<p>Encourage our US students to get PHDs so that we have native English speaking professors.</p>
<p>But there is one problem. Folks can make more money at other professions. Foreign folk can come here, earn a PHD and make more money than in their native land. They often get graduate stipends to attend graduate school here. So they can attend school here cheaply (or with more prestige than a school from their homeland) and get a job that pays more than they would make in their native land.</p>
<p>If you have a PHD in many subjects right now, you would have no problem finding a job. If English is your first language, it’s a plus. If you are a URM, it is a double plus. However, you could probably get a job in private industry that pays a lot more.</p>
<p>BTW, if you have a PHD in Accounting and want a job in state college, let me know.</p>
<p>I’d guess that these professors are probably more easily understood during job interviews and even when talking to other faculty in the same department, because the people they’re speaking to are more familiar with the words and concepts they’re using than students listening to a lecture are, and this would make it difficult to judge how well a potential professor would be understood by students.</p>
<p>I had an Asian TA when I took Calculus in college. He was difficult to understand. But there was another problem. His knowledge of the English language was limited. If someone asked him to explain something because the student didn’t understand it, he simply repeated what he just said – a little louder, maybe, but just the same words. He was totally unable to change the words at all or explain things differently. This is where much of the problem came from. He was nice, but he could only teach based on what words he knew. It was a frustration. </p>
<p>I also had an Asian Statistics professor. He was great and could reword things to get his point across. </p>
<p>I’ve been out of college for 40 years, so the problem has been going on for a long time.</p>
<p>And twenty-five years ago I had the engineering professor who actually answered a (Chinese) student’s question in Chinese, to the complete befuddlement of the (seemingly) few of us who didn’t speak Chinese. Sigh.</p>
<p>Ratemyprofessor.com – for the most part, particularly for introductory classes, students have some degree of choice about which professor to take. If the reviews consistently mention poor English and difficulty understanding what the professor has to say, look elsewhere. Particularly in classes like calc, it is quite likely that the graduate student T.A. is probably not a native English speaker, and you could really have trouble if you can’t understand either the TA or the professor.</p>
<p>Students (not parents) should also complain to the administration – with what college costs these days, there is no excuse for professors who are not reasonably conversant in colloquial English, no matter how brilliant they may be from a research perspective.</p>
<p>So I guess I’m not alone in being concerned…</p>
<p>My story continues: when I went to complain to the EE Dean (I was a Sr taking a freshman class - had put it off as long as I could - so I though I was a big shot) he looked me in the eye and said two things that I remember to this day:</p>
<p>"Why do you think we have him teaching Intro to EE for non-EE majors?..and…
"Just pass the ****ing course.</p>