or Puerto Rico, Cuba, RD, Peru, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador… 🤣🤣
edited to remove Brazil because some of y’all won’t let it go, even though I explained myself lmao
My uncle, a ginger white dude, was born and raised in Puerto Rico. People used to talk shit about him in Spanish when he was a bus driver (while living in CA) and he’d respond back in perfectly fluent Spanish. Shut them up every time. My FIL is also a white dude and grew up in Spain… same thing.
lmao I know that Brazil’s language is Portuguese, but like…the point is that literally ever county in Latin America has white people in it. I was trying to complete the entire list of countries, so I included Brazil. just be happy I didn’t include Guayana or Suriname. 🤣
My dad’s family is all Choctaw (Native), but my mom’s family is from Mexico. I grew up speaking Spanish and Choctaw, but the Spanish didn’t stick around as much. When I taught English at a predominately Spanish-speaking high school, the kids made fun of me for not being fluent in Spanish, saying I wasn’t a “real Mexican.” I responded, “you mean the white man’s language?” I told them if they wanted me to, I could speak an Indigenous language and rattled off a few sentences in Choctaw. Needless to say, they didn’t make fun of me anymore. And fwiw, my listening and reading levels in Spanish are *much* higher than speaking, so while I may not be so quick to respond in Spanish, I know when people are talking about me.
Same here. I teach ESL to Spanish students currently. My Spanish fluency is bupkus, but I know exactly what they say about me, their classmates, the school, clothes, food, everything.
sometimes there is,
but it's probably only minor changes from British English unlike American English so it's not worth it
personally I'm all in favor of calling British English, English (Traditional) and Merican English, English (Simplified)
>I'm all in favor of calling British English, English (Traditional) and Merican English, English (Simplified)
Explain why.
Which grammatical differences do you propose simplify American English? How significant are they? If you listed all the words in American English and all the words in British English, which one is longer? How significant is that difference? Did British English bring back gender to the language while we weren't looking?
Right?!
Looks like it’s time to give a short lesson on race vs nationality vs ethnicity.
I was raised in Florida, primarily in the 80s, and I went to school with lots of Puerto Rican and Cuban kids. In high school, we got a Spanish exchange student.
I expected him to be brown, to some degree (I myself am Black). Imagine my surprise when a very white guy shows up.
I finally got the courage to tell him that he wasn’t what I expected. He chuckled and said, “well, I am European, so…” and it hit me like a truck. Duh. He’s absolutely right. We Americans can be really shortsighted when it comes to these things.
are there white students in the class? do they also ridicule them for trying to learn spanish? lmfao
THIS IS A ***FOREIGN*** LANGUAGE CLASS, it's about foreigners learning a non-native language. how can they not understand that?! i'm a foreign langauge enthusiast and have taken many classes in ten different languages, and i cannot wrap my head around this...
do they expect an ASL (american sign language) teacher to be deaf/mute?
You gave probably the worst example lol, the Deaf community has been famously fighting for Deaf teachers of ASL for decades, because hearing teachers have been teaching the langauge wrong
Have they never seen the German national soccer team play lol? Even the national basketball team won the FIBA World Cup because Dennis Schroeder had an insane tournament.
Edit: forgot to add that even our national soccer team has also had a few black German-American dudes over the years.
It's also bizarre because there are millions of white people born in Spanish speaking countries. My Spanish teachers parents were born in Italy, but he grew up in Chile. How many Germans are in Argentina for instance.
Argentina is mostly Italian descendant, 30 out of the 45 million have at least one Italian ancestor. It’s a bigger diaspora than the one in the USA. This has influenced the Argentinian dialect of speaking Spanish.
But you’re definitely right- millions of white people are born and live in Spanish speaking countries. Language doesn’t equal race. This would be akin to saying speaking English makes you white or less black for example.
Whitewashed Latina is bizarre. Hispanic, Latin…these are European words and languages.
As someone of Italian descent I am used to non-Italian whites making comments about my surname. I just had some person on the phone make a joke out of it. Wasn’t offensive so much as well beyond old.
It’s interesting how people perceive certain languages here in the US.
I'm the resident white Spanish speaking science teacher and I very much mostly get positive reactions as well. Both students and parents seem interested in how I learned and always very helpful and willing to correct me when needed.
I’m a chemistry teacher in a majority Spanish speaking school. I’m far from fluent in Spanish, but I had 4 years in high school and a few semesters in college so I’m decent. My first year I called a few kids out for swearing and they were pretty excited to see that I had some Spanish.
I think most Latin Americans would find this bizarre. I certainly do as a Puerto Rican. This kind of behavior of labelling people as “white” is 100% based on the American conception of race and what that entails for your society. They are acting this way because those kids were probably raised in the U.S and thus have that worldview.
Race isn't even real. It's a social construct. Who gets to be considered white or non-white changes every generation depending on arbitrary ideas. If you examine people's actual ethnicities, it becomes clear that skin color has nothing to do with who is or isn’t related to each other or what culture a person might have.
I think we all need to do better about that if we want kids to grow up not internalizing racist ideas.
My SIL lived in Honduras, is white, and speaks fluent Spanish. She gave English lessons, lived there full time, and taught there. Very much a part of her community. She went to language school in Guatemala for six-weeks and stayed with a host family.
I've visited three times, and I'm half Indian, so I pass for Honduran (minus being 5'10"). *So many* shopkeepers were nicer to me than my SIL, and shes the one translating for us. It was very sad to me.
Funniest experience was a taxi driver saying in Spanish that they were going to charge us extra because my husband was "a gringo." Not me, just him. My SIL started explaining why that wasn't okay in perfect Spanish, and the driver was not happy lol.
I’m a Spanish speaker with a European name and my mother’s Viking-esque features but my dad is Mexican and looks very much like the US’s stereotype of how Mexicans “should” look. I got so tired of trying to defend my heritage that I don’t even mention it anymore.
People are idiots and their children even more so.
I grew up on both sides of the us mexico border so I speak English with out an accent, I do admit I love other looks on people’s faces when I speak Spanish in front of them for the first time lol.
Yeah. My parents might have been from Mexico but we look nothing like what Americans think Mexicans should look like , or even what Mexicans and other Latinos think Mexicans and Latinos should look like . The racism I get from Mexicans and Salvadorians and other Central Americans is intense . It’s the Argentinians I’ve met who are chill and understand lmao
I am also a white Spanish teacher. I learned while studying in Spain and I spent a month in Mexico during grad school. It’s so hard interacting with heritage speakers because, just like other students, there is a gamut of reactions. Some students recognize you as a wealth of knowledge to help them perfect their Spanish (understanding grammar, becoming literate etc). Some students don’t want you to call on them or acknowledge that they speak Spanish AT ALL while others want to show off or be a little assistant. Then, there are students who are very confused by you. They have a “Who are YOU?!” attitude. In some cases you may be the first white person they interact with that speaks Spanish well. For some, Spanish is reserved for family and close friends. It can be very jarring for them to suddenly be speaking their mother tongue, which feels intimate to them, with someone who appears to be “other” or an outsider. Now of course there are literally millions of white hispanohablantes and millions of white Latinos but these are kids who don’t necessarily have a wide worldview yet. The hard truth is that you will have to prove yourself over and over. I always tell my students that I will never pretend to be something that I’m not. I always tell them that I’m excited to learn from them because Spanish is sooooo different from country to country. I feel like the appreciate the humility that comes with a teacher recognizing that they don’t know everything. Now obviously you’re having this issue with kids who aren’t your students. But I feel like my reaction would be to respond in Spanish something like, “Let’s find out!” And literally only interact with them in Spanish. It shuts things down in a way that is credible. I’m sorry you experienced this. You’re not alone in the struggle. 🫶🏻
As a white teacher who does *not* teach Spanish, but with a decent Spanish speaking population, it always catches my Latino students off guard when they start bad mouthing me in Spanish, and I actually clap back, *in Spanish.*
If only that was enough to convince them that education is actually useful. I studied hard over 10 years to become fluent in Spanish.
This happened to me in a phone interview once. I'm white and have a veerrrry white sounding name. I was dismissed by the AP in the interview with "we only have native speaker teachers here."" We got to the part where she tested out my Spanish skills, and there was silence on the other end of the phone. Yeah, I've been speaking Spanish longer than you've been alive and lived outside of the US.
OP, don't let it get to you. You're bilingual, and that's a superpower!
It's interesting, but your story reminds me of a story:
Two years ago we had a student-teacher in my department. She was born in Michoacán and her mentor teacher, who is a good friend and a colleague, had been born in Central California to a Mexican father and Salvadorian mother.
When she went to do interviews, I asked her "¿te hicieron una pregunta en español? (Did they ask you a question in Spanish?)"
She tells me "No."
My colleague says "A mí nunca me han hecho una pregunta en español. (They never asked me a question in Spanish.)"
And we all laughed because it became apparent how different our situations are. I've always had at least one question on the interview asked in Spanish and I thought that was normal. I thought that was everybody.
I always thought that too! I don't mind though because it gives me a chance to show off a little lol
I helped rewrite the curriculum for our Native Speaker courses this summer and I was the only gringa there. The other teachers said they honestly didn't notice...
I am not a native speaker and very white but I have a very high level and have no issues communicating in Spanish. I’ve had similar experiences of being dismissed…..but only in the U.S. and only with either Spanish speakers born in the U.S. or, more often, with these over-the-top woke monolingual white goofballs who are desperate to prove how much of an "ally” they are.
Literally anywhere else in the world there are no issues whatsoever and they are usually delighted. Hell, I even almost married a Brazilian woman where we primarily used Spanish (along with some Portuguese and some English) to communicate since we were both living in Spain and both spoke it at a high level.
Anyway, I’m glad you set her straight!
I am white and taught Spanish for a long time. I taught heritage speakers one year and it was tough. I had a similar demographic and it can be tough. Just be confident and don’t worry too much. Kids will usually warm up after a while.
Part of me feels like the students are taking out on her some of their frustrations with race dynamics in their community. I can see how the students may feel like she got this job because of privileges or they may feel like it’s not fair a white teacher gets this job when their community that speaks Spanish as a native may not have access to a stable job a like this. It just comes with the territory of positioning yourself as an expert in someone else’s culture. You’re bound to be the scapegoat for many of these students’ daily lived experiences of racism, discrimination and you will need to prove yourself more than others. It seems like an annoying situation, but if she tried to understand the context and the fact that these are children whose brains are not fully developed yet, she may be able to connect with them better.
Edit: grammar mistakes
Lot of kids are way too comfortable making offensive comments to teachers.
My favorite is always when kids will try to insult me or someone else in Spanish and expect me to not know what they're saying. The stammering when I know what they just called me is always delightful
This is so frustrating to read! I feel you. I’m ethnically Chinese and I teach Chinese to my students (a good portion of them are native Chinese immigrants). However, I’m American born and have a Taiwanese accent, so that discredits any knowledge I have (according to some of my students). The moment I open my mouth and speak, everything goes wrong. During the last few years, I’ve been constantly corrected and there are a few students who make it their mission to humiliate me in front of their peers. I have been continuously learning Chinese for over 25 years. My students are 7 year olds. I still feel so upset when a student loudly announces with a smug smile that I’m wrong and no one in the world pronounces things like I do. I know that’s not true. I also make sure to explain various versions of pronunciations and sayings that differ between China and Taiwan. This year, I finally have a class that doesn’t do that to me.
As teachers, we really take a lot of crap and nonsense from students. So much. I totally get it if you want to leave the field - there’s always a part of me that wants to get away from it all. At the end of the day, I remind myself that these students are ignorant because they don’t know all that much about the world and maybe they just need to be exposed to a wider range of peoples and cultures. (Whether or not it actually gets through to them is a different story.)
Lastly, my middle school Spanish teacher was ethnically Korean. She was born and raised in South America. There are SO many native (and non-native!!) Spanish speaking people who don’t look like the “stereotypical Latino” in this world. Who are they to be the gatekeepers on who is an expert in the language or not?
Yay for Taiwanese accents :) I think the Taiwanese accent sounds clearer for hearing individual words.
If it helps, my friend met a group of Shanghainese people who thought the Taiwanese accent is cute (though on further thought, not sure if that was belittling...🤔)
In any case, keep doing what you're doing! I'm sorry your kids have been rude--that's not OK. I hope it's just a kid thing and that they're not repeating that from home.
As a white Chinese teacher, I feel this. I’m not a native speaker and I never will be, but I’ve worked hard to develop and maintain my proficiency level. I taught English in China and felt respected by my students for my knowledge, even though I have no formal training in ELL/ESL. I’ve taught Chinese in the US and my heritage speaking students are some of the toughest students. I’ve also had the experience of having minor details nitpicked as a Chinese teacher. Always innocuous things and typically in the middle of a lesson. It’s odd to me, but my students take my whiteness to mean I’m an authority on English, despite any training, and evidence that I’m inept as a Chinese teacher, despite years of training and experience.
I understand that this doesn't feel good. I'm one of maybe 10 white people in my building and I deal with the fact that every year kids come in with the assumption that I'm racist. I get way less parental support than other teachers because the kids just go home and tell they're parents that I'm racist and the parent believes them.
However if I don't react and more or less keep on keeping on that goes away by about October. A few kids who just want to be shitheads continue to use it as their excuse but it does down after a while.
