Language barrier in academia?

[dtbog]

Two sides of the same coin:

1)

I was born and raised in Israel, served in my country's army, and then graduated from an Israeli university. I have since moved to the United States to pursue a career in academia at Cornell University.

I do excellent research and have received many awards for my experimental findings, but I speak very poor English and cannot communicate very well in the English language. Unfortunately, Cornell requires that all of its professors teach undergraduate courses (in English), so I am charged with the task of communicating my knowledge to students in a language with which I am not comfortable.

2)

I am an American-born Cornell University student who is 100% fluent in the English language, but does not know a word of Hebrew. My family pays over US$40K for me to go to school.

Unfortunately, an appreciable number of the instructional staff that I have worked with since my arrival at Cornell have had difficulties communicating in the English language. This has prevented me from learning the material in the courses that they are supposed to be teaching. To ease the pain for all of us, these professors grade to a curve; I have finished a semester with little-to-no knowledge on a subject, but received a grade of "A" because my small amount of knowledge was greater than someone else's miniscule amount of knowledge.


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Is there anything to be done here?