them that my d. was too stupid to keep up with the other students in her section (which is the subtext of a complaint that a student has to be moved because she can’t understand the instructor, against the obvious facts that other students are remaining in the class and are able to cope).</p>
<p>One more point to consider. If your D is to work in the healthcare sector, there might be lots of foreign patients that she must care for.</p>
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What is the purpose of a lab section/class? Perhaps my understanding of what is supposed to be accomplished is different than yours? Your post suggests that the purpose of these classes is to teach undergrads how to cope with TAs that (for whatever reason) cannot teach. I thought it was for students to learn the material presented. Clearly if it is a “coping” or learning tolerance class then I am mistaken and unreasonable in my expectations.</p>
<p>as an undergraduate i had classes with heavily-accented TAs and profs. i heard kids complaining that the person “didn’t speak english” (some were actually quite loudly and rudely complaining during lecture!) when in reality they DID speak english…with an accent. get over the fact that not everybody sounds like your family members. this person would not be working in an american university if they couldn’t speak the english language.</p>
<p>aglages… you kid’s now in college, time for her to figure out how to handle the situation. I know as a concerned parent you want to jump in, but it’s time they deal with situations on their own. This doesn’t sound too serious.</p>
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Absolutely. However, I do hope that a foreign patient’s health care isn’t determined by how well each health care provider can understand their language / accent. Certainly in the case of an unconscious patient they should expect to get reasonable care even without communicating.</p>
<p>I also think that an important distinction here is whether my daughter should have a reasonable expectation of being taught in understandable English in a US college for which she is paying quite a bit of money. It would seem that many think that it is unreasonable and clearly I feel differently.</p>
<p>“I also think that an important distinction here is whether my daughter should have a reasonable expectation of being taught in understandable English in a US college for which she is paying quite a bit of money. It would seem that many think that it is unreasonable and clearly I feel differently.”</p>
<p>Not unreasonable, but hopefully something your daughter researched prior to attendance. I wish kids would look past the glossy brochures, the US Rankings, etc and dig down deep to the workings of a university before even applying. I also encourage you to not get involved in this. (Coming here for advice is perfectly acceptable, but fighting the battle…not so much) This is your daughter’s fish to fry. She has every right to go to the Dean or who ever she wants to get her wheel greased. But she has to make noise first. My high school daughter is dealing with a very difficult situation currently involving a teacher and it is her that is sitting with a GC and an assistant principle on Tuesday. Not me. Her education (she is a minor) is my responsibility, but it is about to be hers and she needs to learn how to be aggressive if she feels her needs are not being met. When she has a job in 4 years and goes toe to toe with a head nurse, are you going to go to Hospital Administration and plead her case? Let her handle the issue. On a secondary note, this lab (any lab for that matter) should have a written guide that is her primary mode of learning. And about her professor liking email communication. Her immediate response should have been, “I respect your time, but that does not work for me. Can we meet at 4:30 on Tuesday?” College is a fast paced, high pressure environment and it is important that her combined stresses are not manifesting themselves in this one situation.</p>