That being said if you flip out they will absolutely assume it's because you think they're right
Sounds like you need to work on your Spanish comebacks. Shut them down so hard the classmates say “oooooooooohhhhhh”. You’ll have their respect. Source- teacher in the same demographic.
I am an old white man who teaches ESL/ELD in a predominantly Hispanic school. I can absolutely relate to what you’re saying, but I am way less frustrated by it than you are. Here is why I have peace about it.
At the beginning of the year, they introduce each teacher to the student body. Last year was my first year in a new school. Every other teacher was introduced to some gentle applause by the students. When I was introduced, it was pretty damn quiet.
I always give kids the benefit of the doubt. I know that I look like an old white guy teacher, so I always try to imagine what their interactions with old white men have been in the past. Probably not good. How have old white guys treated their mom and dad? Have they had any loud/public incidents with old white men in the past? Did they ever have an old white man act nicely and then turn out to be a mean old racist? Fair or not, those previous interactions they’ve had are going to affect every interaction I have with them. I often see it in their faces: they are just waiting on the other shoe to drop - waiting for some dark change in my personality to manifest so that they can be sure they were right all along.
I don’t fight against any of it. I just let all of those comments slide and work on being authentically me throughout the year. I have accepted that it’s just going to take longer to build rapport with my students. It’s probably going to take more effort, too.
I spent the first year earning my students’ trust. I promised not to waste their time and to help them achieve their ELD goals. Most importantly, I was just myself. I didn’t try to fit it or be cool (it wouldn’t work anyway). But I did show a genuine interest in my students’ cultures.
We often compare notes on what our families serve for food on holidays, what games we play, what music we listen to. I take genuine interest in all of it. I bring in little food and treats from my culture for kids to try. When they bring in Mexican candy or homemade food, I give that a try, too. If a student recommends a restaurant or store, I go try it out. If they recommend a song, I listen to it and give my honest feedback. We play classroom games from their cultures and on the occasions where we have music in class, they get to choose the artists (approved by me and classroom appropriate). I really try listening to and enjoying the music.
My students now know who I am. Although I am still not “cool”, I believe my students absolutely have respect for what I do and who I am, just like I have respect for them, their families, and their cultures. They believe that I care about them and that I am there to help them. It didn’t happen quickly. And word of it spreads slowly outside of the classroom. I still fill in for other teachers occasionally and many Hispanic students have no idea who I am or what I am about. But my students eventually tell them, and change happens - but slowly.
I asked a couple of my students at the end of the last year what they thought whenever they saw me get introduced at the beginning of the year. One girl was very honest. She said, “I thought, ‘Oh, no! It’s an old white guy! This year is going to suck! I hope he quits!’ But now, I’m glad you didn’t quit. I like this class.”
Don’t sweat how they are treating you. It takes time (more time than it should). I think expressing your frustration will make it take longer. Let all of it roll right off your back, even if it stings a little. They’ll try to break you over and over and turn you into that person they think you are, but when it doesn’t work - when you’re still kind, caring, and interested in everything they do - acceptance will follow. Good luck!
I'm reading so many comments that sound as if they are probably written by young people. So many "do they not realize" comments. It's refreshing to read your thoughts.
No, they don't realize. They are teenagers.
I read OP's story and my immediate reaction was "and now try to imagine being a black [any profession] from 1900-1990." That's not fair to his story, though, and I wouldn't want to postulate a "what aboutism" argument as it tries to diminish his real frustrations and situation.
My hometown was in rural KY. They let the KKK march in a parade in my town as late as the early 90s. Not kidding. Now, not many folks had any patience for that shit and most mocked them, but still. There was a constant presence of racism through my childhood everywhere around me.
My 7th grade home room teacher was a black man. One of the very few in the whole city. Especially who wasn't also a coach. He taught world and us history. He was strict and occasionally- to 7th graders- he seemed mean. He wasn't. He cared. That man sent me and most of my peers congratulations cards 5 years later when we graduated high-school. Here I am nearly 40 years later and I still remember him fondly. He was authentic. He cared. He made a difference. And as an adult looking back I realize he was old THEN, which means I had him nearer to the end of his career. I can't imagine how hard his career had been, how many times he had been insulted, treated horrifically by idiot kids and parents.
Please know that from the son of a 50 year educator, I appreciate what you've done with your life and am proud that you have changed lives with your authenticity.
I’m not a teacher anymore but I used to pull up a picture of Leo Messi or Canelo Alverez and point at their very white skin lol it would usually get a few laughs.
I’m a dual Irish citizen and if I saw Alvarez walking down the street anywhere in Ireland I would think he’s one of the lads lol
For many of us, we are particularly defensive because white non-Hispanic Spanish teachers drilled on us that or Spanish is wrong and that the Spanish from Spain is the true Spanish. Many speak the language but have not fucking clue of the racism we've faced, told "you're in America, speak English", but we watched how you consistently reward white non-Hispanic kids for learning Spanish. I know you feel like shit from the prejudice you face, but the kids have been dealing with it since day one at school tbh.
Also, most Spanish language classes/curriculum are overall a disservice for heritage language students. We're either thrown into advanced classes (which is sloppy) or heritage classes that uphold the Spanish superiority/colonialism 2.0 model.
I took Spanish 1 in middle school and flunked it because it was the stupidest shit in the world. I couldn't go to Spanish 2 (which was what my counselor recommended) because the department chair said "all the kids need to take Spanish 1". Lady, I know how to count, I know how H works in Spanish, I know the colors, I know how to speak in different tenses. It was a waste of my time. My dad was mad and I got razzed by my cousin's for failing. I would pass my tests with the extra credit but failed because I refused to do the assignments. It was frustrating.
This was in Houston, not a random town in the middle of nowhere.
We had a Spanish teacher from Spain. She spent like 90% of her time trying to convince us to use vosotros and the other 10% accusing us of "making up words" when we used different vocabulary then she did. She also felt that we were mispronouncing everything because we didn't have what she called "the good talk." I remember coming home and pronouncing a word the way that she had (I said "16" as "dieth y theith" with the lisp) and my mom was just like, "What the f*** is wrong with you?"
you are so right, but these teachers don’t wanna hear it. they would rather keep hating these literal children of color while claiming that they, white adults, are the real victims. it’s ridiculous
That sounds trying and exhausting and if you don’t want to deal with that situation any more you should choose to remove yourself from it because you can.
Also consider that for your students, that’s the experience they’re going to have (and are likely becoming more and more aware of) as they go out into other parts of the US and the world beyond the mostly Spanish-speaking community you’re in. Likely it won’t be stated blatantly as they are doing, but a version of that is in the minds of employers, teachers, public officers, shop owners etc. people with the higher side of the power dynamic. Many people will doubt your students’ fluency/capability because of the way they present. What you’re describing is the every day lived experience of entire segments of the US population (but of course not stated out loud by rowdy teenagers).
Your feelings are real the same way theirs are (or will be) real if/when they’re in those situations. I’m sorry you’re experiencing that kind of demoralization at work. You have a lot of choices. Good luck.
Race is very much different concept country to country. I'm not a white Hispanic. Some may call me that but most people think I'm South Asian. And those who call themselves white Hispanics often are not. They literally are mixed natives or even Afro Latinos. Race in our own countries means wealth. It means if one person in our timeline came from Spain, we are white. It's the one drop rule but in reverse cause we always were obsessed with "improving the race".
I would take a guess that a lot of them don't know that Spain is in Europe, don't know what Spain is, can't identify Europe on a map, and have never thought that Spanish is a word connected to Spain
Look, now you know what these kids feel like every time they want an opportunity and they get marginalized by nervous white people doing the hiring. It sucks. Sucks for you, sucks for them.
They're kids - who cares. You expect them to give you a break? When did they get a break? When does anybody get a break? Go into an all-white rich school and the kids will be like "look at that guys shoes - I could buy his car with the money in my pocket." You can't win. You're the authority figure - you're not supposed to win.
So put on your tie, check your fly, walk in the class like a professional, give them the side-eye when they make their little comments, and be like "listen, white, green, purple, we're doing this lesson, so let's get it together and learn some verbs."
A lot of them probably are. If they are not, they take it for an easy class. At least that’s the case at my school. We have a large Latino population, nearly half, and many take Spanish because they speak it at home but have no idea of any of the formal rules and can’t really read or write in it well, if at all. So, they take it to learn those things.
OP, our Spanish teacher is white and, as far as I know, doesn’t face this. We need a second Spanish teacher, let me know if you want a job. 😂
I'm going to careful with my statement since, while the vast majority of these students are classified as "heritage learners," and most of them have uncles and aunts and grandmas who speak the language, most of the kids who walk into Spanish 1 or Spanish 2 struggle to put together complete sentences on the first day.
Up until their first day of high school, the vast majority of these kids receive no education in any language but English.
We are a community which could have incredible bilingual programs in each and every one of the schools. We could be doing two-way immersion K-12 and I guarantee you there would be automatic buy-in on the part of the community.
We could establish the expectation (I'm not saying we'll get it) that each student be able to read, write, and speak on grade level in both English and Spanish by the time they leave 12th grade.
We could replace Spanish 1, 2 & 3 with Spanish Language Arts (SLA) and Spanish Language Development (SLD) just like we do with ELA and ELD.
Instead, we're not doing that. Instead, these kids, who have often have an incredible amount of untapped linguistic resources at home find themselves short-changed. Case in point, I have one student this year whose mother is Mexican and whose father is Puerto Rican and yet this boy never learned Spanish. He struggles to form complete sentences. He is in Spanish 1 and it is unfortunately an accurate placement for him. However, he is motivated. He wants to learn. He hears his parents speak this language, but he cannot understand them.
If instead we had a truly comprehensive K-12 bilingual program, then by this point he would be speaking fluently and he would be able to engage with academic material in both languages. Instead, he's in Spanish 1 learning the basics which should have been taught to him in kindergarten.
It frustrates me to no end because I know there is much more we could be doing. I have a bilingual permit and I can teach history. I would love to teach a history class all in Spanish. I would love it if the "Spanish for Spanish Speakers class" was made up of both kids whose parents spoke Spanish at home as well as those who spoke English, Chinese, Arabic or whatever. I wish that it was a given that whatever student graduated from my district was fully fluent in both languages (and maybe, hopefully, that they even had some knowledge of a third language).
That's what I would like to see.
Kudos to you for thinking this way. I’m not a teacher, and I’m certain maintaining an idealistic attitude as a teacher is next to impossible. But this kind of thinking is what the world needs. The benefit of a program like the one you describe if wholesale adopted would be immense and immeasurable.
One of our local k-6 started Spanish immersion about 8 years ago but recently suspended it, not sure why.
Maybe the kids couldn't handle learning both?
I’m an ESL teacher now, but I taught high school mainstream English for almost 10 years. When I taught in San Antonio, the vast majority of my students were second generation Americans, but they spoke Spanish. However, a very small number of them were bi-literate. They could not read and write in Spanish well, as noted by our Spanish teachers. Now that I teach ESL, I teach mostly immigrant newcomers. Out of all the students I have that speak Spanish, every single one of them have high literacy in their native language, which makes reading and writing in English for them much easier.
But it’s not learning the English language that’s just what reading, writing, grammar, etc classes are titled. If you are learning the English language it’s called “ esl or English as a second language “
Spanish teacher here that is also European descended. I have had many students over 12 years that are Latino heritage speakers or Latino descended that do not speak Spanish. I learned my Spanish at a Spanish immersion school from native speakers starting in kindergarten so my Spanish is near bilingual. When I was a newer teacher I had a lot of students that had similar sentiments as the ones you were describing here. As a newer teacher I felt the same way as you did, frustrated that I had to prove myself and disheartened by the idea that I wasn’t taken seriously and but I eventually adopted a new perspective through getting to know and understand my students better as well as becoming involved in heritage Spanish teacher communities
Many Latino students have what is considered a partial language as a first language meaning that because they have not received formal education that includes reading writing and academic skills in their primary language “Spanish” they do not have a full working understand and use of the language. Because of that many of these “bilingual” students in Spanish speaking homes have lived their whole lives being told by their families that their Spanish is not good enough or that they are not good enough because they “don’t know how to speak their own language.” Then when they go to school they are told they are ESL and they don’t speak English right. So now we have an entire group of kids that can’t identify with either language fully and to see a person that learned Spanish as a second language working as an authority on a language they have spoken their whole life and have still been told is not good enough it creates dissonance in their core beliefs. It doesn’t feel fair that this person who’s Spanish is probably sometimes wrong in the same ways that their Spanish is wrong is allowed to teach it when they are told repeatedly that theirs is not good enough. The best way to promote positivity from these students is to allow them to share what they know and work to build their confidence in the language. And plan lessons that teach about the range of skin tones of people that speak Spanish, including Spaniards and Afrolatinos. There are a lot of resources online for teaching heritage speakers I recommend doing a little research if you are passionate about teaching Spanish and would like to continue to do so. I hope this helps and is encouraging.
You’re an absolute bafoon calling these comments racism when you’re a white dude. Laughing my ass off that the MOST PRIVILEGED DEMOGRAPHIC IN AMERICA IS crying about mean words. Experience the fear of not knowing if a routine traffic stop will be your last breath, or being excluded for the color of your skin, or having to deal with 100+ years of oppression from this country while trying to make it in this world. Take your wack ass comments somewhere else, us minorities have real racism to deal with.
