To think that making fun of/ deliberately mispronouncing a foreign name is a form of racism?

[Bushmillsbabe]

My daughter told me yesterday how her teacher kept referring to Rishi Sunak as Wiff -fee Sunak when talking to her year 3 class. (Not quite sure how to type it, but Wiffey as in a word people would use for smelly, rather than like a wife or like WiFi Internet). Regardless of anyone's opinions of him, I don't feel that an appropriate example for a teacher to set. AIBU? She apparently laughed when doing it, and she doesn't have a lisp.

Ahh I see you watched GMTV this morning too OP 😁

Yes I agree.

They gave a few good examples too, didn't they?

I agree but only if the person has just recently heard the name.

After that, practice makes perfect and if they're going to be working with them/seeing them regularly, it's polite to practice.

They WILL eventually be able to pronounce it, but they have to want to try hard to learn.

Yes it is racist, especially as you say she knows how to pronounce the name. If a name is difficult to pronounce you can say, "I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrongly", but that is not the case in this instance.

A teacher should know better.

No it isn't.
It can be impossible for them to say the name correctly. The muscles in the mouth are shaped in infancy, likewise the sounds the ear can hear. A famous example is Chinese being tonal. Europeans can't distinguish between certain Chinese words, they sound exactly the same to them when they sound clearly different to Chinese people.

Even the eyes and what we can see is shaped in infancy. I saw a programme about it on TV years ago. They compared what Europeans could see with what people in an African village could see. The Africans lived in a village without straight lines and sharp corners, they couldn't see prospectively in the way Europeans could. Similarly, the Europeans lived in a world without certain colours. They were shown two shades of a number of colours. The Europeans couldn't see the difference, to them they looked exactly the same, to the Africans there was a clear and obvious difference.

Put yourself in the position of the Congolese person, you are trying your best to say a name but it's never good enough. I'm sure there are Congolese or Chinese or Spanish names I will never be able to say correctly no matter how hard I try. This isn't to say some people aren't just rude or don't care though.

Apologies to OP for tangent.

I wouldn't say it's racist as politicians in general get called all sorts.

However, teacher clearly thinks she's hilarious. I'd definitely raise it as it's not nice to make fun of people's names

What rubbish.
Are we really trying to say that expressing dislike of politicians or their policies by changing their name is racist if used for non white politicians, but fine for white politicians?
That would be ridiculous and I’m pretty sure the opposite of what equal opportunity campaigners are after.

No you're making excuses.

Humans are not that tightly programmed.

They can definitely get their mouths around different noises and words, but as I say, they have to want to.

Offer them a million pounds and I'm pretty sure they'll master it eventually

It could be called rude, obnoxious, unkind a million other words but no idea how it can be called racist

So this would mean every single thing that is said or done of a people of a race is racist?

I don't see it as racist, no different to her saying Boring Johnston. Not for school hours though.

Ok, well you spend your life being completely unforgiving of a Chinese person who can't say 'Rebecca'. I'll choose to give them some slack.

In my experience when it's just a case of struggling to pronounce a name people tend to be quite apologetic. I think that's quite different to an obvious piss take.

It's really immature, if nothing else.
And she shouldn't be bringing that kind of attitude to work.

Actually, language acquisition is linked to brain development and the window of opportunity to master different accents according to which language you are speaking is very narrow. That’s why I have a class full of 11 year olds who struggle to say my name with an English accent - many people who are from the Indian sub continent find it difficult to pronounce ‘B’ and instead say ‘v’.
So no, there are lots of words someone from a different language might struggle to say in a foreign language.

I'll give them some slack in terms of understanding that they don't particularly want to spend weeks/months practicing Rebecca's name, of course.

But this is completely different to writing off their ability, just because it's unnatural to them.

Disrespectful of the (then/former) prime minister / making a political statement (I thought teachers were supposed to be apolitical?)/ immature (making fun of names) and POSSIBLY racist but would depend on pronuniciation (eg was it said with a mock Asian accent? But as others have said, being “smelly” [whiffy] is a well-known racist trope.)

please don’t be put off reporting this just because the teacher is black - I’m concerned your dh thinks you could be accused of racism because of it.

At best the teacher is immature and it’s not appropriate.

Please do report in writing now (much more effective if close in time to the incidents) and then follow up in Sept.

Oh, come on. Yes, there are some sounds in some languages which are very difficult for a non-native speaker to pronounce. That's totally different from deliberately refusing to try or mocking someone's name, and in any case no native English speaker has any difficulty pronouncing "Rishi".

Regardless of your political leanings, this is totally unprofessional.
How is this teaching children respect and how to treat people how you'd want to be treated yourself ???

I bet This teacher parrot phrases #bekind at every given opportunity too.

The teacher should not be making political wordplay in the classroom anyway.

In general usage, a pun like "Richie" Sunak is making a play on his wealth, not ethinicity and is fair play in line with the way many prominent politicians are treated in Britain.
Whiffy is getting personal (implying that he smells) and is unlikely to be a genuine pronounciation difficulty.

My English grandmother moved to Wales and lived here for roughly 40 years. Despite this she could never pronounce the letter "Ll" no matter how hard she tried, so for example the name Llewellyn she would pronounce either "Lewellyn" or "Clewellyn". The double L in the latter part of Llewellyn is actually two L's as opposed to the letter Ll, whereas in Llanelli its two Ll's, this my grandmother would pronounce as "clanecli". She loved Wales and it wasn't for want of trying that she couldn't master that particular sound, thankfully the Welsh are very forgiving of mispronunciations of names and place names.

It's a Statutory requirement to have the contacts for Safeguarding on the website - if it's not separate, it has to be in the Safeguarding Policy (which is also required to be posted on the school website by Law). It'll also have the link Governor for Safeguarding's contacts there.

If none of these are available, that's a major breach of Governance and legal compliance.

Really? My goodness, the south Asians I know are the cleanest people I've ever met! I'd actually say they very much prioritise hygiene and cleanliness, more than any Brits I know.

No, I never watch gmtv. Was there something similar on there this morning?

It doesn't have to be true to be a racist stereotype

I call him “Richie Rich Sunak” .. because he has sooooo much money.

Not similar, but exactly the same.

You might be able to catch it online.