That’s affecting a lot of us, to be sure. OP’s D just has to evaluate the situation the next time she goes for office hours and finds a group talking in some other language. If it is not a one-on-one situation, then she is not being rude if she asks for them to carry on in English.
Just as an aside, both as a TA and as a professor I’ve been warned never to meet with a student in your office with the door closed. Never. I don’t know what protocol is at other institutions, however.
It can be very tiring to speak in your non native language so it isn’t surprising that when in the presence of other speakers of your native tongue you might lapse into your comfort zone. If OP’s daughter wasn’t there when the conversation started it’s not too surprising that they started in their native tongue. Obviously, in an academic group setting like this, the proper response would be to switch to English when another student who could benefit from the conversation arrived.
OP’s daughter could say something like, “Excuse me, are you discussing problem X? I was really wondering about that too.” That should shock the TA into awareness of situation and cause the conversation to go to English without her having to specifically request English. It’s kind of a face saving thing for everyone.
If she is ignored or rebuffed than she needs talk to the professor.
@mathmom “Nerdy boys can be clueless, so there is probably no ill intent here.”
lol. That is probably all it is. It is just frustrating as a parent.
@SculptorDad is sensitive to minority slights which is understandable. I am sensitive to slights to women in CS. She was involved in an incident last year where a foreign student (not an Indian student btw) told her and the women that he did not think women should be allowed in the CS program at all. Blatant sexism lives on.
@sylvan8798 “I’ve been warned never to meet with a student”
I can appreciate that. I really just mean it is a private subject, and not just discussing the same exact questions everyone else has.
@mom23travelers “P’s daughter could say something like, “Excuse me, are you discussing problem X? I was really wondering about that too.” That should shock the TA into awareness of situation and cause the conversation to go to English without her having to specifically request English. It’s kind of a face saving thing for everyone.”
That is helpful. She does not want to be seen as overly aggressive or hostile. If leaving her out is inadvertent, then this gives them an easy out by just inviting her in. I will tell her. Thank you!
I as going to make the same suggestion as Mom23. And have to say, as a women in a male-dominated field, she would be well served by speaking up for herself. It is hard, but gets easier with practice.
Unfortunately it seems that you fail to understand the term “office hours”, which accounts for your confusion.
Maybe this link will help you out: http://lsc.cornell.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/What-Are-Office-Hours.pdf
At my college, as an example, in certain departments, mostly, but not exclusively, STEM, office hours are definitely group sessions, both for TA’s office hours as well as the professor’s. In addition to the published officed hours, both profs and TA’s are available by appointment for one-on-one questions. Additionally, many departments have tutoring centers for one-on-one questions.
Anyway, back to the OP’s situation, I see nothing wrong with asking that communication be in English.
I remember the TA’s at UMASS Amherst who struggled to speak English. I have to give them credit for being in a foreign land and trying to learn a new language. It was frustrating for everyone involved when you have such a hard time communicating simple thoughts. Doubly frustrating when you are trying to learn a complex STEM topic.
Tell your daughter to be patient and that this is all part of life and trying to get along. Have her search out other avenues for help. If one path is blocked chose another one.
TA’s are a fact of life in most universities. The only chance of avoiding them is at a small private or local state school. She will come across bad TA’s just like she will come across bad teachers. She just needs to do the best she can and move on. That is the benefit of a cumulative GPA, one class does not determine it.
And a great reason to consider LACs.
The most impressive part is that they’re able to discuss CS stuff in Chinese… My college roomies in my CS days were from my country as well and were TA’s and it took all of 30 seconds to switch in English simply the terminology did not make any sense in our native language… This was my experience with most any foreign student group back then… (how do you say null pointer in Arabic? good luck with that 
)
I would bring it up to the prof’s attention for a couple reasons, but mostly the waiting time. If you’re in line and did not ask a question or participate directly to the conversation I’m not sure what the prof can do about it; Even if the door is open, as long as you’re not part of the conversation, it doesn’t matter.
@turbo93 "how do you say null pointer in Arabic? good luck with that "
That is very funny. I imagine a lot of technical CS words don’t have equivalents in most languages.
I would address it to the TA first, then go to the professor if it didn’t change. As a professor, I would certainly want to know this and would discuss it with the entire TA team.
When I ta’ed the large lectures had more than one ta and people had ta’s they preferred. I was in demand occasionally as the only intelligible one and other times as a female, some of the female students perceived me as being more helpful without purltting them down than the male ta’s
The English as a second language professors and TAs is such a common reality at most colleges that it is good to have some strategies to try to make sure that communication needs are being met. I believe that the OP parent’s suggestions are very good. I recently told my own daughter who was fretting about struggling to understand profressors this quarter who are Indian, Chinese and German, that there would be some acclimating to their accents and teaching methods and she has over a little bit of time been able to adjust. She has been able to adjust, but it does take a lot of close listening.
Ironically, CS is one of the fields that’s collaborative. Since this is a US university and an open discussion session, excluding one seems to miss that point. She has a right to listen in. Presumably, they weren’t talking about one kid’s grade. In that case, only one would be in there.
I don’t suspect this is a gender issue (or not entirely.) Maybe just something self-serving, on their part. But she’s a CS major, presumably competent to share in the idea exchange. That should be respected.