A Confident Young Singer

A lesson in NOT discriminating against those who are, different than we are, taught, AND, learned, through experiencing it firsthand, translated…

“Hey, unkle!  My name is Yo-How Weng!” my third-grade young nephew came toward me excitedly, and started, introducing himself in that weird tone of voices.  As I was just, wondering why, had he eaten something not healthy, he’d started, spilling the beans, poured out all the secrets he’d, buried deep all at once.

Turned out, there’s, a new student in his class from a migrated mother, his father was a factory worker, his mother, a Thai migrant worker, and so, he’d had this, weird sort of an accent, everybody in the class saw him as the odd one out, and they’d, made fun of his accent.  As I heard, I’d felt, a bit shocked, felt, that I’d needed to, steer my nephew in the right directions immediately: because children are naïve, but sometimes, they are, cruel to others, without knowing it.

In my pleas, my nephew started, pouring out what he knew of the new classmate’s life, at first, everybody else in class was curious of this new kid, they’d circled around him, asked him a ton of questions; but one of the classmates may felt that he carried a strange accent and started, copying him with the funny movements, and, started performing in what he thought was, an hilarious act, it’d, entertained everybody else, but had, angered the new student, and, he’d, started, yelling back, but, because the kid who’d made fun couldn’t understand his accent, thought he was, cussing him out, they got into a fight, and started, brawling.  And, afterwards, for whatever the reason was, the new kid got into it with a kind female student who’d helped him picked up what he’d dropped onto the floors, and he’d, started, hysterically, cussing her out, made her cry, and ever since, the rest of the class, got out of his way.

I’d felt very awful for the new student after my nephew’s description, and told him, that the new student just came here, that he was in a brand new, strange place, there would be nerves in him; seeing how you guys made fun, he would, react agitated, and upset.  The accent is from his living environment, if someone laughed at you for your accents, how would you feel?  After my nephew heard, he’d, fallen silent for a long while, told me he’d, think about it.

I was still, a bit, worried, and went to the homeroom teacher of my nephew’s class, she’d told me she’ll evaluate the situation, and, give everybody a lesson in awareness in the classroom sessions.  Later, on a parent day I’d gone to his class, on behalf of his parents, during the time, the teacher had a child sing a tune from his own home country, although I couldn’t understand the words, it was, very moving.  Afterwards, my nephew told me that the one who sang was his new classmate, turned out, he’d, found his own self-confidence back in singing the songs.

Although Taiwan is a self-proclaimed accepting of other cultures, but, if we ignore what’s going on in the children’s interactions, how do we, help instill the right kinds of value in them?

And so, this, is a lesson learned, the uncle taught the nephew a lesson on accepting those who are different, made him empathize, and, the kid learned the lesson well, and, the rest of the class stopped, discriminating against that new kid, because the teacher made it her responsibility, to EDUCATE them about accepting and respect one another for how different they all are!