Teacher with heavy accent

[heavyaccent]

NC as controversial.........

DS has been moved up to top set maths for year 8 which is great. He claims to not be learning anything however, as he's having difficulty understanding the teacher because of her thick accent. She also apparently speaks quite quickly. When other students have asked her to repeat something she has exploded at them for not listening. He says she's very strict and not an approachable character.

I'm not sure how to advise he deals with this- he thinks asking her to speak slower or repeat details will get him in trouble. So do we just accept that he will sit there for the whole of year 8 not learning anything? He is now dreading this class every day. It was his favourite subject previously.

My only related experience is when learning to drive with the AA. I was allocated a Nigerian instructor. Very nice friendly man made me feel at ease but honestly I just nodded along with everything he said as I could barely understand a word. After 3 lessons like this I decided to switch instructor- I felt bad but I just wasn't learning anything and I couldn't afford to waste money on lessons.

So what is my AIBU- I'm not really sure. I would rather he drop back to set 2 and really understand the teacher and continue to learn. Is this a bit 'racist' of me though?

I agree EBearhug.
The OP Seems like someone who's going to take a measured and reasonable approach to the situation.
A quick chat with relevant people to get to the bottom of the main issues should be enough

I agree, there are more issues here than accent in this teacher.

I'd certainly raise it with the school, you may find you're not the only one with a child struggling. The fact she's accusing people of not listening does suggest she gets picked up on this regularly. It's definitely not a racist issue, brits struggle to understand thick Welsh, Scottish, Irish accents so even if she is say black and Nigerian or Pakistani.... I really do hope she's not that type anyway to start throwing a race card.

I haven't lived in scotland for 20yrs and an East coaster so my accent is quite tame but people especially on the phone never seem to understand me.

VERY timely thread for me as had an embarrassing situation earlier in the week out socially with friends. We were discussing the subjects we'd taken many moons for GCSE and it turned out I was the only one who hadn't taken a certain subject. I said "I would have loved to have taken it but I'd had the same teacher for three years and in that time I learned absolutely nothing because I didn't understand a single word he said. I knew I'd fail at GCSE because I couldn't understand what he was saying so couldn't learn." One of my friends pointedly left the group as I was speaking whilst a couple of others looked visibly uncomfortable.

Later someone admitted the person who had stormed off had done so because he "doesn't like to give racists a platform."

Point a; At no point did I mention the teacher's race.

Point b; Although I am fair skinned, I'm actually mixed race, with half my family having EAL and the other half having non-English accents.

Point c: The teacher was a white British male with the exact same accent as me. The reason I couldn't understand a word he said was because he didn't actually open his mouth when he spoke. He said most things at a low pitch with his lips together like a ventriloquist. He also had a large beard which muffled the sound further.

Because of that, although I was a straight A student, I was getting Ds in his class.

I was really very hurt that this friend assumed that I was being racist and assumed I was talking about a non-white person when I said I didn't understand a word the teacher said. But I can see on here that alot of people have assumed similar. Given the look on my other friends faces they too assumed I wasn't talking about a white person. Given the subject I mentioned, maybe they were themselves buying into a racial stereotype.

Its perfectly reasonable to expect to have a teacher that you can understand. I know first hand the impact it can have on learning if you can't understand a teacher. It is extremely unfair to jump to a conclusion of racism. A child's education should not be sacrificed for this.

@NameChange84 you should challenge your friend on their racism.

brits struggle to understand thick Welsh, Scottish, Irish accents so even if she is say black and Nigerian or Pakistani.... I really do hope she's not that type anyway to start throwing a race card.

There's actually a fairly pernicious stream of anti-Irishness still alive and kicking in this country, which often expresses itself as amusement/bemusement at the way Irish people speak, so I wouldn't use the fact that the people whose 'thick' accents cause such apparent consternation may be white as a way of making it not about ethnicity.

And @NameChange84, I would assume from your anecdote that the friend who thought you were talking about a teacher of a different race did so because he thought that no one would sit in a room for three years with the same teacher, frustrated at being unable to learn but without doing anything about it -- so that there must have been some reason or sensitivity why you didn't talk to your form tutor or take some other action.

By contrast, I have a colleague who speaks fluent English with a strong Japanese accent, and students have raised comprehension difficulties at least twice with their class reps in the time I've been in the same department.

