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?

I doubt it’s an admin error. More likely the whole class have been taught to say ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese and that’s what he was supposed to be saying. I imagine a few children were asked if they could say it or if it was just your son it was because they were using some random lolly stick system to choose children to speak rather than the teacher thinking ‘he looks like he can speak Chinese’.

Not sure how you can extrapolate all that from the OP.

Effing hell. I'd be punching teacher's lights out for OVERT racism. I have experience of this type of shit too. I always stare them out then ask them to explain (in plain effing English) why they've made assumptions.

Wow MrsCatE - that’s a bit of an over reaction, before first finding out what happened from the teacher.

OP, have a look at this video m.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80

Same prejudice, different language. Hilarious and sad at the same time.

We had similar with ds in reception. He is maxed race (Scandinavian/black British). He has a Scandinavian surname. He came home from school on the first day and proudly stated “mummy, I’m not “Noah Scandinavian” anymore”, I’m Noah “Nkwor” now.”
I said no darling you are still Noah Scandinavian. He said with unusual conviction. “No! I’m not Nkwor now, Miss teacher said so”.
I had a chat with her the next morning and she said “Oh, but he doesn’t look like a Scandinavian” ....

Anyway, it was the first day of school. She had 30 new kids to get to know (including 2 “Noahs”. To be fair the other kid looked more stereotypical Scandi, yet he had an African surname. ‘Tis London!

MrsCat, stupendously huge overreaction

I don't have DC, horrified to hear stories of teachers deciding things on the basis of how children look. I had a tough conversation with a friend's little boy asking me why people didn't accept he is just British, I didn't know what to say except "people are wankers" which isn't really great for an 8 year old!

I’m mixed race. My dad is Jamaican.

I’d have loved to see what language they came up with for me to speak. I’m not sure Jamaican Pigeon language is actually a language

“Brown eyes - can you tell the class how you say ‘I ran for the bus’ in Jamaican?”

“Sure! Me a ran fi di bus dem”

I agree with PP. It's convenient this has cropped up at Chinese New year

In my DS' school everyone was learning some Mandarin this week as part of the Chinese new year celebrations. (He also came home with the random sounds). Could it be that?

OP - don’t worry about it. Next parent meeting just drop it subtly that DH is a first gen Brit. My kids are mixed race too - DH is white Brit and I am Singaporean Chinese and I speak v little Chinese. DD came home one day and said her friend (blond blue eyes) insisted that her father got slitty eyes! I just brush that off as a curiosity and they are now best friends. I don’t think the teacher had any malice in her when she got your DS to speak a few words of Chinese x

Just talk to the teacher. She's not necessarily stupid or ignorant.
We have a kid that was registered as EAL,parents refused and didn't provide a language so he was taken off. Fair enough. However,his little sister was registered as EAL (nursery) and a language provided(no idea by whom or how). It only came out when he saw her picture on the EAL board and said "but miss, x doesn't speak y language! None of us do!".

There are so many dialects of Chinese - my DH who is Singaporean speaks Hokkien and cannot speak, read or write in Mandarin or Cantonese which are the ones most widely spoken.

Gong Xi Fa Cai Jellicoe!
Are you missing all the Chinese New Year treats you'd be having in Singapore?! Pineapple tarts are my favourite

OP how did the chat with the teacher go?

Just 'googled' for clarification of definitions and school funding.

cyps.northyorks.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Governor%20support/General%20Information/School%20Census%20Oct%207th%202017%20EAL%20guidance.pdf

Aww, your lovely little boy! It just sounds to me that the office made a data error, no big deal. I’d just ring or mention to his teacher that he doesn’t speak Mandarin/Cantonese. I teach a child that had been noted as, ‘French first language,’ but she speaks very little French, whilst her mother is a native speaker. Your DS teacher probably just thought he was being shy. I wouldn’t take any offence whatsoever, just human error.

I had a chat with the teacher after school today. Phrased it in a shit sandwich type of way.

I started off by saying that ds came home from school so happy yesterday, and he was feeling overjoyed after her lesson and the opportunity to speak chinese in front of everyone. (This got a massive smile from her). Then went on to explain that ds in fact cannot speak a single word of chinese, his dad doesnt speak chinese, hes never really been exposed to people speaking chinese around him but due to her lesson hes now convinced hes perfectly fluent in chinese and my concerns around this. (She was visibly mortified and explained a bit more about what theyd done during the lesson). Ended the chat by saying how much he obviously looks up to her and how much he respects her opinion and how hes been so happy with going to school since christmas he wasnt enthused with being a big boy and going to school in September

Ds is perfectly fine. Hes managed to dig out a chopstick from the cutlery drawer and has spent the afternoon poking his sister incessantly as "thats what chopsticks are for".

How did she take it?

Did she explain what she thought had happened?

Is everyone overlooking the fact that “Chinese” isn’t even a language? It surely would be mandarin or a dialect of?
OP you handled it very well.

Relais although there are may dialects of Chinese there is only one written language (because the characters represent ideas not sounds) so you husband should be able to comumicate in writing with any Chinese person regardless of the dialect they speak.

what was her reasoning though assuming he did speak it-he said he didnt and she carried on at him

This is both really bad and hilarious at the same time. What a lovely boy you have, so resourceful!

It reminds me of the time my 5 year old announced on the threshold of a pub in the heart of welsh speaking Wales that he could speak Welsh and was going to speak both thing but Welsh in the pub We spent 10 minutes out in the cold dissuading him of this genius idea.

So what happened? I'm intrigued...