Since I have been at school, I have heard many “horror stories” of professors and T.A.s who have near intelligible accents. I’ll try not to be ignorant as much as possible, but sometimes it’s too hard to be nice! 

Here is a story that pretty much sums up all experiences: A friend of mine took a sociology class a little while ago. She attended the first few classes and then realized that she could not understand a word, and stopped going, for it was a complete waste of time. (She swore to me that she is a person who always attends class. I didn’t ask her method of studying, but I suppose it was straight from the textbook.) Nearing the end of the semester she told me that one day the professor became livid at the students, demanding to know why they would not answer his questions or make comments. A girl stood up and blatantly said: “We CANNOT understand you. We cannot understand one word coming out of your mouth!” The class then clapped (I’m not making this up). However, the professor only became angrier and kept yelling, and nothing was resolved. My friend told me she got an A, luckily, because the class was easy.

Now, I’m not saying that the actions of my friend’s classmate were exactly appropriate, but it damn expressed everybody’s opinion. I’m in college to learn, not to translate. I don’t doubt in anyway the credentials of any professor at my school: he/she probably has published loads material, won awards, and all that other nonsense, but does scholarly work translate into teaching? Sometimes I feel that anyone with a bachelor’s could “teach” a class. How does a university choose a professor? Not by their teaching ability, by far, sadly.

I’m sure the professor in my friend’s class was a decent guy, has a nice family and good morals, but if no one can understand you, how is anyway going to learn the material? Textbooks can only take a student so far.

And on another note, you pay way too much to go to XYZ school to have a class that is almost worthless. Why even bother trying? No one else in the class can help you because you’re in the same boat.

On the other hand, I have had some foreign professors that were wonderful and easy to understand through their accents. Some of them even acknowledged the fact that their English wasn’t perfect, and would gratefully repeat or try to explain the material in a different way. For the most part that worked and everybody was happy.

Who’s to blame in this situation? I can’t blame the professors. They’re qualified in the material they’re teaching and I certainly can’t speak a foreign language without an accent. I blame the university. I secretly think that my school just snatches anyone up that can bring in just a little bit more prestige and sticks them in a classroom to teach.