School assuming things about my mixed race son

[TulipDragonfly]

DS (5) has come home today. I'm white, his dad is British born Chinese (ie, his parents came over from China, he looks Chinese but was bought up in the UK has never been to China and can't speak Chinese)

Mummy did you know I can speak chinese?

No darling, you can't

Yes I can, my teacher told me I could

But you can't sweetie!

Yes, she looked in her book and told me I could! And so I can!

She got him to speak a bit of Chinese to the whole class - hes such a little people pleaser that he said" I tried to speak Chinese" (he just made some noises mi Ka la ta do hi sa - what he thinks Chinese sounds like) and then she said 'well done'

Wibu to go into the school tomorrow and clear up that he can't speak Chinese, and I'm slightly concerned that they've just made an assumption he can because of what he looks like?

thats so ridiculous grace!

Most europeans cannot even see the difference between a Chinese looking person and a Japanese or Korean...

They can after living in Asia for a couple of months. It is not down to ignorance IMO but opportunity. I lived in Asia for 17 years and can tell the difference between most nationalities. They also think all white people look the same.

My Japanese husband gets Chinese people assuming he can speak Chinese. Once, even after telling her (shop assistance in a UK store) "sorry, im not Chinese, i cant speak Chinese", she just carried on going then spoke to me in English, ignoring him. Though when he's back in Japan they don't think he's Chinese.

that really is insulting dim-how does he take it

I love this assumption that if you register as family having another language they go on the EAL register.

My kids were bilingual, when we came back to UK and registered at a UK school, we tied really hard to get the form to acknowledge that they had TWO home languages. But all the forms have is a space for ONElanguage spoken at home. Every time I put English and Dutch and eveyr time they were registered as English only.

They could have got lots of money for the school apparently, but the forms really don't allow that.
All of dh's family only speak to the kids in Dutch. Thye have never made it onto the EAL register.

Tbh, when I was teaching (years ago now) eveyr chidl who was visibly of mixed heritage, how ever theur current family was made up, was on the register, and any white child wasn't. I remember having a German/English family where they were bi-lingual at home, and they didn't qualify for it either

Is it possible that they were learning about languages/China/Chinese New Year and he stood up and "spoke Chinese" then she said something along the lines of "Well done, you can speak Chinese!"

It sounds like a plausible occurrence, just in a different order.

EAL does not mean you speak another language or are a “bit foreign”. It means that the child concerned’s mother tongue is not English. And that information is gathered from the form filled in on admission to the school.

There are so many comments here showing disbelief and upset about a teacher making assumptions, yet that is exactly what is happening on this thread. The OP hasn't actually said whether it was a case of assuming on the basis of looks or whether it was down to a clerical issue.

And if it was an assumption on the teacher's part, you need to ask yourself what kind of response is warranted. Sometimes simply pointing this kind of behaviour out is enough for people to realise how ignorant it was to assume. Although I agree it is not helpful, most of the time these incidents do not happen out of malicious intent. As a multicultural society that is growing in its diversity yet lagging behind in integration, I feel we need to allow for some understanding and grace in these kinds of situations. I don't think getting upset or angry at everything is going to be helpful. I once went to pick up my mixed race child from nursery (in very diverse London) and the non-white bank staff nursery worker assumed that the only white child that remained in the group at that time was mine. She was clearly embarrassed when I politely told her it was not my kid. Was it worth getting upset over that? Definitely not.

Also sometimes, schools are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Teaching children about different ethnicities and cultures is clearly something to be applauded (as long as it's not done in a caricature-like stereotypical way as per PP's) and at the age of the OP's child if their records stated something to imply the possibility of another language, I think the teacher could be forgiven for thinking he just needed a little encouraging. I think if anything should be taken away from this post is how resourceful and adaptable kids are!

God, how much longer are people going to make assumptions about people because of their appearance?! Make a complaint op.
However if he is in touch with gps they really should speak to him and try to teach him some as a second language. Such a useful skill.

Why would you make that up wedge?

That really is insulting dim-how does he take it

Well, he's only ever had it from Chinese (as in, people assuming things of him), so he kind of expects it from them as strangers sometimes. But we've had so much worse stuff happen to us over the years that to be honest he's not really fussed. As he says, far worse things in life to get angry over than some ignoramus.

That is weird and insulting dimsum; I've had Black British friends who were assumed to be from a local ethnicity in various African countries, people get annoyed when they don't speak whatever language, oh are you from X group up country. Again odd really.
Black American travellers NEVER get assumed to be local owing to their dress sense, mainly, I think!