A Florida college student has the internet divided after sharing a viral TikTok complaining that she struggles to understand her foreign biology professor because of his accent. The video, which was posted by @papislim28, racked up more than 4 million views within 48 hours of being uploaded.
Reactions were split between netizens who sympathized with her and others who accused her of being xenophobic.
In the clip, the student sat in class listening to her professor lecture. However, she said she found it irritating that she had to struggle to make out much of what he was saying because of his accent. According to her, it was so bad that she ended up trying to teach herself the material while the lecture was still going on.
She also claimed that other students in the class were facing the same problem as she was and were becoming increasingly confused and frustrated with the professor and the material he was teaching.
Student Says She Is ‘Stuck’ in the Class
The student’s frustration with the class was compounded by an incident involving a quiz that day.
“I was late for [a quiz] because [there] was an accident in the road, and I am a commuter. And I only had four minutes to take a 12 question quiz,” the student shared. “When I let him know the situation of why I was late, all he could tell me was, well, the test was due at 9:10. There’s nothing to do about it.”
The student said the professor’s response left her with a bad taste in her mouth because she already felt she was paying for a class in which she essentially had to teach herself the material.
She added that dropping the course wasn’t much of an option either. As a student-athlete, she explained that she needed to maintain a certain number of credits to remain eligible to compete and was therefore “kind of stuck” in the class.
Netizens React to the Florida College Student’s Complaints
In the comments section under the post, several viewers said they could understand why the student was frustrated. Some even claimed that they couldn’t make out what the professor was saying in the brief snippets of his lecture included in the video.
“Why is this allowed? It’s a waste of time and money if the students can’t understand the professor,” one person wrote. Another said, “Im actively listening trying to hear what he’s saying and i got nothing. I cant even make out the LANGUAGE.” A third joked, “Why is he speaking at a frequency undetectable by man,” while a fourth added, “This is seriously not right.”
Others, however, felt the student’s criticism was unfairly focused on the professor being foreign rather than simply on her difficulty understanding his accent.
“Are yall discriminating against a qualified immigrant bc of their accent?” one commenter questioned. Another chimed in, “I get where you’re coming from but the way you worded this is giving xenophobic I’m ngl.”
A third group argued that encountering people with unfamiliar accents is something the student will likely continue experiencing long after college and that learning to understand them could be useful in itself.
“How will u work in the real world without learning to understand accents??? Use it as a learning experience,” one netizen remarked. Another agreed, saying, “When you get older and start spending time with people from other countries, you learn how to understand accents. It’s part of growing up.”
The student has clarified that she doesn’t want the professor fired. Instead, she said she wanted to draw attention to a problem she believes affects students who are paying for their education. She argued that students shouldn’t have to spend big tuition fees only to feel as though they are teaching themselves the course material.