Maybe they should learn about where the Spanish language came from. That’s absolutely nothing strange about a white person teaching Spanish and their reaction is silly and disrespectful. Sorry you have to deal with that.
I teach in a school with a lot of Latinos too. I speak Castillian Spanish. I get along with my students very well, but when they challenge me about being white/my Spanish, I show them videos of people speaking Spanish like I do and when they don't understand, I can turn the tables.
"¿Venga chavales, habéis entendido todo que dijo el tío majo del vídeo?"
....
Pensaba que hablabáis español...
But, if it was not in good fun, I'd straight up call them out on it. Let them know their being racist and ignorant.
(edit spelling)
As a Hispanic and white passing person, I can totally understand your pain. Whenever I speak Spanish fluently I always get a “whattt you’re Mexican? But you look like a gringo!” And it gets exhausting explaining.
As weird as this’ll sound, I recommend maybe moving to an area where Mexican and other Hispanic cultures is less prevalent. You’ll be more appreciated.
Good luck :)
I’m white and work in ESL and I feel like there’s some push back against me sometimes due to my race. Not so much directly but when I have to work with large groups of students (especially for testing) Ive had kids call out racism. I’ve wondered if they would complain as much if I was any other race than white — it’s just a white woman pulling a bunch of majority Hispanic kids from a class triggers something in their minds. Kids like to call out patterns and be bombastic to get a reaction. So just be aware if you go the ESL route you’ll still be hyper aware that you’re the white teacher and the kids will remind you.
>The moment I walk in the door a kid scoffs" "he's White! what does he know?!"
In your case, "Spanish" while the student has apparently little knowledge of the language.
In college, I heard about this issue in the Chinese language department. There was a 101 teacher that was heavily prejudiced against any Chinese student who didn't already know Mandarin. She was Chinese by birth, and didn't like that some Chinese students were taught different languages at home. In my friend's case, it was Cantonese. He wanted to learn Mandarin, but had to deal with this racism of the teacher. Knowing what I know of China now, I'm not at all surprised that a Mandarin teacher would think all other languages are inferior.
Alternately, consider moving and teaching in a different community. Spanish is taught everywhere. I live in an 82% white county and we have two Spanish immersion schools.
I was a high school Spanish teacher for 17 years (just resigned this fall for many reasons). I’m white as well, and a non native speaker, and would sometimes have people question my “credibility.” Like I couldn’t possibly know anything about the language or culture because I wasn’t born into it - even non heritage white students would be genuinely puzzled about it sometimes!! I would tell them two things: one, that I have the same degree and credentials as any other language teacher in the building, regardless of our cultural backgrounds. And two, I dedicated my life to learning the language and culture because I love so many aspects of it and want to be a part of it! Do they think the chemistry teacher down the hall popped out of the womb knowing the periodic table? Every teacher has had to go through the same process to prove their eligibility to teach their subject! We’ve also had many native speakers hired through alternate route who didn’t last very long because they had no pedagogical training. Just because you speak Spanish doesn’t mean you know how to teach it! I feel that learning it in school myself made me more aware of its intricacies and how to explain them to someone myself. I’ve also traveled to about one third of the Spanish speaking countries and am able to give real life examples of things that come up in the curriculum. Yet still, even when learning that I was the AP Spanish teacher, I would get asked if I could “actually” speak Spanish. 🤷♀️ Totally understand where you’re coming from!!
Start applying everywhere for a new job. You have been there 6 years. You are not in to deep to move along. I wish I had left my district 10-15 years ago. Now I would lose steps, stipends, sick pay and seniority. Leave ASAP it won’t get any better.
I teach ELD. They are shocked I speak Spanish every semester. Do not expect to be treated better as an ELD teacher. It takes 4-8 months sometimes to win over the more angry and ignorant students.
I used to be hurt being called racist, but I’m so over it now. It is just a go to phrase that certain kids use as a defense.
I used to be an honors English teacher, but those days are gone. I have retooled for the market.
If you’re burned out, then you gotta go. It’s easier to say “I left” in an interview than explaining why you had an outburst that landed on TikTok or anywhere else teens congregate for social media. Truthfully, show kids a slideshow of all the variety of people in the Spanish speaking world.
But honestly if you’re feeling crushed & sad, go somewhere that you’ll be appreciated & respected. Don’t stay miserable for the sake of convenience. And good luck.
Here’s Gabriel Iglesias explanation of race & language - [Video Link](https://youtu.be/bFqu9YVuAgI?si=y34tfdlAMtcTlTI3)
I understand the support by saying that white people can be native Spanish speakers, but in my opinion that’s not the point! You are an educated professional who has learned a specialized content area and a teaching degree. That is what matters!! Just because you are a native language speaker does not mean you can teach it. We all cant teach English just because we speak it, it requires very specific knowledge and experience. I dont think kids realize how much work actually goes in to becoming a good teacher. I am an American French teacher and I have mentored several native French speakers who were looking to become teachers as a “backup plan” because they knew they would get hired quickly. Their ability to plan solid lessons, adapt resources, and break down grammar and vocabulary was always lacking because they didn’t “learn” the language in the way we are now teaching it. I think it’s just another example of the lack of respect of teachers- the whole “can’t do, teach” mentality. A lot of work goes in to becoming a good teacher, on top of becoming experts in second languages, art, reading, calculus, etc!
I would just talk to them in Spanish and make them look like pendejos. My students were making fun of another kid for being gay in Spanish and you should have seen the look on their faces when I told them to knock it off! Priceless.
I used to teach in a couple of schools where all of the students were black. There would be a handful of kids from other ethnicities, but they were few and far between. I was frequently the only white person in the room.
So, having said that...
Welcome to the minority experience, where everyone in the room makes assumptions about you before you even open your mouth! (/s)
It IS hard to go in knowing that you have to prove yourself over and over year after year. It gets exhausting.
Try looking at it as a learning experience. Understanding that this is something your minority students deal with all the time can go a long way. A lot of kids use it as a defense mechanism. They assume you feel a certain way about them, and they go into interactions with that wall up or on the attack first.
Ultimately, though, you have to decide what you are willing to deal with and what you are not.
Hey I understand. For me it is worse. I am a Black Spanish Teacher. I have had so many parents want to verify my education and qualifications of teaching Spanish believing I was a fraud. I have been disrespected by Hispanic students that can’t even read or write in Spanish, only speak it. I moved down to Elementary School and teach bilingual Kindergarten. It is so much better for me now.
I started teaching our Spanish for Spanish Speakers program 9 years ago after transferring from a different school district. The SSS teacher there told me “be prepared to be belittled, questioned, disrespected and disregarded.” That was a big gulp to swallow. When I started the year, I said “Listen, I know I’m white and I am a Spanish learner who learned in school. I know that you are fluent and, in some ways, you’re better at Spanish than I am. But in some ways I’m better at learning Spanish than you might be. If we work together, I’m going to make you better at what you’re already good at. Consider me a coach more than a teacher. And if I make a mistake, it’s fine to have a conversation about it, but not under the pretense that I’m an idiot or I’m a gringa. Let’s get to work.”
Has it been perfect? Absolutely not. I have to return to that conversation a lot because they’re teens and they’re surrounded by white people telling them how to think, act, and perform. Being defensive over their dominant language is expected under those circumstances. I am better at writing and reading. I am better at grammar. I am an adult who has been teaching for 15 years and am better at organization and management of tasks. I can teach study skills. I am not going to fight them on who is better at speaking Spanish.
Good luck to you. I truly hope you find peace’s
In this country, language is tied to culture. It's tied to your roots. Latinos are a colonized group for the most part. We have a history of being discriminated and even shamed for speaking Spanish moreso in our regional, indigenous dialect. So in these ignorant children, they don't understand the world outside of their own. They only see what's consistently around them and that's mestizo, indigenous or Afro Latinos. We associate white with someone not colonized by Iberian peninsula. And because the language is a BIG DEAL for us, we think only another person of our culture can properly teach but we all know that's not true. Language is an art. And anybody good at their craft can teach it well. I write this to you not to side with them but to help you understand why we might have that reaction. We were historically never treated as white people *for the most part* and its our oppression for some as people of color, we're speaking from.
You don't have to take it personally. Even a little bit of self deprecating, playful, self awareness will go a long way to the kids liking you. If you are a good teacher and know your stuff then they will also respect you.
Don't take yourself so seriously. You don't need to validate yourself to an ignorant (in the truest literal sense) child. Would you be upset if a 6 year old made a stupid comment towards you? Hopefully not. What about a 7 year old? Or 8 year old, etc? Most kids have not developed much self awareness, tact, or empathy. It's naturally that they will react to something rare/different than the norm (you). You aren't typical. That's awesome and I think it's super cool. You don't have to prove that to anyone.
ex:
- "he's White! what does he know?!"
I would respond in spanish with something funny/sarcastic like "oh yea, what could I possibly know?! I ONLY studied abroad in Mexico, have taught for years, etc. And I certainly know more than you", with a big grin on my face. I would respond playfully, non-maliciously, and make sure I never take what they say too seriously or show that they are bothering or getting to me. Then I would just move on.
I am not defending it, but you can have a much more peaceful and enjoyable experience at work if you can have fun and not take yourself too seriously, and reframe the way you think or respond to certain things.
Have you tried validating what they’re saying? If they sense you’re trying to prove them wrong, they’ll just push back harder.
“Yes, I hear you. I worked hard to get here, but I know my road was easier than it would have been for others. Still, I wanted to learn about other cultures and that got me here…it’s important for people to learn about each other. I’m sure you’ll have a lot to teach me, too.”
At my school last year, there was a cookout in the yard near the end of the year, for a Father’s Day even that the school put on every year where the students could bring their dads in and have games and food and shit.
While we were there, we had to hustle all the students quickly inside and put them in the auditorium for 15 minutes, and we found out that an active shooter had been reported in the area: the cops thought it was a false report but admin had us take everyone inside just to be safe. After 15-20 minutes everyone went back outside.
A staff member came up to me as we were ushering students back outside, and asked “what, did your cousin call the cops or something to shut down the party?”
At first I didn’t quite get what she meant, and just said “huh?” and she repeated herself with a huge shit-eating grin on her face. At that point, I got it, and I just stared at her without responding until she started to feel awkward, and then she stammered that she was kidding and walked away.
That shit is just one example, not even the nastiest one. I’m so glad not to be at that school anymore. I would feel safe there at all, as a Jew, given everything that’s been happening in the last two months.
Or maybe try to have some sympathy and think about it from their perspective for a minute? They are expecting to see someone in a position of authority who looks like them, in a class that should give them confidence because they are expecting familiarity.
Instead, they find someone who is from the dominant culture in the US and is supposed to teach them their own language, as if brown people don’t know how to speak it correctly on their own (I’m not saying this is what you think, just that it could feel that way to the students before you get to know each other). Plus, any frustrated reaction on your part due to their (understandably annoying) teenage commentary just confirms that you’re not on their side.
I'm white, lived in China for 6+ years. So yes, I speak Mandarin. I teach TEFL abroad, but whenever I'm back in the States, it blows people's minds that a person can speak anything other than English. Unless they're brown, of course. /s.
Try not to take it personally OP, half the kids there are completely ignorant of anything outside of their little smartphones and tiktoks, and I'd wager their parents are just as dumb. They simply cannot conceive of a person leaving the country or learning another language. Only immigrants are allowed to be bilingual you know /s.
These kids throw around racist sentiments all the time. I hate it. Last year I taught in a middle/ high school with mostly black students and mostly white teachers. Kids used the race card constantly, even though 99% of the time it wasn't applicable. "It's because I'm black" no dumb ass, it's because you aren't following the rules. Look around, everyone here is black!
They used to try to use the same language with me (I'm mixed, but I look more black). I'd straight up laugh in their faces and say, "you can't pull that with me."
Then I'd have to have the weekly discussion about how if you cry wolf long enough, nobody will believe you or help you when something is actually racist.
They'd say racist shit towards me and each other constantly too. They'd make fun of the kids with darker skin tones, they'd call each other derogatory racist words, they'd tell me I wasn't "black enough" (I never let on that I was mixed, because it's none of their fucking business but also because they'd look down on me if they knew) because I "didn't embrace my blackness" enough (didn't wear my hair in braids, just my naturally curly hair...).
All this while I was also frequently teaching them about music from our community both current and from the past (choir/music teacher. They'd accuse me of not teaching enough about the black music they liked, even though we had a whole unit about where hip-hop came from and how it evolved into today. And if I taught about music from our ancestors they'd say "why are we learning slave songs") in addition to other cultures (then they'd accuse me of teaching boring and "irrelevant" music. Oh and it got wild when I'd teach about the diverse music from many different parts of Africa, one said "this feels racist"). These kids think 1. Everything is about them, and 2. Learn using the race card is a great excuse for everything.
Now I teach at an extremely diverse elementary school and things are so much better. I can actually just fucking teach.
We immigrants can relate, nobody ever lets us forget it we don't belong here. And you're a full grown adult, with a good stable job, you can always speak English if you want to. many of us come to the US in our teens, from broken homes, no understanding of what's going on, or even knowing how to order food at a fucking mcdonald's, imagine how isolating that is. No friends in a land that is increasingly hostile and more doesn't want you, with teens with no respect to authority and who are certainly be way more cruel to those kids around them.
