Soooooooooo frustrated with my classmate!!

[OgopogoLPN]

Just started LPN school last week. There are 26 students in my class. We have the same classes with everyone, same classroom. The woman who sat beside me on the first day is an ESL student (English as a Second Language). Now, she would have had to pass an English proficiency test to get into the program, but she is struggling with both the regular English conversation in lectures and definately with A + P.

I'm already quite proficient in medical terminology and A + P. She interupts me AT LEAST 3-4 times per lecture to ask what word was just said, or what page the instructor is referring to, or the meaning of a word etc. She is a very nice person and I do feel for her situation, but I am there to become a nurse, not be her translator!!!!!

I find it soooooooooo distracting and frustrating to be interrupted so much when all I want to do is listen and take notes. She will often ask to borrow my notes at the end of class since she didn't catch half of what was said.

I called an instructor today to talk about the situation, but wasn't called back. I guess she had already left for the weekend.

I don't want to change seats as I'm right at the front. It's not even that I don't want to sit beside this woman, but how do I approach this without coming accross like an insenstive jerk? If this was an English speaking student doing this, I would have no problem telling them to stop interrupting me so much.

But because she is ethnic and ESL, I feel like I would be discriminatory or really mean by telling her STOP INTERUPTING ME ALL DAY TO ASK FOR CLARIFICATION OF ENGLISH WORDS AND INSTRUCTIONS!!

I don't want the instructor to single her out and make her feel uncomfortable. Perhaps the instructor would be willing to make a general class announcement like "we've noticed some whispering going on during lectures. Please refrain from interuppting classmates during lectures and save your questions for the end of class" or something like that.

Any words of wisdom for me?

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

I'll be dealing with this situation first thing tomorrow morning, whether strait with her, or through an instructor.

Thank you so much for everyone's thoughts, ideas and insight. It has been most helpful!!!

I'll update sometime tomorrow evening on the outcome!! :)

[Music in My Heart]

I'll be dealing with this situation first thing tomorrow morning, whether strait with her, or through an instructor.

Thank you so much for everyone's thoughts, ideas and insight. It has been most helpful!!!

I'll update sometime tomorrow evening on the outcome!! :)

Don't talk to the instructor until you've tried to resolve it with her and failed. She deserves that much respect. You also run the risk of looking bad to the teacher.

Handle your own problem and involve the faculty only as a last resort.

[GeauxNursing]

OP, I don't really have any good advice for you, but i would just like to state that you sound like a very nice and understanding person. It is people like you who will be great nurses! The fact that you aren't just blowing her off and you are concerned with her understanding, although frustrating it may be, says a whole lot for your character. Good luck!

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

tell her to get a tape recorder and play it back after class. She will here anything she missed and when she has to look up words instead of you straight out telling her she will learn more.

This is how my very American/English speaking children were raised. If they didn't know a word or how to spell it, I made them get the dictionary out....teach a man to fish and all that....

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

Update:

I did speak with my instructor today. She thought that it was very good that I came to her with this. She said this student has already spoken to her about her language difficulties and the two of them are also working on a solution.

She said that she recommends I speak to my classmate and let her know that she simply cannot interrupt me numerous times per class. That I have to concentrate on my own studies and I can't be continuously stopping to help her.

She also said that after Wed morning's A + P class (that this instructor teaches), she will speak privately to this student and say something like

"Mary, I've noticed you whisper questions to Jill quite often during lectures. You must refrain from doing this as it must be very distracting to her. If you don't understand an English word, please wait until the end of class to look it up yourself. If you aren't sure where we are in the textbook, then raise your hand."

We are in lab all day tomorrow and I'm not near her in lab, so that'll be OK. I'll wait to see the outcome after my instructor speaks to her on Wed.

So, all in all, I think it will be OK. My instructor did offer me to change seats, but I don't want to move right from the front where I am. I hope that this instructor's speaking to her will help, as well as the help she will be offered by our college's international students office.

:)

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

Sounds like it was handled well...I think it was important to enlist the instructor's assistance to both find assistance for your classmate and cover yourself in case the chit-chat becomes misinterpreted in class...

Good luck!!

[november17, ASN, RN]

Someday you're going to be a nurse with patients asking you questions all the time. Get used to it. I understand it is interrupting your learning process, but think of it as preparation for things to come.

[IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

Someday you're going to be a nurse with patients asking you questions all the time. Get used to it. I understand it is interrupting your learning process, but think of it as preparation for things to come.

That's just ridiculous. There's a huge difference between a patient asking questions and a student interrupting you in class to ask questions.

[Cherish]

That's just ridiculous. There's a huge difference between a patient asking questions and a student interrupting you in class to ask questions.

Exactly! When it comes to learning something new as a student I don't think ANYONE should be interrupted on what they are learning or trying to comprehend. Patients are different than your fellow classmates, patients are not there to go to class, study, and learn but to heal and understand their own condition.

In my past AP 2 class there were many students from China and different parts of Africa. Some understood the information clear as day, others had trouble. But not one would interrupt other students during class. The students from China had english-chinese word translators that were electronical so if a word on the powerpoint or lecture they couldn't understand they would jot it in and get in their language the definition. Everyone else would just talk to the instructor after class or during the break to clarify some questions they had.

[november17, ASN, RN]

That's just ridiculous. There's a huge difference between a patient asking questions and a student interrupting you in class to ask questions.

God forbid someone tries to look at the positive side of the issue.

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

Someday you're going to be a nurse with patients asking you questions all the time. Get used to it. I understand it is interrupting your learning process, but think of it as preparation for things to come.

Um, Ok. If you think that's a "positive" spin on it.

1. I'm not there to be her personal tutor.

2. I'm not there to be her personal translator.

3. I'm not there to be her English teacher.

4. I'm not paying for my education, only to not be properly educated because someone else doesn't understand the language of instruction.

When I AM a nurse and working, ASK AWAY. Ask me about NURSING stuff. Not about what a certain word means in English. Or how to spell something. Or to explain a concept (unless it pertains to nursing).

It's been a few weeks now and the situation has improved drastically. She no longer interupts me during class. I do help with with a word or concept at the end of class at times. She just has to deal with not understanding a certain word or concept until break, lunch or end of class. I'm not going to compromise my education to help her!!!!

[IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

God forbid someone tries to look at the positive side of the issue.

That's a positive spin...telling her to get over it because it will be happening when she graduates? How is that so positive?