Was i wrong?

Ripper · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:18

During one module at University we have to be in groups of 2/3 to do this particular assignment (analysis and design). Me and my mate have been through high school and a HND together and we drive each other to university everyday so clearly we're doing the assignment together.

There was a lad who was sitting near us (overseas student, call it ignorance but i'm not entirely sure of his nationality, but he's from the East) who was the only person to raise his hand when the tutor asked who didn't have a group. Nothing more was said until the end of the lesson where our tutor came over and asked if we minded if he joined up with us. Now obviously we're not going to say no right infront of him, so we agreed and he came over to us and we started discussing how we were going to do the assignment.

After a few minutes it became clear that it was going to be difficult, I found it hard to communicate with him as he couldn't really understand me fully.

Whilst we were driving home me and my mate agreed that I'd email him and basically tell him we didn't want to be in a group with him. It would have been difficult with us two not living at Uni, and we felt that we'd be way more organised if it was just the pair of us. So I emailed him and he replied saying "Ok thats fine" but I know he'll be a week behind now as he'll most likely have to wait until next week to sort a group again.

Was we wrong to basically "kick him out". I feel quite bad in fairness. I don't want my tutor to think i'm racist or anything it's just a simple fact that we're more comfortable working with each other rather than with a stranger as well.

FishThrower · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:20

you wrote it in a e-mail? shame on you!

shifty_uk · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:20

Simple, if you were in his position, how would you feel?

robmiller · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:27

It's a pretty assholish thing to do, whichever way you look at it.

cleanbluesky · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:29

Do as you want, but do so without shame. Don't e-mail him unless you wish to look a coward

toString · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:29

The only person who didn't have a group to be in, and you kicked him out?
Ouch.

ci_newman · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:29

robmiller said:
It's a pretty assholish thing to do, whichever way you look at it.

Agreed BUT its your education you've got think of too. I worked with a couple of half-wits during my time at Uni and it reflected badly in my grades on occasion. You might not be in your tutors best books but that can't affect the marking of the project.

manoz · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:29

You racist coward*tsk*tsk*

sniffy · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:30

You should have raised the issue when it came apparent communication was going to be an issue.

Harsh for making him fall behind IMO.

Brizzles · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:30

All off the above ^^^

Email him back

Welshy · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:32

I know how you feel, two thirds of my course arent of British origin, so there's a lot of communication problems with the lecturers aswell.

It's just something you've got to live with really, i dont know how they'd be employed by an english speaking company with their current language skills.

It is a bit of a horrible thing to do, but in the long run he'll be dragging your grades down

Ex-RoNiN · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:33

robmiller said:
It's a pretty assholish thing to do, whichever way you look at it.

Quite.

G-MAN2004 · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:34

How would you feel if you were in his situation?

Una · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:34

Thing is if the guy was not pulling his weight you would have just had to let your tutor know and they would take it into account when marking it. One person is not going to pull your mark down in the end if you let them know.

We get put into random groups in our group project + we got to work with people from another uni (durham), im yet to see how well this is going to work, but im sure its going to take a hell of a lot more communication.

danza · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:34

Dr Evil said:
Oooooh this is uncomfortable...

Glad I'm not the guy on the receiving end

I think I'd have given it a bit longer tbh. He might have been a genius-Only time will tell.

Ripper · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:36

ci_newman said:
Agreed BUT its your education you've got think of too. I worked with a couple of half-wits during my time at Uni and it reflected badly in my grades on occasion. You might not be in your tutors best books but that can't affect the marking of the project.

thats how I see it. Why should i put myself through extra stress and possibly hinder my grade in the module? (as well as other modules as having him in our group would mean we'd have to spend more time going to Uni, as our timetables differ). Should we need to get together outside of lecture times it would most likely mean an extra journey to uni which is an hour round trip. Whereas if it's just me and my mate I can just go down the road to his house.

I do feel selfish but at the end of the day number 1 comes first :rolleyes:

red11 · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:38

I can understand why you did it and the reasons behind the decision, but the way you approached it was all wrong and that's the bit you feel bad about. If you can arrange a meeting with him and tell him face to face, well it's a lot better than an email.

Dave M · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:39

His spoken english wasn't great - it may improve, but as you say, your rarely at university so you'd be as likely to communicate on email and msn anyway.

You might have just kicked off the brighest kid on your course for all you know, my experience of eastern students is they are 1) very clever and 2) freakishly hard working.

Psypher5 · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:44

You seem to have been quick off the mark to brush him aside?

Hell, everyone starts somewhere fresh at somepoint, the least you could have done is offered to help and possibly even tried to enjoy helping him and learning from him.

If after a while it seriously wasn't going anywhere, either tell him/lecturer or both and settle it that way.

Agrre with the above post too, he could be excessivly clever and you could have walked the course

Or made a really decent mate, but hey.

Macca · 11 Oct 2006 at 17:47

Psypher5 said:
You seem to have been quick off the mark to brush him aside?

Hell, everyone starts somewhere fresh at somepoint, the least you could have done is offered to help and possibly even tried to enjoy helping him and learning from him.

If after a while it seriously wasn't going anywhere, either tell him/lecturer or both and settle it that way.

Agrre with the above post too, he could be excessivly clever and you could have walked the course Or made a really decent mate, but hey.

I agree with this and above too, just imagine if it was you? You didn't even give him a chance, of course you need to look out for yourself but you didn't try.

Your lecturer may view it as racism or not.

I think you should email him back and apoligise and give it a try.