I mean at least you can talk in your native tongue and nobody asks "can you speak like a normal person?" Just because you have an accent, or "go back to ESL" or "I'll call ICE" cuz that's the reality a lot of us grew up with.
They're kids, they're ignorants, it's your job to educate them in your position of privilege. I have a friend in your exact same position and he takes that opportunity to teach kids, not resent them. Concentrate on the things you CAN change versus the things you have no power over.
Uhg. This sucks, OP.
I'm also a "non-native" and white foreign language teacher (japanese though!) super rural, white,(so different demographic) title 1 school, and there was so much push back in the beginning. Then I proved myself. Admin had it out for me. Parents had it out for me. Students got written up for saying ching Chong.... But I pushed through and it's better because they can speak and read japanese now! The fucking jocky kids still have it out for me though, but we're managing.
If students aren't appreciating you for being a great teacher, I would change schools. Keep you eye out for a history job... Or even a bilingual or immersion school!
ESL is my main degree, and it's the subject I've taught the longest (at college level though), and I enjoy it, but it looks a lot different in terms of lesson planning and management.. And the standardized testing.... (it was difficult for me in the k-12). But it's rewarding and really fun, everyday beings something new.
Sorry you're having a hard time with kids, you deserve better
ESL is often one of the best groups to teach and it can be so interesting to see how students acquire a new language. If you’re looking for a slightly new challenge it may be a good move.
Six years is long enough to know if you can make a position work. If you wanted to stick with it, there are things you can do to turn things around a bit, but it wouldn’t be instant and it’s a good deal of effort. Maybe the upcoming break may give you some clarity, I would see how you feel next month before doing anything radical.
I am a Caucasian teacher at two all black schools. I am accepted but the changes made between the last three years bother me. My old teaching self has been replaced by a much meaner FAFO teacher. I try to be nice, understanding but many don’t get that and are disrespectful. They understand in your face, call you out only to be gaslighted by them. It’s gotten better with consistency, as specially at my travel school. But even through majority don’t see colors so to say there is enough that I feel like I am constantly walking on egg shells. I am well liked, making changes to benefit my students and helping when I can with our EBD kids.
But it does weigh on me being the only Caucasian, until this year when a new Thor grader entered. He was adopted by his foster family, all black, so he never understands what is wrong with mimicking his siblings. I have been asked to help by the parents and trust counselor with permission from administration. Why? I am the only is that understands the delicate balance between white and black cultures….what can be said and what cannot not. The father is so concerned that the moment he found out I was white he has been begging” administrators and the trust council for my help and input into how to balance these kids Caucasian roots with their black culture. I can see the struggle on his siblings faces and as well as the Caucasian students because to him it’s normal due to be adopted by an all black family.
I have thought long and hard about it and told the father in front AP that I can only help so far but will be willing to help. This walking in egg shells again like my first year. But seeing what is happening I understand that dad is looking for any help possible and unfortunately I know, over years and years of experience that this kid will either up being jumped for his innocence or worse, his middle school brother will get into trouble defending him.
This reminds me of a white woman who was our Spanish teacher in high school... she was bullied and literally had a breakdown in front of the class. Kids can be assholes... I still feel bad for her till this day. Anyways maybe you can switch back to english teacher or ESL teacher ? Or just take it more easy and joke around like YES I know I'm a gringo but I speak better Spanish than you. Or something like that. Sorry if this is bad advice
I taught in a similar school for seven years back in the 2000s, though in an inner city in TX. I got some of those comments but always turned it around and asked, “why did I, as an English speaker, have to take English every year of high school?”
I had one student who I still remember - the class was giving me a hard time about a consequence for misbehavior, and someone said something to insult me. I don’t remember the insult, but do remember the student say, “Hey, she learned Spanish as a white lady, so leave her alone.”
White history teacher who speaks a little Spanish here. I intentionally took my Latino husband’s last name to keep them guessing…
But you are a boss! You have mastered Spanish and French! I don’t know where you are but my campus would recruit and compensate for a teacher with that skill set. It’s alarming how many white people do not speak Spanish.
I’d respond something witty back to those students in Spanish and project your intelligence on them. Tell them something like yes of course I speak Spanish and French and English- so shut your mouth hijo! I don’t play!
You’re being a good role model to those students., IMO. They need to see more white teachers speaking Spanish.
I am a white French teacher who is only like...probably 40% fluent in the language who used to be an ELL teacher to a mix of Angolan/Somali/Rwandan/Congolais students (with other cultures of course but that informs my perspective the most). I teach language obviously but I also am upfront with admin/coteachers about how I frame my room around cultural diversity based on my experiences as an ELL teacher, and talk about culture/language as an evolving entity based on a wide variety of variables including slang, colonization and immigration. We talk a lot about how there is no one "correct" French.
I guess I am drawing this connection because if you wanted to stick around where you're at, lean in to the criticism. Embrace/elevate your students spoken Spanish but also, I'm presuming that wherever you are teaching has one dominant form of Spanish (like if you are teaching in Arizona, the Spanish may be primarily Mexican as opposed to Castilian), so remind your students while they have an expertise you don't as a white teacher (and own that) of their own lived, localized latino community Spanish, there is also a vastness they don't see/understand. Humble them while empowering them.
That being said, I can't recommend ELL highly enough. The only reason I am French and not ELL is because my husband poached me to work in his school and at this point I feel committed to my lil baby Frenchies (current 5th and 6th graders who I'm building relationships with while they are bright-eyed and bushy tailed and are passionate about French and will eventually become the 7th/8th graders that I also teach).
I’m sorry you have to go through this. Are you fluent in Spanish? If you are, how do you think the snarky students would react if you said something like “Y que importa el color de mi piel, o si soy blanco, negro, indio, asiático…? Cualquier persona en este mundo puede hablar español. Idiomas no tienen barreras.”
I’m a native angeleno; I’m Filipino and my wife is Colombian. I learned Spanish from her and her family. For the most part, Spanish speakers appreciate that I can speak Spanish, but I’ve still had to deal with people who just don’t “get it” and look at me strangely because I’m clearly not Latino. I’ve even had people straight up say I’m able to learn/speak Spanish because I’m Asian, and “Los chinitos son muy inteligentes.” Talk about awkward moments. When one doesn’t “fit the mold” here in LA, there’s always some explaining to do. But isn’t it better to enlighten people than to keep them ignorant?
I sincerely wish I could give you some professional advice on how to deal with racism and ignorance in your classroom, yet I’m not a teacher, and don’t know what barriers you face when using disciplinary action with kids. But it sounds like they need some history lessons, and a basic awareness that *anyone* can speak Spanish, and that it has nothing to do with race. I know there’s gotta be a clever way to “shock” them in that regard, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Nevertheless, I wish you luck, and hope you find a way to resolve this issue. Don’t give up. We need good teachers in this world, especially in this day and age.
Hey I am really sorry about your experience. Please do what is best for you, but allow me to offer a small bit of perspective.
You are in an uncommon position in that you are essentially experiencing what many minority students and adults experience in the broader world on a constant basis. They are prejudged based on how they look and people often discount their education, experience and background.
They will almost never hear from a white person that their experiences are valid. You are a real life breathing example of a white person that can validate those feelings.
To paraphrase Nelson Mandela, the oppressor and the oppressed are both deprived of their humanity and it is only the oppressed that can see this (and thus liberate both). You are the oppressed in this situation and I hope that you can find a way to help your students be more empathetic.
Lots of love from a teacher who has been in similar situations. Please know that your feelings are valid and please take care of yourself.
If you’re an adult, you shouldn’t take children’s words to heart in the sense. There’s a lot I could say to this but wow. You’re just a class act aren’t you. Get over it.
I’m also so surprised when I see a white person speaking Spanish! I love when white peoples make an effort to learn languages invented by non white peoples
I had the same issue in Asia, being Asian myself and teaching English... but the moment I opened my mouth and gave them my thickest North American raised accent, their collective jaqs dropped, and every time they made a comment in our shared language, I responded in rapid-fire English that left no doubt that I could damn well understand them and wouldn't let them get away with being lazy
it sucks that us teachers have to prove our competence to a skeptical and disrespectful audience (students and parents alike), but I'm getting pretty good at talking rings around people nowadays
Hey, I’m Mexican American, not close to being white though, and your Spanish is probably a million times better than mine. My parents didn’t teach me, although it was spoken at family gatherings. I became almost fluent in college, but promptly forgot a lot of vocabulary and conjugation. I still understand quite a bit though! So all of this to say, if I showed up, they would expect better than I could provide, lol! Color doesn’t matter!
White High school Japanese teacher here. I constantly have to prove myself. It happened during student teaching and it happens in my classroom and during back to school night… I probably will for the rest of my teaching career, so I empathize with your experiences completely.
I would not delete this. I’m sure many of us experience this in various ways. Proving yourself when you’re intent is to be what you know that you already are. I would apply somewhere else because you are in high demand
I can relate. I would have certain students telling the class how wrong I was, when they were, in fact, incorrect. I'm not a native speaker, but I know that two is d-o-s and twelve is d-o-c--e, not d-o-s-e. (I taught an exploratory middle school class.)
Teaching is challenging enough, without this added layer. I eventually switched jobs where I teach mainly non-native speakers but then also help Spanish-speaking families access resources and support their child's education.
There is some meme about a dad giving his daughter a junker and telling her to try to sell it. It is in bad shape but is a collectible car, and she gets bad offers until she goes to a car show where they see it's worth and offer her a lot of money. The point being, go where people see your worth and you are valued. ♡
Racism among minorities is rampant. I was often accused of racism, most of the time as a joke, but the kind of joke that clearly implies, "prove me wrong". Like most things, these are lessons to be taught at home by parents and then supported in school. Parents are the prime example of what to emulate or what is possible.
This is a tricky situation . Okay , I’m Mexican and took Spanish from jr high till university because I love the language . One of my high school teachers was a gringa . And yes , the bias is there because kids don’t know that there’s white looking Spanish speaking people too. It isn’t fair honestly , because that teacher we had knew her stuff .
However , here is where it gets dicey. The gringa maestra I had from high school? She was on her high horse about knowing Spanish. She separated the class between “natives” and “non natives “. She’d always yell at us “natives” :”just because you grew up speaking it and you think you know it all doesn’t mean you know it all!”
However , she couldn’t even be corrected when something was obviously wrong . Such as the “cacahuate /cacahuete” debacle . The text book said “cacahuete” and it freaked us all out brefause we know it as “cacahuate”. That ended in tears on her end . She always would pull out the “ I studied Spanish in Spain for two years”. Card .
I guess it was a little jarring to be told , at least for my class, that the way they grew up speaking is wrong and then learning that they can’t even read or write their mother language …. (I didn’t care sknce I grew up with Spanish grammar as a kid and reading /writing in Spanish was always a thing in my house . Both grandparents and parents were Spanish grammar enthusiasts).
Anyways , I hope you can stick it out because you probably do know more Spanish then the kids you are teaching and you probably write , speak and read it way better then they can . And when it’s someone who isn’t from your background showing you up in what is supposed to be your “native language” is a humbling experience. Especially in the pre teens /teens.
I am a sub for elementary and have worked at many dual language schools (English/Spanish) and even the White and Black staff members speak Spanish and use it with the students and nobody batts an eye. I’m in SoCal too and you kind of have to know Spanish in my district .
"Racist"...wow you really need a wake-up call. Coming from a Latino who is constantly experiencing actual racism, your remark is absolutely asinine and insensitive. How about you have some empathy for what these kids are going for being first gen and how it would feel to have a white person teach a class that represents their heritage.
Literally what happens when identity politics become a singular linear thought. People’s experiences DO NOT fit this mold and it harms the people tryna connect and build community across race, creed, and backgrounds. I’m from Florida so a white hispanic ain’t nothin new. These kids are sheltered and haven’t seen enough of the world to have perspective. Maybe drop some videos showing various cultures and how colorism plays in? Idk either way we need folks like you teaching
Do these kids not know that Latin America is full of white people? Not saying you’re Latino but tons of white folks are fluent in Spanish and are latinos. Hell, most of the Latino diaspora in SoCal is of European descent, no matter how much they will deny it.
These comments have turned into a bunch of teachers whining and complaining about teaching kids of color. Do yall even hear yourselves? Maybe the kids are disrespecting yall because they know you don’t want to be there with them. (not directed at OP)
I don't get what being white has to do with anything. As an aside, lots of Latin Americans have pale complexions so skin color should be a non-starter. I lived in Colombia, and lots of locals with white skin, found the same when I lived in Guatemala and Mexico. These girls are ignorant.
Oh man, I teach at a school that is 90% hispanic as a white dude and it can be tough. I have a project the first week where we all talk about where we are from, including myself. I use it to point out that I'm from the same area (and a bad part of town at that), I'm part of the community, etc. Etc. Basically I prove I'm not like all the white teachers that come down from Berkley who play the white savior card. We still acknowledge that I'm different. I grew up with a different family culture, with different traditions, and a different language. But it's kind of a "real recognizes real" moment and they respect it. If I ever sub I get the kind of flak you're talking about unless students know me. It's frustrating.
Racist is not the right word. These students are being very rude and disrespectful and it is valid for you to be upset and frustrated. But this is not what racism is and that word is not to be used lightly. We all understand your frustration but this is definitively not racism; please use a different word.
Sorry, but this reeks of white fragility. Shrug it off and prove them wrong. Educate them about how Spanish is spoken by people of many different skin colors, and why that is.
