Argh!

I realise how very awful this post is going to sound, but I need to rant.

I recently had to do a group assignment. A presentation to the class, no less, which I hate. I don't know anyone at uni because I only ever go to classes at night and I don't talk to anyone. So when group assignments are on, I inevitably search for other loners to join. This particular time, I sought out a capable looking girl in the row behind me. We were just about to look for another member when two international students asked if they could join us. Of course we said yes, because you can't really say no in that situation. I would have liked to, however.

My experience with Asian international students has not been a good one. I cannot for the life of me work out why the university lets them study there when they can't articulate a basic sentence in English. Their writing is terrible, and their speaking isn't much better. Whenever I've been in groups with them before, I've basically had to do all of their work for them, because they can't write properly (unless they copy the sentences directly out of a book, and then don't reference them, so I have to go back through all of the bloody books trying to find the citations). And the degree is one where not only basic English is required to articulate the theories, but a whole other vocabulary is needed too. I have noticed that the international students really struggle, because they can't grasp the definition of these things.

I resent having to do all of the work when in group assignments, and I'm willing to cut international students some slack, but I still just don't understand why they're allowed to come and study when they can't speak/write proper English. It frustrates me. I speak Spanish, but it's certainly not fluent, and I wouldn't want to go to a uni in Spain and thrust myself into a group and bring them all down. It's just not fair.

Anyway, we did the presentation. After I had rewritten both the international students' parts (and don't even get me started on the lack of participation from the "capable" girl). I got the marks back. We were just shy of failing. Why? Because the lecturer couldn't understand what on earth the international students were babbling about.

How is that fair? Why should my mark be reduced because the uni let them in when they can't fucking speak English? Why should all members of the group suffer? The written work was fine (after I'd rewritten it all, of course), but we almost failed because of the international students. I'm just so fucking pissed off about it!

Now I have to make sure I practically get 7s in the mid semester and final exams, because that presentation was worth 25%! Ugh. I'm just so fucking over it. What the fuck is the point of group assignments anyway? Yes, yes, I know, to learn to work in a group. But it's not like that in the real world. You're not lumped in with a group of people who have completely different schedules and forced to find an hour or two to meet up on a weekend. You're not lumped into a group where the other people don't know what the fuck they're talking about. You're at work with people in the real world for 8 hours a day. It's a lot easier to schedule time to work on projects. And people assigned to projects are usually assigned because they can contribute significantly to said project. It's a completely different situation.

In the meantime, I think I will be asking for a review of my grade for that presentation. I resent being marked down because those two girls couldn't speak English correctly. How is that my fault? Why should my grades suffer? And I think I'm just going to be fucking rude and say, "No, sorry, I'd rather not be in a group with you" if approached by international students in future.