Author Topic: My English Professor doesn't know English! (Read 4443 times)

pattyshmack · « **on:** September 07, 2005, 01:48:31 PM »

My English professor hardly speaks a word of English (she's from India) and today she said,"Blake's poems are full of more sorrowfuller images than people believe."

What the $%@?

Jonathon · « **Reply #1 on:** September 07, 2005, 01:53:53 PM »

That doesn't sound like "hardly speaks a word" to me, but sadly, it's not really surprising that English fluency apparently isn't a requirement. Of course, she's really a literature professor, so maybe it won't matter so much.

Icarus · « **Reply #2 on:** September 07, 2005, 08:08:52 PM »

Jonathon · « **Reply #3 on:** September 08, 2005, 08:35:58 AM »

Was that directed at me or her?

Icarus · « **Reply #4 on:** September 08, 2005, 01:08:04 PM »

At the thought of an "English Profesor" who speaks so poorly!

I had many math professors like that, but I don't think I ever had an English professor (or teacher, for that matter) who spoke English so poorly. I think it could be argued that ones literature explication skills are suspect in a language one has so little command of. Heck, my Spanish is stronger than that person's English (and I have a degree in Literature), and I wouldn't feel comfortable teaching a Spanish Lit class.

Jonathon · « **Reply #5 on:** September 08, 2005, 01:15:02 PM »

Yeah. You should be pretty darn fluent in a language if you're going to teach its literature, especially since literature can be so much more complex than spoken language. It's all full of allusions and metaphors and archaisms.

pattyshmack · « **Reply #6 on:** September 09, 2005, 12:04:44 PM »

...I mean she has alot of great ideas and she is really an awesome teacher. It is just awful to try and pick out what she is actually saying. Some students have resorted to saying,"Can you write that on the board?" And she calls me Ree-becca Nee-bocker.

Porter · « **Reply #7 on:** September 10, 2005, 11:22:10 AM »

She might be perfectly fluent in English but just has such a thick accent that her students cannot understand her.

Icarus · « **Reply #8 on:** September 10, 2005, 02:01:53 PM »

Quote

"Blake's poems are full of more sorrowfuller images than people believe."

Porter · « **Reply #9 on:** September 10, 2005, 05:15:08 PM »

Good point.

AFR · « **Reply #10 on:** September 12, 2005, 12:26:16 PM »

I had an American Heritage teacher who was Canadian. :shrug: She did a good job, I thought.

Brinestone · « **Reply #11 on:** September 12, 2005, 12:30:24 PM »

Dork.

Lady Montagu · « **Reply #12 on:** September 12, 2005, 12:30:28 PM »

Two of the best English lit professors I ever had were from India.

Icarus · « **Reply #13 on:** September 12, 2005, 06:55:28 PM »

I don't think anyone's saying that "foreigners" can't teach English lit. I have certainly had plenty of Latin English teachers.

All I'm saying is that you should be able to speak English well.

Porter · « **Reply #14 on:** September 12, 2005, 07:30:22 PM »

Quote

All I'm saying is that you should be able to speak English well.

Or at the very least, good.

Brinestone · « **Reply #15 on:** September 12, 2005, 08:21:07 PM »

I'm confused by the people using India and Canada as evidence that foreigners can speak English well. Are people being funny?

Icarus · « **Reply #16 on:** September 12, 2005, 08:45:07 PM »

Not that I was doing that, but not all Indians have British accents, you know. I had a couple of Indian math teachers who were pretty freaking hard to understand.

kojabu · « **Reply #17 on:** September 15, 2005, 07:39:42 AM »

Quote

And she calls me Ree-becca Nee-bocker.

Aahh I hate it when people pronounced Rebecca like that! There was this kid in my karate class who used to call me Ree-becca and it was irritating.

Porter · « **Reply #18 on:** September 15, 2005, 07:46:44 AM »

I'd hate it if somebody called me Ree-becca too.

kwsni · « **Reply #19 on:** September 15, 2005, 11:52:34 AM »

My solution to that problem is to only go by Rebecca on official documents, and then refuse to answer to anything but Becky in anything else.

Ni!

kojabu · « **Reply #20 on:** September 16, 2005, 07:13:42 AM »

I've never liked the Becky nickname, but I have embraced Becca. I also go by my last name.

And Batman...

Icarus · « **Reply #21 on:** September 16, 2005, 12:25:43 PM »

I think "Becky" is cuter than "Becca."

kojabu · « **Reply #22 on:** September 16, 2005, 01:34:33 PM »

I always associated it with a bad connotation when I was younger, probably because it was the name my sister called me when she was teasing me. I'm also pretty sure my parents didn't want anyone calling me any deriviatives of Rebecca in class.

pattyshmack · « **Reply #23 on:** September 21, 2005, 11:07:28 AM »

If someone wants to call me Becky I will let them although it is more common to call me Becca. I like Becca better than Becky but at the same time I think of a chicken saying,"Bek-ah!" So, Rebecca is probably the best name to say. I had some friends call me Reba for the longest while and it irritated me beyond belief.

Batman do you get this all the time when meeting new people? "What do you like to be called, Becca, Becky or Rebecca?" I usually just say,"whatever you want," although as a teen I only wanted to be called Beck or Becca. That's changed now I can say....oh man, this name is more complicated than I originally thought!

kojabu · « **Reply #24 on:** September 21, 2005, 03:49:08 PM »

Usually however I'm introduced to the new people is what they'll call me. I have some friends who call me Becca, some who call me Rebecca so it depends on who's doing the introducing. I used to get the question a lot more when I was younger, I guess because teachers would ask. Now professors just call me Rebecca because that's what's on my Cornell profile. I don't think I'd ever ask them to call me Becca, it's too familiar.

Oh and I had this one friend who used to run around going Be-Kah Be-Kah like a chicken. It was hysterical.