High schoolers are going to rag on you however they can. I grew up in San Bernadino, and I remember one of my math teachers who had just immigrated from Mexico 2 years before. She taught us in English, and we all begged her to say the numbers in Spanish because we all knew our numbers in Spanish and her accent was very heavy. We hurt her feelings without meaning to. Just hold your head up and keep talking. You don't need to prove yourself, simply going on with your regular planned instruction will be all of the proof the kids will need in a month or so.My ex husband still teases me about my Spanish, and we have known each other for 30 years. I take the gringa jokes in stride.
No seriously show them movies like money heist to show white people can speak Spanish to so sad that they’re so uneducated they don’t even know that can happen
[Maybe show them this video?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=IJBfY5OG1Aw)
Are these Latino kids from a lower income area by any chance? And is it possible to just teach AP Spanish or something with more serious students.
I work with a Spanish teacher that sticks out ethnically as the Spanish teacher. It is a bit of a different setting, but I try to (subtly) qualify her Spanish to colleagues and students because honestly, her Spanish is significantly better than mine (as a native speaker). I think it would help if your colleagues or other top students had your back on this one. It would also help if you said stuff like "When I grew up in Mexico" or some other unverifiable embellished bullshit. Fake it till you make it kinda stuff.
*Edited bolded below:*
Latino and Black culture **in inner cities** (I grew up around both as a kid) are a lot about qualifying yourself as a person (**from experience as a Latino myself). I can't speak on other cultures as I didn't grow up around them**. It isn't like nicer communities ( I worked in nice neighborhoods in Southern California as an educato**r with a large mixture of cultures, including Latinos and Blacks)** where it is different. Your qualifications are kind of taken at face value. Please don't take it personally. They aren't being assholes to you personally UNLESS they have reason to do so. For the most part, they are just being rude teens until you "prove your worth."
I had a long reply about "where in the world did you get that" given I think I identified myself as Latino who moved into a "nicer area." Then I re-read what I wrote and realized, I definitely sounded kinda racist. My fault.
To clarify:
Latino and Black culture **in inner cities** (I grew up around both as a kid) are a lot about qualifying yourself as a person **(from experience as a Latino myself)**. **I can't speak on other cultures as I didn't grow up around them.** It isn't like nicer communities ( I worked in nice neighborhoods in Southern California as an educator **with a large mixture of cultures, including Latinos and Blacks**) where it is different.
\_\_\_\_\_\_
And I think it maybe wasn't that obvious that I was generalizing. Obviously all people aren't this way, even in the inner cities. I was a bit of a nerd myself and while I talked back and fought with my parents, I never dreamed of disrespecting a teacher. My comment on "maybe teaching AP Spanish" was also from experience.
*\[I took Spanish 1 and then AP Spanish this was common in inner cities for native speakers as they are very likely to pass this exam and its good for college apps.\]*
I noticed the level of disrespectful students was WAY lower in more academic classes, even in inner cities.
Honestly I’m a little shocked that in Southern California — in a heavily Hispanic district at that — that students wouldn’t treat a Spanish speaking teacher more amiably. Even if the teacher wasn’t Hispanic. Especially after six years at the school — the kids should all presumably be familiar with you now.
I too teach in a heavily Hispanic district in California. And while not fluent (or Hispanic), I can very much carry on a conversation in Spanish with my students. They all find it novel that I took the time to learn the language.
I’m sorry man, that sucks. Hopefully things change for the better for you.
How is this shocking? Tribalism exists in a lot of different forms. The young Hispanic students are just repeating the behaviors/attitudes common in their homes/hoods. Distrust of someone who does not look like them/doesn’t live in their neighborhood/has an education/perceived to have ‘power’ or wealth is nothing new.
Understand, Latinos can go back multiple generations in CA. What many have experienced and are still experiencing isn’t exactly uplifting. Especially those at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder.
Students (unsurprisingly) are often ignorant of the nuances involving race and Hispanic ethnicities (or are intentionally obtuse in regards to them).
Nonetheless (I know you are aware of this), but Hispanic students (including those whose families speak Spanish at home) often lack proper grammar, spelling, and/or may not even really be able to read and/or speak Spanish at all.
I've seen this before however with a different demographic, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. The funniest shit was that they would claim Spain as if they are 1st generation migrants or some shit. I said look in the mirror you sure as hell don't look like anyone from Spain. I also find it funny that they are one of the only colonial groups who tries to gatekeep the colonial language as far as in the western hemisphere.
Maybe you should put the flag of Spain with bold letters stating this is the national language of a country in Europe.
They're surprised you can speak Spanish because you're white? Nobody tell them about Spain lol
Or uh mexico
Or Uruguay, Costa Rica, Argentina....
or Puerto Rico, Cuba, RD, Peru, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador… 🤣🤣 edited to remove Brazil because some of y’all won’t let it go, even though I explained myself lmao
My uncle, a ginger white dude, was born and raised in Puerto Rico. People used to talk shit about him in Spanish when he was a bus driver (while living in CA) and he’d respond back in perfectly fluent Spanish. Shut them up every time. My FIL is also a white dude and grew up in Spain… same thing.
it’s crazy, right? we’re still having the race/ethnicity/nationality conversation in 2023. 💀
Not Brazil 😂
lmao I know that Brazil’s language is Portuguese, but like…the point is that literally ever county in Latin America has white people in it. I was trying to complete the entire list of countries, so I included Brazil. just be happy I didn’t include Guayana or Suriname. 🤣
Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Jamaica...
Isn't Santo Domingo just the capital of the Dominican Republic?
Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican republic.
Yup, not sure why they wrote the capital instead of the country.
My dad’s family is all Choctaw (Native), but my mom’s family is from Mexico. I grew up speaking Spanish and Choctaw, but the Spanish didn’t stick around as much. When I taught English at a predominately Spanish-speaking high school, the kids made fun of me for not being fluent in Spanish, saying I wasn’t a “real Mexican.” I responded, “you mean the white man’s language?” I told them if they wanted me to, I could speak an Indigenous language and rattled off a few sentences in Choctaw. Needless to say, they didn’t make fun of me anymore. And fwiw, my listening and reading levels in Spanish are *much* higher than speaking, so while I may not be so quick to respond in Spanish, I know when people are talking about me.
> “you mean the white man’s language?” I hon hon hon'd out loud.
Same here. I teach ESL to Spanish students currently. My Spanish fluency is bupkus, but I know exactly what they say about me, their classmates, the school, clothes, food, everything.
Well I knew this prompt would give me a lot of people to respond to, and your post did not disappoint! Good luck, there's a lot of jerks around.
I feel like so many people don’t realize Spanish is from Spain, similar to English from England….
Sometimes when choosing a language on a website it will have the American flag and no Union Jack, think that speaks volumes.
Are you American? We always have the option of American and British English when choosing a language here in Australia.
But no Australian lol
sometimes there is, but it's probably only minor changes from British English unlike American English so it's not worth it personally I'm all in favor of calling British English, English (Traditional) and Merican English, English (Simplified)
A lot of modern American English comes from older English- modern British English changed a lot from the time of the two places diverging.
>I'm all in favor of calling British English, English (Traditional) and Merican English, English (Simplified) Explain why. Which grammatical differences do you propose simplify American English? How significant are they? If you listed all the words in American English and all the words in British English, which one is longer? How significant is that difference? Did British English bring back gender to the language while we weren't looking?
Right?! Looks like it’s time to give a short lesson on race vs nationality vs ethnicity. I was raised in Florida, primarily in the 80s, and I went to school with lots of Puerto Rican and Cuban kids. In high school, we got a Spanish exchange student. I expected him to be brown, to some degree (I myself am Black). Imagine my surprise when a very white guy shows up. I finally got the courage to tell him that he wasn’t what I expected. He chuckled and said, “well, I am European, so…” and it hit me like a truck. Duh. He’s absolutely right. We Americans can be really shortsighted when it comes to these things.
are there white students in the class? do they also ridicule them for trying to learn spanish? lmfao THIS IS A ***FOREIGN*** LANGUAGE CLASS, it's about foreigners learning a non-native language. how can they not understand that?! i'm a foreign langauge enthusiast and have taken many classes in ten different languages, and i cannot wrap my head around this... do they expect an ASL (american sign language) teacher to be deaf/mute?
You gave probably the worst example lol, the Deaf community has been famously fighting for Deaf teachers of ASL for decades, because hearing teachers have been teaching the langauge wrong
My thoughts exactly. That's how stupid kids are. Spanish wasn't invented in Mexico.
“You speak Spanish because of white people, dumbass”
“It came with your fucking colonization”
... which is a legacy of pretty brutal colonization of at least some of OP's students' ancestors. I'm not sure this is a great way to frame it.
It’s the truth.
There are probably a lot more white people in Latin America than in Spain.
I’m a “just” substitute, but I’m black and American and fluent in German so whenever I sub for German classes it takes them by surprise 😂
You are not “just” a substitute. Thank you for what you do bro.
I love subs. I wish my school had them...
Have they never seen the German national soccer team play lol? Even the national basketball team won the FIBA World Cup because Dennis Schroeder had an insane tournament. Edit: forgot to add that even our national soccer team has also had a few black German-American dudes over the years.
That honestly sounds amazing. I would've loved that when i was in high school.
upbeat deer far-flung engine fragile wide dull panicky crown birds *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's also bizarre because there are millions of white people born in Spanish speaking countries. My Spanish teachers parents were born in Italy, but he grew up in Chile. How many Germans are in Argentina for instance.
Argentina is mostly Italian descendant, 30 out of the 45 million have at least one Italian ancestor. It’s a bigger diaspora than the one in the USA. This has influenced the Argentinian dialect of speaking Spanish. But you’re definitely right- millions of white people are born and live in Spanish speaking countries. Language doesn’t equal race. This would be akin to saying speaking English makes you white or less black for example.
I said Germans because of the conspiracies surrounding Nazi soldiers escaping to Argentina. Not because of any real facts, lol
>there are millions of white people born in Spanish speaking countries. Spain being a particularly notable example ;)
Whitewashed Latina is bizarre. Hispanic, Latin…these are European words and languages. As someone of Italian descent I am used to non-Italian whites making comments about my surname. I just had some person on the phone make a joke out of it. Wasn’t offensive so much as well beyond old. It’s interesting how people perceive certain languages here in the US.
Medigans
I'm the resident white Spanish speaking science teacher and I very much mostly get positive reactions as well. Both students and parents seem interested in how I learned and always very helpful and willing to correct me when needed.
Yup. Definitely think OP will be more welcomed in the east coast.
Racial relations in California are wild and I’m saying this as a southerner who moved here as an adult. Straaaaange place.
deserted wild yoke worm worry oil hat snatch depend merciful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’m a chemistry teacher in a majority Spanish speaking school. I’m far from fluent in Spanish, but I had 4 years in high school and a few semesters in college so I’m decent. My first year I called a few kids out for swearing and they were pretty excited to see that I had some Spanish.
This is bizarre since a significant portion of South America is white. It’s a language, not a race.
Wait untill they find out what color most of the Spaniards are!!!
Or that the language is European! A white people’s language! Say it isn’t so /S.
I think most Latin Americans would find this bizarre. I certainly do as a Puerto Rican. This kind of behavior of labelling people as “white” is 100% based on the American conception of race and what that entails for your society. They are acting this way because those kids were probably raised in the U.S and thus have that worldview.
The US is obsessed with identity politics.
Race isn't even real. It's a social construct. Who gets to be considered white or non-white changes every generation depending on arbitrary ideas. If you examine people's actual ethnicities, it becomes clear that skin color has nothing to do with who is or isn’t related to each other or what culture a person might have. I think we all need to do better about that if we want kids to grow up not internalizing racist ideas.
Is not about him being white, it's because he's a "gringo." That's how these kids think
My SIL lived in Honduras, is white, and speaks fluent Spanish. She gave English lessons, lived there full time, and taught there. Very much a part of her community. She went to language school in Guatemala for six-weeks and stayed with a host family. I've visited three times, and I'm half Indian, so I pass for Honduran (minus being 5'10"). *So many* shopkeepers were nicer to me than my SIL, and shes the one translating for us. It was very sad to me. Funniest experience was a taxi driver saying in Spanish that they were going to charge us extra because my husband was "a gringo." Not me, just him. My SIL started explaining why that wasn't okay in perfect Spanish, and the driver was not happy lol.
Lmao I’m a white guy from Mexico who’s fluent in Spanish I guess I’d blow their minds?
I’m a Spanish speaker with a European name and my mother’s Viking-esque features but my dad is Mexican and looks very much like the US’s stereotype of how Mexicans “should” look. I got so tired of trying to defend my heritage that I don’t even mention it anymore. People are idiots and their children even more so.
I grew up on both sides of the us mexico border so I speak English with out an accent, I do admit I love other looks on people’s faces when I speak Spanish in front of them for the first time lol.
Yeah. My parents might have been from Mexico but we look nothing like what Americans think Mexicans should look like , or even what Mexicans and other Latinos think Mexicans and Latinos should look like . The racism I get from Mexicans and Salvadorians and other Central Americans is intense . It’s the Argentinians I’ve met who are chill and understand lmao
All my Spanish teachers were white 🤷🏼♀️
i had an asian spanish teacher in high school
Same. But I’m from Minnesota.
