Quote:TA was originally from Ireland ("fee"="phi", "aluminium"="aluminum")
I can't vouch for the first word (well, the Greek letter, obviously, as far as I'm concerned, it's pronounced phi), but the metal is called "Aluminium" - as far as I can gather from my encyclopedia, America is the only country to use "Aluminum" - having said that, if he's teaching in the US, he should be using the American terms.
I had a similar issue a few weeks ago when I went to visit a university, and was given ~ 10 minutes to talk, 1-to-1 with a lecturer if I had any questions. Unfortunately, I was left with a lecturer with a thick Russian accent, I could only understand about 50% of what he said. I then enede up forgetting my questions because I was concentrating so hard on trying to decipher what he was saying. Eventually It finished and I put my questions to the admissions tutor instead. Wait, what's that got to do with the topic at hand? Blech!
-Bob