Foreign teaching assistants need to learn English

One of the major problems I have seen for the past three years in college is that we have many incompetent teaching assistants. There are many international teaching assistants who can barely speak English, but they are allowed to teach.

I am an international student myself so don't think I am racist. I love to see international students teaching. I have seen many good teaching assistants from India, Brazil and South Africa. At the same time, I know many international teaching assistants who are incompetent.

I was lucky to have a friend in my last semester's class who knew Mandarin since our teacher in the class was not able to tell us simple things about writing lab reports. The teaching assistant was a very smart chemist but could not speak English.

There are many like him. I am urging all teaching assistants who don't know how to teach or speak English to take the damn initiative to learn how to teach and learn proper English. People should be encouraged to learn foreign languages but not be forced to have a teaching assistant who will not be able to communicate.

These teaching assistants have no right to teach! Like the CESL students we need to have all international teaching assistants in a program where they can improve their communication skills. Let's face it, in business schools career advisors like University of Chicago help all international students speak in a proper manner. If these students don't, they are bound not to get a job. The same ideals should be held for our teaching assistants.

All teaching assistants are really nice people, it is the fault of the academic department who hired them. They need help, and I am volunteering to help them get help to teach.

So a warning to all academic departments, this is only the beginning. You know and I know, many teaching assistance need help! Consider this a first strike at your laziness and lack of desire to see students succeed.

Ahmad Sa'ad Nasim
President, Muslim Students Association
German studies and molecular and cellular biology junior