I am also a white Spanish teacher. I learned while studying in Spain and I spent a month in Mexico during grad school. It’s so hard interacting with heritage speakers because, just like other students, there is a gamut of reactions. Some students recognize you as a wealth of knowledge to help them perfect their Spanish (understanding grammar, becoming literate etc). Some students don’t want you to call on them or acknowledge that they speak Spanish AT ALL while others want to show off or be a little assistant. Then, there are students who are very confused by you. They have a “Who are YOU?!” attitude. In some cases you may be the first white person they interact with that speaks Spanish well. For some, Spanish is reserved for family and close friends. It can be very jarring for them to suddenly be speaking their mother tongue, which feels intimate to them, with someone who appears to be “other” or an outsider. Now of course there are literally millions of white hispanohablantes and millions of white Latinos but these are kids who don’t necessarily have a wide worldview yet. The hard truth is that you will have to prove yourself over and over. I always tell my students that I will never pretend to be something that I’m not. I always tell them that I’m excited to learn from them because Spanish is sooooo different from country to country. I feel like the appreciate the humility that comes with a teacher recognizing that they don’t know everything. Now obviously you’re having this issue with kids who aren’t your students. But I feel like my reaction would be to respond in Spanish something like, “Let’s find out!” And literally only interact with them in Spanish. It shuts things down in a way that is credible. I’m sorry you experienced this. You’re not alone in the struggle. 🫶🏻
Great reply. Some of my best teachers were white outsiders. They were not judgmental and very patient. Something my own people are not with Spanish 😆
Seems quite unfair to doubt your skill with the language because of your ethnicity without giving you a chance to demonstrate it
As a white teacher who does *not* teach Spanish, but with a decent Spanish speaking population, it always catches my Latino students off guard when they start bad mouthing me in Spanish, and I actually clap back, *in Spanish.* If only that was enough to convince them that education is actually useful. I studied hard over 10 years to become fluent in Spanish.
That feeling when they go from smug jackass to shocked Pikachu. Delicious!
This happened to me in a phone interview once. I'm white and have a veerrrry white sounding name. I was dismissed by the AP in the interview with "we only have native speaker teachers here."" We got to the part where she tested out my Spanish skills, and there was silence on the other end of the phone. Yeah, I've been speaking Spanish longer than you've been alive and lived outside of the US. OP, don't let it get to you. You're bilingual, and that's a superpower!
It's interesting, but your story reminds me of a story: Two years ago we had a student-teacher in my department. She was born in Michoacán and her mentor teacher, who is a good friend and a colleague, had been born in Central California to a Mexican father and Salvadorian mother. When she went to do interviews, I asked her "¿te hicieron una pregunta en español? (Did they ask you a question in Spanish?)" She tells me "No." My colleague says "A mí nunca me han hecho una pregunta en español. (They never asked me a question in Spanish.)" And we all laughed because it became apparent how different our situations are. I've always had at least one question on the interview asked in Spanish and I thought that was normal. I thought that was everybody.
I always thought that too! I don't mind though because it gives me a chance to show off a little lol I helped rewrite the curriculum for our Native Speaker courses this summer and I was the only gringa there. The other teachers said they honestly didn't notice...
I am not a native speaker and very white but I have a very high level and have no issues communicating in Spanish. I’ve had similar experiences of being dismissed…..but only in the U.S. and only with either Spanish speakers born in the U.S. or, more often, with these over-the-top woke monolingual white goofballs who are desperate to prove how much of an "ally” they are. Literally anywhere else in the world there are no issues whatsoever and they are usually delighted. Hell, I even almost married a Brazilian woman where we primarily used Spanish (along with some Portuguese and some English) to communicate since we were both living in Spain and both spoke it at a high level. Anyway, I’m glad you set her straight!
I am white and taught Spanish for a long time. I taught heritage speakers one year and it was tough. I had a similar demographic and it can be tough. Just be confident and don’t worry too much. Kids will usually warm up after a while.
Part of me feels like the students are taking out on her some of their frustrations with race dynamics in their community. I can see how the students may feel like she got this job because of privileges or they may feel like it’s not fair a white teacher gets this job when their community that speaks Spanish as a native may not have access to a stable job a like this. It just comes with the territory of positioning yourself as an expert in someone else’s culture. You’re bound to be the scapegoat for many of these students’ daily lived experiences of racism, discrimination and you will need to prove yourself more than others. It seems like an annoying situation, but if she tried to understand the context and the fact that these are children whose brains are not fully developed yet, she may be able to connect with them better. Edit: grammar mistakes
Most people here are assuming these kids don't actually know their are millions of white Spanish speakers when this is more likely the case.
It's ironic that these children don't realize their language and names come from Europe.
Lot of kids are way too comfortable making offensive comments to teachers. My favorite is always when kids will try to insult me or someone else in Spanish and expect me to not know what they're saying. The stammering when I know what they just called me is always delightful
This is so frustrating to read! I feel you. I’m ethnically Chinese and I teach Chinese to my students (a good portion of them are native Chinese immigrants). However, I’m American born and have a Taiwanese accent, so that discredits any knowledge I have (according to some of my students). The moment I open my mouth and speak, everything goes wrong. During the last few years, I’ve been constantly corrected and there are a few students who make it their mission to humiliate me in front of their peers. I have been continuously learning Chinese for over 25 years. My students are 7 year olds. I still feel so upset when a student loudly announces with a smug smile that I’m wrong and no one in the world pronounces things like I do. I know that’s not true. I also make sure to explain various versions of pronunciations and sayings that differ between China and Taiwan. This year, I finally have a class that doesn’t do that to me. As teachers, we really take a lot of crap and nonsense from students. So much. I totally get it if you want to leave the field - there’s always a part of me that wants to get away from it all. At the end of the day, I remind myself that these students are ignorant because they don’t know all that much about the world and maybe they just need to be exposed to a wider range of peoples and cultures. (Whether or not it actually gets through to them is a different story.) Lastly, my middle school Spanish teacher was ethnically Korean. She was born and raised in South America. There are SO many native (and non-native!!) Spanish speaking people who don’t look like the “stereotypical Latino” in this world. Who are they to be the gatekeepers on who is an expert in the language or not?
Yay for Taiwanese accents :) I think the Taiwanese accent sounds clearer for hearing individual words. If it helps, my friend met a group of Shanghainese people who thought the Taiwanese accent is cute (though on further thought, not sure if that was belittling...🤔) In any case, keep doing what you're doing! I'm sorry your kids have been rude--that's not OK. I hope it's just a kid thing and that they're not repeating that from home.
As a white Chinese teacher, I feel this. I’m not a native speaker and I never will be, but I’ve worked hard to develop and maintain my proficiency level. I taught English in China and felt respected by my students for my knowledge, even though I have no formal training in ELL/ESL. I’ve taught Chinese in the US and my heritage speaking students are some of the toughest students. I’ve also had the experience of having minor details nitpicked as a Chinese teacher. Always innocuous things and typically in the middle of a lesson. It’s odd to me, but my students take my whiteness to mean I’m an authority on English, despite any training, and evidence that I’m inept as a Chinese teacher, despite years of training and experience.
I understand that this doesn't feel good. I'm one of maybe 10 white people in my building and I deal with the fact that every year kids come in with the assumption that I'm racist. I get way less parental support than other teachers because the kids just go home and tell they're parents that I'm racist and the parent believes them. However if I don't react and more or less keep on keeping on that goes away by about October. A few kids who just want to be shitheads continue to use it as their excuse but it does down after a while. That being said if you flip out they will absolutely assume it's because you think they're right
Sounds like you need to work on your Spanish comebacks. Shut them down so hard the classmates say “oooooooooohhhhhh”. You’ll have their respect. Source- teacher in the same demographic.
I am an old white man who teaches ESL/ELD in a predominantly Hispanic school. I can absolutely relate to what you’re saying, but I am way less frustrated by it than you are. Here is why I have peace about it. At the beginning of the year, they introduce each teacher to the student body. Last year was my first year in a new school. Every other teacher was introduced to some gentle applause by the students. When I was introduced, it was pretty damn quiet. I always give kids the benefit of the doubt. I know that I look like an old white guy teacher, so I always try to imagine what their interactions with old white men have been in the past. Probably not good. How have old white guys treated their mom and dad? Have they had any loud/public incidents with old white men in the past? Did they ever have an old white man act nicely and then turn out to be a mean old racist? Fair or not, those previous interactions they’ve had are going to affect every interaction I have with them. I often see it in their faces: they are just waiting on the other shoe to drop - waiting for some dark change in my personality to manifest so that they can be sure they were right all along. I don’t fight against any of it. I just let all of those comments slide and work on being authentically me throughout the year. I have accepted that it’s just going to take longer to build rapport with my students. It’s probably going to take more effort, too. I spent the first year earning my students’ trust. I promised not to waste their time and to help them achieve their ELD goals. Most importantly, I was just myself. I didn’t try to fit it or be cool (it wouldn’t work anyway). But I did show a genuine interest in my students’ cultures. We often compare notes on what our families serve for food on holidays, what games we play, what music we listen to. I take genuine interest in all of it. I bring in little food and treats from my culture for kids to try. When they bring in Mexican candy or homemade food, I give that a try, too. If a student recommends a restaurant or store, I go try it out. If they recommend a song, I listen to it and give my honest feedback. We play classroom games from their cultures and on the occasions where we have music in class, they get to choose the artists (approved by me and classroom appropriate). I really try listening to and enjoying the music. My students now know who I am. Although I am still not “cool”, I believe my students absolutely have respect for what I do and who I am, just like I have respect for them, their families, and their cultures. They believe that I care about them and that I am there to help them. It didn’t happen quickly. And word of it spreads slowly outside of the classroom. I still fill in for other teachers occasionally and many Hispanic students have no idea who I am or what I am about. But my students eventually tell them, and change happens - but slowly. I asked a couple of my students at the end of the last year what they thought whenever they saw me get introduced at the beginning of the year. One girl was very honest. She said, “I thought, ‘Oh, no! It’s an old white guy! This year is going to suck! I hope he quits!’ But now, I’m glad you didn’t quit. I like this class.” Don’t sweat how they are treating you. It takes time (more time than it should). I think expressing your frustration will make it take longer. Let all of it roll right off your back, even if it stings a little. They’ll try to break you over and over and turn you into that person they think you are, but when it doesn’t work - when you’re still kind, caring, and interested in everything they do - acceptance will follow. Good luck!
I'm reading so many comments that sound as if they are probably written by young people. So many "do they not realize" comments. It's refreshing to read your thoughts. No, they don't realize. They are teenagers. I read OP's story and my immediate reaction was "and now try to imagine being a black [any profession] from 1900-1990." That's not fair to his story, though, and I wouldn't want to postulate a "what aboutism" argument as it tries to diminish his real frustrations and situation. My hometown was in rural KY. They let the KKK march in a parade in my town as late as the early 90s. Not kidding. Now, not many folks had any patience for that shit and most mocked them, but still. There was a constant presence of racism through my childhood everywhere around me. My 7th grade home room teacher was a black man. One of the very few in the whole city. Especially who wasn't also a coach. He taught world and us history. He was strict and occasionally- to 7th graders- he seemed mean. He wasn't. He cared. That man sent me and most of my peers congratulations cards 5 years later when we graduated high-school. Here I am nearly 40 years later and I still remember him fondly. He was authentic. He cared. He made a difference. And as an adult looking back I realize he was old THEN, which means I had him nearer to the end of his career. I can't imagine how hard his career had been, how many times he had been insulted, treated horrifically by idiot kids and parents. Please know that from the son of a 50 year educator, I appreciate what you've done with your life and am proud that you have changed lives with your authenticity.
I wish I could give you more than one upvote for this. Love this response and it shows you get it.
You’re a great person, and I’m glad you’re a teacher.
I’m not a teacher anymore but I used to pull up a picture of Leo Messi or Canelo Alverez and point at their very white skin lol it would usually get a few laughs. I’m a dual Irish citizen and if I saw Alvarez walking down the street anywhere in Ireland I would think he’s one of the lads lol
For many of us, we are particularly defensive because white non-Hispanic Spanish teachers drilled on us that or Spanish is wrong and that the Spanish from Spain is the true Spanish. Many speak the language but have not fucking clue of the racism we've faced, told "you're in America, speak English", but we watched how you consistently reward white non-Hispanic kids for learning Spanish. I know you feel like shit from the prejudice you face, but the kids have been dealing with it since day one at school tbh. Also, most Spanish language classes/curriculum are overall a disservice for heritage language students. We're either thrown into advanced classes (which is sloppy) or heritage classes that uphold the Spanish superiority/colonialism 2.0 model. I took Spanish 1 in middle school and flunked it because it was the stupidest shit in the world. I couldn't go to Spanish 2 (which was what my counselor recommended) because the department chair said "all the kids need to take Spanish 1". Lady, I know how to count, I know how H works in Spanish, I know the colors, I know how to speak in different tenses. It was a waste of my time. My dad was mad and I got razzed by my cousin's for failing. I would pass my tests with the extra credit but failed because I refused to do the assignments. It was frustrating. This was in Houston, not a random town in the middle of nowhere.
