Think about how cool it would be if you were the lense through which your parents saw everything. Say your teacher sends home a note, complaining about your classroom behavior. You could pretend to be reading a field trip permission slip form or a notice about the school cafeteria procedures. Obviously, I'm not insinuating that immigrant parents are dumb (after all, I'm an immigrant offspring-Viva Mexico!), just that the language barrier can have a silver lining.
Some examples:
* "Miss, I don't understand. This D, is bad or good?"
and
* On the eve of parent/teacher conferences, the teacher is thrilled to finally rat out "Little Jimmy." Teaching Little Jimmy is a human rights violation. As the blessed day arrives, Little Jimmy's father comes into the room with Little Jimmy. "Uhhhh....," says our heroine, "Little Jimmy needs to go in the hall." Unfortunately, Little Jimmy is the interpreter for the evening.
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One of the ladies in an English class I taught had a son as her interpreter. When the son was expelled the principal called & the son explained to her that all of the best children got the day off for good behavior.
ReplyDeleteAt least we knew the kid was no dummy.