My interviewer hardly spoke English

[durak]

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No joke - the guy was an older foreign fellow that could barely string a complete sentence together in English. He had a paper from the University with some questions on it, and he just read them from top to bottom. I would answer the question (making sure not to talk too fast or use words he may not understand), and he would write something down. Then he would repeat back to me what he said to make sure he understood correctly. Not such a bad thing, I suppose, but he just couldn't keep things straight. Ex:

Interviewer: When you come here to this state?

Me: I was born in Texas, but moved here 15 years ago.

Interviewer: So you born here and move to Texas 15 year ago?

Imagine 1 hour of this type of laborious conversation. I left the interview not having any clue how much he really understood. Nothign against the guy - he was very nice and I respect his position at the university. Just thought it's a little odd that they would leave such an important factor in the process up to chance. I hate to think that my eventual acceptance/rejection rests on how well some old guy understands English.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

 

[futuredoc10]

It was a ploy to see how well you handle stressfull and novel situations. The real interviewer was behind the one-way mirror.

 

[Law2Doc]

It was a ploy to see how well you handle stressfull and novel situations. The real interviewer was behind the one-way mirror.

That was my initial reaction too when reading this post -- that he was just messing with you...

 

[fun8stuff]

My friend had the same thing happen to him! The guy was also wearing a a yellow suite jacket with brown pants and no socks. THe pants were too short so when he would cross his legs, it really stood out. Needless to say, he had a hard time paying attention and was waitlisted.

 

[sdnstud]

What school was this?

No joke - the guy was an older foreign fellow that could barely string a complete sentence together in English. He had a paper from the University with some questions on it, and he just read them from top to bottom. I would answer the question (making sure not to talk too fast or use words he may not understand), and he would write something down. Then he would repeat back to me what he said to make sure he understood correctly. Not such a bad thing, I suppose, but he just couldn't keep things straight. Ex:

Interviewer: When you come here to this state?

Me: I was born in Texas, but moved here 15 years ago.

Interviewer: So you born here and move to Texas 15 year ago?

Imagine 1 hour of this type of laborious conversation. I left the interview not having any clue how much he really understood. Nothign against the guy - he was very nice and I respect his position at the university. Just thought it's a little odd that they would leave such an important factor in the process up to chance. I hate to think that my eventual acceptance/rejection rests on how well some old guy understands English.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

 

[freaker]

I had a similar experience, as well. The guy understood English but not very well. Very polite, very nice, but I really had to work it to make sure he was understanding what I was saying and not fouling everything up.

 

[Newman8r]

I had a similar experience, as well. The guy understood English but not very well. Very polite, very nice, but I really had to work it to make sure he was understanding what I was saying and not fouling everything up.

Interviewer: "How much time spend you studying?"
You: "I study quite often, I try to finish things early if possible"
Interviewer writes down "I study high often, otherwise its really impossible"

 

[civic4982]

No joke - the guy was an older foreign fellow that could barely string a complete sentence together in English. He had a paper from the University with some questions on it, and he just read them from top to bottom. I would answer the question (making sure not to talk too fast or use words he may not understand), and he would write something down. Then he would repeat back to me what he said to make sure he understood correctly. Not such a bad thing, I suppose, but he just couldn't keep things straight. Ex:

Interviewer: When you come here to this state?

Me: I was born in Texas, but moved here 15 years ago.

Interviewer: So you born here and move to Texas 15 year ago?

Imagine 1 hour of this type of laborious conversation. I left the interview not having any clue how much he really understood. Nothign against the guy - he was very nice and I respect his position at the university. Just thought it's a little odd that they would leave such an important factor in the process up to chance. I hate to think that my eventual acceptance/rejection rests on how well some old guy understands English.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

What you say? I no understand...

 

[lattimer13]

yeah i had a chick from turkey try to teach english 101 during undergrad....absolutely brutal.