I would listen to his concerns and speak to the school.
At college I had a teacher from Malta with a strong accent but I understood it easily.
Today I spoke to someone from Scotland and I just couldn't insert him well. I kept asking him to repeat. Didn't feel good but he probably felt uncomfortable me asking again.
When I took my children to a library story time event, there was a lady reading the story from the book. I have an Indian background and the lady was Indian. She was reading the English in an Indian accent and the kids were white, British born. I felt a bit uneasy because it can really change the way a word is and confuse people. The toddlers didn't seem bothered though but I was with my dad who is Indian and finding it funny because I would never let him read a book out loud to children lolll. Well he does to my children but his Indian accent isn't so strong as he's been in the UK for ages but my kids and I can still correct him as he's our blood and he doesn't mind lol.
It's a tough one but it's his education at the end of the day.

**I disagree. I think that is quite racist actually. I lived and worked in spain for two years , and I spoke English the whole time that I was there.

I worked with many English primary teachers in Spain, and none of them had a word of Spanish except one who was studying beginner level Spanish.**

I have a lot of sympathy with those who struggle to learn the language of the country they’re living in, whether due to lacking the funds or the intellectual capacity.

But to not even try (without good reason)? Rude!

And especially disappointing from teachers, who - one hopes - would demonstrate a love of learning.

There's nothing wrong with saying politely. Please would you mind speaking a little slower. I am struggling to understand your accent. Said with a smile is fine. Have had to say it before and the other person was fine and happy I said so so they could actually get me to understand them. People are very precious now.... It's not racist.

I'm genuinely very good at understanding English spoken with an accent other than RP. I understand every word my Scottish in laws say (when most people find it hard to decipher), as well as understanding non native speakers just fine. What I do struggle with is people who speak too fast, even if they're native speakers with an RP accent.

I think speaking too fast really compounds the issue here, and that's probably what you should mention first. If the teacher slowed down a little, they might all find it easier to understand. I do think though, that understanding people with strong accents is something you either have or you don't. You can learn to tune in, of course, and generally get the jist of what they're saying. But being able to pick it up first time is an inbuilt thing, IMO.

*GaudyNight

And@NameChange84, I would assume from your anecdote that the friend who thought you were talking about a teacher of a different race did so because he thought that no one would sit in a room for three years with the same teacher, frustrated at being unable to learn but without doing anything about it -- so that there must have been some reason or sensitivity why you didn't talk to your form tutor or take some other action.*

In my case the school had only one teacher of that subject and it was compulsory up until GCSE options. My friend knows what school I went to and that it was at that point very small. To the extent that it merged with another school soon after I left. It would be a much more rational assumption to put it down to there being one teacher of a non core subject at a tiny school rather than the story being that I was a racist who was afraid of speaking up.

I hope someone told your friend the truth @nameChange84, and he apologised?

@ArgumentativeAardvaark I've not had an apology .

I doubt you'll get an apology, NameChange84; IME those who fling out baseless accusations of racism like a pyrotechnic rarely see the damage they're doing

As so many of us have said, it's surely no bad thing that the source of the accent hasn't been mentioned - not least because it means the principle can be discussed unhindered by name calling

The first few times I spoke to a patient 's carer over the phone I thought he was Eastern European as I couldn't understand his accent (I'm hearing impaired so it makes it difficult). When I got to know him a bit better I found he was a Glaswegian.

I mean, what a strange post. Obviously we're all going to say that you should just accept that your child won't learn anything this year and just hope she isn't his teacher again in future. Obviously
I just wonder if sometimes people use MN instead of having a think for themselves...
If she is unapproachable, shouts at them, isn't teaching him anything then you speak to the school. If it wasn't because of her accent then I'm sure you would speak to the school.
I'm from Newcastle and naturally have a very strong accent but I have worked internationally so had to suppress my accent. Yes it slipped out here and there but it's not impossible to do.

I would ask for a meeting with the teacher, on the pretext. that you are worried your son isn’t keeping up in the higher set

If you find you can’t follow her at all, ask that your son go down to his old set IF you don’t want to raise the real issue with the school.

If you can follow her, then tell your son to concentrate harder.

Anyone else think of Officer Crabtree in ‘Allo ‘Allo?

We had a Polish form mistress in our GCE year, whom we all got on very well with. However she took the top group for Maths and did badly as a teacher. Some of the Polish schoolgirls would speak in Polish and she automatically replied in Polish. Many of us had to retake Maths. This was her first teaching post and she was inexperienced. Four years later when my dsis was in her class she had improved. Yes parents complained. (1962/3)

So I would talk to other parents and then try to make an enquiry of the way this teacher interacts with her pupils. The school governors also need to know about this. I know that currently our local school, who has recently had it's trust replaced, has struggled to keep teachers, and a friend's dc has just finished his GCSE year and had no teacher for certain subjects and changes to teachers in other subjects. When you look at the funding for this school it is £500 per pupil less at £5,000 than it was 4 years ago, while my London school also lost £500 their funding is £7,000 per pupil.