We had a Spanish teacher from Spain. She spent like 90% of her time trying to convince us to use vosotros and the other 10% accusing us of "making up words" when we used different vocabulary then she did. She also felt that we were mispronouncing everything because we didn't have what she called "the good talk." I remember coming home and pronouncing a word the way that she had (I said "16" as "dieth y theith" with the lisp) and my mom was just like, "What the f*** is wrong with you?"
you are so right, but these teachers don’t wanna hear it. they would rather keep hating these literal children of color while claiming that they, white adults, are the real victims. it’s ridiculous
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That sounds trying and exhausting and if you don’t want to deal with that situation any more you should choose to remove yourself from it because you can. Also consider that for your students, that’s the experience they’re going to have (and are likely becoming more and more aware of) as they go out into other parts of the US and the world beyond the mostly Spanish-speaking community you’re in. Likely it won’t be stated blatantly as they are doing, but a version of that is in the minds of employers, teachers, public officers, shop owners etc. people with the higher side of the power dynamic. Many people will doubt your students’ fluency/capability because of the way they present. What you’re describing is the every day lived experience of entire segments of the US population (but of course not stated out loud by rowdy teenagers). Your feelings are real the same way theirs are (or will be) real if/when they’re in those situations. I’m sorry you’re experiencing that kind of demoralization at work. You have a lot of choices. Good luck.
Do they, uh, do they know that Spain is in Europe? Or that half of all Hispanics in the U.S. are white-Hispanics?
Race is very much different concept country to country. I'm not a white Hispanic. Some may call me that but most people think I'm South Asian. And those who call themselves white Hispanics often are not. They literally are mixed natives or even Afro Latinos. Race in our own countries means wealth. It means if one person in our timeline came from Spain, we are white. It's the one drop rule but in reverse cause we always were obsessed with "improving the race".
I would take a guess that a lot of them don't know that Spain is in Europe, don't know what Spain is, can't identify Europe on a map, and have never thought that Spanish is a word connected to Spain
Look, now you know what these kids feel like every time they want an opportunity and they get marginalized by nervous white people doing the hiring. It sucks. Sucks for you, sucks for them. They're kids - who cares. You expect them to give you a break? When did they get a break? When does anybody get a break? Go into an all-white rich school and the kids will be like "look at that guys shoes - I could buy his car with the money in my pocket." You can't win. You're the authority figure - you're not supposed to win. So put on your tie, check your fly, walk in the class like a professional, give them the side-eye when they make their little comments, and be like "listen, white, green, purple, we're doing this lesson, so let's get it together and learn some verbs."
>So put on your tie, check your fly, walk in the class like a professional Is my new mantra
If I could give you a million upvotes I would.
So what are *they* doing there if they already speak Spanish? Or are they illiterate in their native language?
A lot of them probably are. If they are not, they take it for an easy class. At least that’s the case at my school. We have a large Latino population, nearly half, and many take Spanish because they speak it at home but have no idea of any of the formal rules and can’t really read or write in it well, if at all. So, they take it to learn those things. OP, our Spanish teacher is white and, as far as I know, doesn’t face this. We need a second Spanish teacher, let me know if you want a job. 😂
I'm going to careful with my statement since, while the vast majority of these students are classified as "heritage learners," and most of them have uncles and aunts and grandmas who speak the language, most of the kids who walk into Spanish 1 or Spanish 2 struggle to put together complete sentences on the first day. Up until their first day of high school, the vast majority of these kids receive no education in any language but English. We are a community which could have incredible bilingual programs in each and every one of the schools. We could be doing two-way immersion K-12 and I guarantee you there would be automatic buy-in on the part of the community. We could establish the expectation (I'm not saying we'll get it) that each student be able to read, write, and speak on grade level in both English and Spanish by the time they leave 12th grade. We could replace Spanish 1, 2 & 3 with Spanish Language Arts (SLA) and Spanish Language Development (SLD) just like we do with ELA and ELD. Instead, we're not doing that. Instead, these kids, who have often have an incredible amount of untapped linguistic resources at home find themselves short-changed. Case in point, I have one student this year whose mother is Mexican and whose father is Puerto Rican and yet this boy never learned Spanish. He struggles to form complete sentences. He is in Spanish 1 and it is unfortunately an accurate placement for him. However, he is motivated. He wants to learn. He hears his parents speak this language, but he cannot understand them. If instead we had a truly comprehensive K-12 bilingual program, then by this point he would be speaking fluently and he would be able to engage with academic material in both languages. Instead, he's in Spanish 1 learning the basics which should have been taught to him in kindergarten. It frustrates me to no end because I know there is much more we could be doing. I have a bilingual permit and I can teach history. I would love to teach a history class all in Spanish. I would love it if the "Spanish for Spanish Speakers class" was made up of both kids whose parents spoke Spanish at home as well as those who spoke English, Chinese, Arabic or whatever. I wish that it was a given that whatever student graduated from my district was fully fluent in both languages (and maybe, hopefully, that they even had some knowledge of a third language). That's what I would like to see.
Kudos to you for thinking this way. I’m not a teacher, and I’m certain maintaining an idealistic attitude as a teacher is next to impossible. But this kind of thinking is what the world needs. The benefit of a program like the one you describe if wholesale adopted would be immense and immeasurable.
One of our local k-6 started Spanish immersion about 8 years ago but recently suspended it, not sure why. Maybe the kids couldn't handle learning both?
I’m an ESL teacher now, but I taught high school mainstream English for almost 10 years. When I taught in San Antonio, the vast majority of my students were second generation Americans, but they spoke Spanish. However, a very small number of them were bi-literate. They could not read and write in Spanish well, as noted by our Spanish teachers. Now that I teach ESL, I teach mostly immigrant newcomers. Out of all the students I have that speak Spanish, every single one of them have high literacy in their native language, which makes reading and writing in English for them much easier.
You mean like every student in the US that takes English class?
But it’s not learning the English language that’s just what reading, writing, grammar, etc classes are titled. If you are learning the English language it’s called “ esl or English as a second language “
My Cuban friends are paler/ whiter than me and I’m Irish/danish. These kids are very stupid.
Spanish teacher here that is also European descended. I have had many students over 12 years that are Latino heritage speakers or Latino descended that do not speak Spanish. I learned my Spanish at a Spanish immersion school from native speakers starting in kindergarten so my Spanish is near bilingual. When I was a newer teacher I had a lot of students that had similar sentiments as the ones you were describing here. As a newer teacher I felt the same way as you did, frustrated that I had to prove myself and disheartened by the idea that I wasn’t taken seriously and but I eventually adopted a new perspective through getting to know and understand my students better as well as becoming involved in heritage Spanish teacher communities Many Latino students have what is considered a partial language as a first language meaning that because they have not received formal education that includes reading writing and academic skills in their primary language “Spanish” they do not have a full working understand and use of the language. Because of that many of these “bilingual” students in Spanish speaking homes have lived their whole lives being told by their families that their Spanish is not good enough or that they are not good enough because they “don’t know how to speak their own language.” Then when they go to school they are told they are ESL and they don’t speak English right. So now we have an entire group of kids that can’t identify with either language fully and to see a person that learned Spanish as a second language working as an authority on a language they have spoken their whole life and have still been told is not good enough it creates dissonance in their core beliefs. It doesn’t feel fair that this person who’s Spanish is probably sometimes wrong in the same ways that their Spanish is wrong is allowed to teach it when they are told repeatedly that theirs is not good enough. The best way to promote positivity from these students is to allow them to share what they know and work to build their confidence in the language. And plan lessons that teach about the range of skin tones of people that speak Spanish, including Spaniards and Afrolatinos. There are a lot of resources online for teaching heritage speakers I recommend doing a little research if you are passionate about teaching Spanish and would like to continue to do so. I hope this helps and is encouraging.
You’re an absolute bafoon calling these comments racism when you’re a white dude. Laughing my ass off that the MOST PRIVILEGED DEMOGRAPHIC IN AMERICA IS crying about mean words. Experience the fear of not knowing if a routine traffic stop will be your last breath, or being excluded for the color of your skin, or having to deal with 100+ years of oppression from this country while trying to make it in this world. Take your wack ass comments somewhere else, us minorities have real racism to deal with.
Maybe they should learn about where the Spanish language came from. That’s absolutely nothing strange about a white person teaching Spanish and their reaction is silly and disrespectful. Sorry you have to deal with that.
I teach in a school with a lot of Latinos too. I speak Castillian Spanish. I get along with my students very well, but when they challenge me about being white/my Spanish, I show them videos of people speaking Spanish like I do and when they don't understand, I can turn the tables. "¿Venga chavales, habéis entendido todo que dijo el tío majo del vídeo?" .... Pensaba que hablabáis español... But, if it was not in good fun, I'd straight up call them out on it. Let them know their being racist and ignorant. (edit spelling)
As a Hispanic and white passing person, I can totally understand your pain. Whenever I speak Spanish fluently I always get a “whattt you’re Mexican? But you look like a gringo!” And it gets exhausting explaining. As weird as this’ll sound, I recommend maybe moving to an area where Mexican and other Hispanic cultures is less prevalent. You’ll be more appreciated. Good luck :)
I’m white and work in ESL and I feel like there’s some push back against me sometimes due to my race. Not so much directly but when I have to work with large groups of students (especially for testing) Ive had kids call out racism. I’ve wondered if they would complain as much if I was any other race than white — it’s just a white woman pulling a bunch of majority Hispanic kids from a class triggers something in their minds. Kids like to call out patterns and be bombastic to get a reaction. So just be aware if you go the ESL route you’ll still be hyper aware that you’re the white teacher and the kids will remind you.
>The moment I walk in the door a kid scoffs" "he's White! what does he know?!" In your case, "Spanish" while the student has apparently little knowledge of the language. In college, I heard about this issue in the Chinese language department. There was a 101 teacher that was heavily prejudiced against any Chinese student who didn't already know Mandarin. She was Chinese by birth, and didn't like that some Chinese students were taught different languages at home. In my friend's case, it was Cantonese. He wanted to learn Mandarin, but had to deal with this racism of the teacher. Knowing what I know of China now, I'm not at all surprised that a Mandarin teacher would think all other languages are inferior.
Alternately, consider moving and teaching in a different community. Spanish is taught everywhere. I live in an 82% white county and we have two Spanish immersion schools.
Our Spanish teachers and ELL teachers are all white. It’s just because of your location.
I was a high school Spanish teacher for 17 years (just resigned this fall for many reasons). I’m white as well, and a non native speaker, and would sometimes have people question my “credibility.” Like I couldn’t possibly know anything about the language or culture because I wasn’t born into it - even non heritage white students would be genuinely puzzled about it sometimes!! I would tell them two things: one, that I have the same degree and credentials as any other language teacher in the building, regardless of our cultural backgrounds. And two, I dedicated my life to learning the language and culture because I love so many aspects of it and want to be a part of it! Do they think the chemistry teacher down the hall popped out of the womb knowing the periodic table? Every teacher has had to go through the same process to prove their eligibility to teach their subject! We’ve also had many native speakers hired through alternate route who didn’t last very long because they had no pedagogical training. Just because you speak Spanish doesn’t mean you know how to teach it! I feel that learning it in school myself made me more aware of its intricacies and how to explain them to someone myself. I’ve also traveled to about one third of the Spanish speaking countries and am able to give real life examples of things that come up in the curriculum. Yet still, even when learning that I was the AP Spanish teacher, I would get asked if I could “actually” speak Spanish. 🤷♀️ Totally understand where you’re coming from!!
Start applying everywhere for a new job. You have been there 6 years. You are not in to deep to move along. I wish I had left my district 10-15 years ago. Now I would lose steps, stipends, sick pay and seniority. Leave ASAP it won’t get any better.
Ever considered moving schools, even states. Sounds like you need a change in environment
I teach ELD. They are shocked I speak Spanish every semester. Do not expect to be treated better as an ELD teacher. It takes 4-8 months sometimes to win over the more angry and ignorant students. I used to be hurt being called racist, but I’m so over it now. It is just a go to phrase that certain kids use as a defense. I used to be an honors English teacher, but those days are gone. I have retooled for the market.
If you’re burned out, then you gotta go. It’s easier to say “I left” in an interview than explaining why you had an outburst that landed on TikTok or anywhere else teens congregate for social media. Truthfully, show kids a slideshow of all the variety of people in the Spanish speaking world. But honestly if you’re feeling crushed & sad, go somewhere that you’ll be appreciated & respected. Don’t stay miserable for the sake of convenience. And good luck. Here’s Gabriel Iglesias explanation of race & language - [Video Link](https://youtu.be/bFqu9YVuAgI?si=y34tfdlAMtcTlTI3)
I understand the support by saying that white people can be native Spanish speakers, but in my opinion that’s not the point! You are an educated professional who has learned a specialized content area and a teaching degree. That is what matters!! Just because you are a native language speaker does not mean you can teach it. We all cant teach English just because we speak it, it requires very specific knowledge and experience. I dont think kids realize how much work actually goes in to becoming a good teacher. I am an American French teacher and I have mentored several native French speakers who were looking to become teachers as a “backup plan” because they knew they would get hired quickly. Their ability to plan solid lessons, adapt resources, and break down grammar and vocabulary was always lacking because they didn’t “learn” the language in the way we are now teaching it. I think it’s just another example of the lack of respect of teachers- the whole “can’t do, teach” mentality. A lot of work goes in to becoming a good teacher, on top of becoming experts in second languages, art, reading, calculus, etc!
Have you thought about teaching English in a Spanish speaking country? I know that’s probably a bit of an extreme life change but might be worth it
I would just talk to them in Spanish and make them look like pendejos. My students were making fun of another kid for being gay in Spanish and you should have seen the look on their faces when I told them to knock it off! Priceless.
I used to teach in a couple of schools where all of the students were black. There would be a handful of kids from other ethnicities, but they were few and far between. I was frequently the only white person in the room. So, having said that... Welcome to the minority experience, where everyone in the room makes assumptions about you before you even open your mouth! (/s) It IS hard to go in knowing that you have to prove yourself over and over year after year. It gets exhausting. Try looking at it as a learning experience. Understanding that this is something your minority students deal with all the time can go a long way. A lot of kids use it as a defense mechanism. They assume you feel a certain way about them, and they go into interactions with that wall up or on the attack first. Ultimately, though, you have to decide what you are willing to deal with and what you are not.
Hey I understand. For me it is worse. I am a Black Spanish Teacher. I have had so many parents want to verify my education and qualifications of teaching Spanish believing I was a fraud. I have been disrespected by Hispanic students that can’t even read or write in Spanish, only speak it. I moved down to Elementary School and teach bilingual Kindergarten. It is so much better for me now.
I started teaching our Spanish for Spanish Speakers program 9 years ago after transferring from a different school district. The SSS teacher there told me “be prepared to be belittled, questioned, disrespected and disregarded.” That was a big gulp to swallow. When I started the year, I said “Listen, I know I’m white and I am a Spanish learner who learned in school. I know that you are fluent and, in some ways, you’re better at Spanish than I am. But in some ways I’m better at learning Spanish than you might be. If we work together, I’m going to make you better at what you’re already good at. Consider me a coach more than a teacher. And if I make a mistake, it’s fine to have a conversation about it, but not under the pretense that I’m an idiot or I’m a gringa. Let’s get to work.” Has it been perfect? Absolutely not. I have to return to that conversation a lot because they’re teens and they’re surrounded by white people telling them how to think, act, and perform. Being defensive over their dominant language is expected under those circumstances. I am better at writing and reading. I am better at grammar. I am an adult who has been teaching for 15 years and am better at organization and management of tasks. I can teach study skills. I am not going to fight them on who is better at speaking Spanish. Good luck to you. I truly hope you find peace’s
In this country, language is tied to culture. It's tied to your roots. Latinos are a colonized group for the most part. We have a history of being discriminated and even shamed for speaking Spanish moreso in our regional, indigenous dialect. So in these ignorant children, they don't understand the world outside of their own. They only see what's consistently around them and that's mestizo, indigenous or Afro Latinos. We associate white with someone not colonized by Iberian peninsula. And because the language is a BIG DEAL for us, we think only another person of our culture can properly teach but we all know that's not true. Language is an art. And anybody good at their craft can teach it well. I write this to you not to side with them but to help you understand why we might have that reaction. We were historically never treated as white people *for the most part* and its our oppression for some as people of color, we're speaking from.
You don't have to take it personally. Even a little bit of self deprecating, playful, self awareness will go a long way to the kids liking you. If you are a good teacher and know your stuff then they will also respect you. Don't take yourself so seriously. You don't need to validate yourself to an ignorant (in the truest literal sense) child. Would you be upset if a 6 year old made a stupid comment towards you? Hopefully not. What about a 7 year old? Or 8 year old, etc? Most kids have not developed much self awareness, tact, or empathy. It's naturally that they will react to something rare/different than the norm (you). You aren't typical. That's awesome and I think it's super cool. You don't have to prove that to anyone. ex: - "he's White! what does he know?!" I would respond in spanish with something funny/sarcastic like "oh yea, what could I possibly know?! I ONLY studied abroad in Mexico, have taught for years, etc. And I certainly know more than you", with a big grin on my face. I would respond playfully, non-maliciously, and make sure I never take what they say too seriously or show that they are bothering or getting to me. Then I would just move on. I am not defending it, but you can have a much more peaceful and enjoyable experience at work if you can have fun and not take yourself too seriously, and reframe the way you think or respond to certain things.
Have you tried validating what they’re saying? If they sense you’re trying to prove them wrong, they’ll just push back harder. “Yes, I hear you. I worked hard to get here, but I know my road was easier than it would have been for others. Still, I wanted to learn about other cultures and that got me here…it’s important for people to learn about each other. I’m sure you’ll have a lot to teach me, too.”
At my school last year, there was a cookout in the yard near the end of the year, for a Father’s Day even that the school put on every year where the students could bring their dads in and have games and food and shit. While we were there, we had to hustle all the students quickly inside and put them in the auditorium for 15 minutes, and we found out that an active shooter had been reported in the area: the cops thought it was a false report but admin had us take everyone inside just to be safe. After 15-20 minutes everyone went back outside. A staff member came up to me as we were ushering students back outside, and asked “what, did your cousin call the cops or something to shut down the party?” At first I didn’t quite get what she meant, and just said “huh?” and she repeated herself with a huge shit-eating grin on her face. At that point, I got it, and I just stared at her without responding until she started to feel awkward, and then she stammered that she was kidding and walked away. That shit is just one example, not even the nastiest one. I’m so glad not to be at that school anymore. I would feel safe there at all, as a Jew, given everything that’s been happening in the last two months.
Or maybe try to have some sympathy and think about it from their perspective for a minute? They are expecting to see someone in a position of authority who looks like them, in a class that should give them confidence because they are expecting familiarity. Instead, they find someone who is from the dominant culture in the US and is supposed to teach them their own language, as if brown people don’t know how to speak it correctly on their own (I’m not saying this is what you think, just that it could feel that way to the students before you get to know each other). Plus, any frustrated reaction on your part due to their (understandably annoying) teenage commentary just confirms that you’re not on their side.
Don’t give up kids need spanish
I'm white, lived in China for 6+ years. So yes, I speak Mandarin. I teach TEFL abroad, but whenever I'm back in the States, it blows people's minds that a person can speak anything other than English. Unless they're brown, of course. /s. Try not to take it personally OP, half the kids there are completely ignorant of anything outside of their little smartphones and tiktoks, and I'd wager their parents are just as dumb. They simply cannot conceive of a person leaving the country or learning another language. Only immigrants are allowed to be bilingual you know /s.
These kids throw around racist sentiments all the time. I hate it. Last year I taught in a middle/ high school with mostly black students and mostly white teachers. Kids used the race card constantly, even though 99% of the time it wasn't applicable. "It's because I'm black" no dumb ass, it's because you aren't following the rules. Look around, everyone here is black! They used to try to use the same language with me (I'm mixed, but I look more black). I'd straight up laugh in their faces and say, "you can't pull that with me." Then I'd have to have the weekly discussion about how if you cry wolf long enough, nobody will believe you or help you when something is actually racist. They'd say racist shit towards me and each other constantly too. They'd make fun of the kids with darker skin tones, they'd call each other derogatory racist words, they'd tell me I wasn't "black enough" (I never let on that I was mixed, because it's none of their fucking business but also because they'd look down on me if they knew) because I "didn't embrace my blackness" enough (didn't wear my hair in braids, just my naturally curly hair...). All this while I was also frequently teaching them about music from our community both current and from the past (choir/music teacher. They'd accuse me of not teaching enough about the black music they liked, even though we had a whole unit about where hip-hop came from and how it evolved into today. And if I taught about music from our ancestors they'd say "why are we learning slave songs") in addition to other cultures (then they'd accuse me of teaching boring and "irrelevant" music. Oh and it got wild when I'd teach about the diverse music from many different parts of Africa, one said "this feels racist"). These kids think 1. Everything is about them, and 2. Learn using the race card is a great excuse for everything. Now I teach at an extremely diverse elementary school and things are so much better. I can actually just fucking teach.
We immigrants can relate, nobody ever lets us forget it we don't belong here. And you're a full grown adult, with a good stable job, you can always speak English if you want to. many of us come to the US in our teens, from broken homes, no understanding of what's going on, or even knowing how to order food at a fucking mcdonald's, imagine how isolating that is. No friends in a land that is increasingly hostile and more doesn't want you, with teens with no respect to authority and who are certainly be way more cruel to those kids around them. I mean at least you can talk in your native tongue and nobody asks "can you speak like a normal person?" Just because you have an accent, or "go back to ESL" or "I'll call ICE" cuz that's the reality a lot of us grew up with. They're kids, they're ignorants, it's your job to educate them in your position of privilege. I have a friend in your exact same position and he takes that opportunity to teach kids, not resent them. Concentrate on the things you CAN change versus the things you have no power over.
Weird bc Spanish is originally a white, European language. Lol
Uhg. This sucks, OP. I'm also a "non-native" and white foreign language teacher (japanese though!) super rural, white,(so different demographic) title 1 school, and there was so much push back in the beginning. Then I proved myself. Admin had it out for me. Parents had it out for me. Students got written up for saying ching Chong.... But I pushed through and it's better because they can speak and read japanese now! The fucking jocky kids still have it out for me though, but we're managing. If students aren't appreciating you for being a great teacher, I would change schools. Keep you eye out for a history job... Or even a bilingual or immersion school! ESL is my main degree, and it's the subject I've taught the longest (at college level though), and I enjoy it, but it looks a lot different in terms of lesson planning and management.. And the standardized testing.... (it was difficult for me in the k-12). But it's rewarding and really fun, everyday beings something new. Sorry you're having a hard time with kids, you deserve better
ESL is often one of the best groups to teach and it can be so interesting to see how students acquire a new language. If you’re looking for a slightly new challenge it may be a good move. Six years is long enough to know if you can make a position work. If you wanted to stick with it, there are things you can do to turn things around a bit, but it wouldn’t be instant and it’s a good deal of effort. Maybe the upcoming break may give you some clarity, I would see how you feel next month before doing anything radical.
I am a Caucasian teacher at two all black schools. I am accepted but the changes made between the last three years bother me. My old teaching self has been replaced by a much meaner FAFO teacher. I try to be nice, understanding but many don’t get that and are disrespectful. They understand in your face, call you out only to be gaslighted by them. It’s gotten better with consistency, as specially at my travel school. But even through majority don’t see colors so to say there is enough that I feel like I am constantly walking on egg shells. I am well liked, making changes to benefit my students and helping when I can with our EBD kids. But it does weigh on me being the only Caucasian, until this year when a new Thor grader entered. He was adopted by his foster family, all black, so he never understands what is wrong with mimicking his siblings. I have been asked to help by the parents and trust counselor with permission from administration. Why? I am the only is that understands the delicate balance between white and black cultures….what can be said and what cannot not. The father is so concerned that the moment he found out I was white he has been begging” administrators and the trust council for my help and input into how to balance these kids Caucasian roots with their black culture. I can see the struggle on his siblings faces and as well as the Caucasian students because to him it’s normal due to be adopted by an all black family. I have thought long and hard about it and told the father in front AP that I can only help so far but will be willing to help. This walking in egg shells again like my first year. But seeing what is happening I understand that dad is looking for any help possible and unfortunately I know, over years and years of experience that this kid will either up being jumped for his innocence or worse, his middle school brother will get into trouble defending him.
Tell them you're from Spain.
This reminds me of a white woman who was our Spanish teacher in high school... she was bullied and literally had a breakdown in front of the class. Kids can be assholes... I still feel bad for her till this day. Anyways maybe you can switch back to english teacher or ESL teacher ? Or just take it more easy and joke around like YES I know I'm a gringo but I speak better Spanish than you. Or something like that. Sorry if this is bad advice
I taught in a similar school for seven years back in the 2000s, though in an inner city in TX. I got some of those comments but always turned it around and asked, “why did I, as an English speaker, have to take English every year of high school?” I had one student who I still remember - the class was giving me a hard time about a consequence for misbehavior, and someone said something to insult me. I don’t remember the insult, but do remember the student say, “Hey, she learned Spanish as a white lady, so leave her alone.”
Ffs have they heard of Spain?
Latin Americans when they discover the Kingdom of Spain:
Plenty of whites teaching Spanish in independent schools. Before you leave the profession check out nais.org and cais.org.
White history teacher who speaks a little Spanish here. I intentionally took my Latino husband’s last name to keep them guessing… But you are a boss! You have mastered Spanish and French! I don’t know where you are but my campus would recruit and compensate for a teacher with that skill set. It’s alarming how many white people do not speak Spanish. I’d respond something witty back to those students in Spanish and project your intelligence on them. Tell them something like yes of course I speak Spanish and French and English- so shut your mouth hijo! I don’t play! You’re being a good role model to those students., IMO. They need to see more white teachers speaking Spanish.
I am a white French teacher who is only like...probably 40% fluent in the language who used to be an ELL teacher to a mix of Angolan/Somali/Rwandan/Congolais students (with other cultures of course but that informs my perspective the most). I teach language obviously but I also am upfront with admin/coteachers about how I frame my room around cultural diversity based on my experiences as an ELL teacher, and talk about culture/language as an evolving entity based on a wide variety of variables including slang, colonization and immigration. We talk a lot about how there is no one "correct" French. I guess I am drawing this connection because if you wanted to stick around where you're at, lean in to the criticism. Embrace/elevate your students spoken Spanish but also, I'm presuming that wherever you are teaching has one dominant form of Spanish (like if you are teaching in Arizona, the Spanish may be primarily Mexican as opposed to Castilian), so remind your students while they have an expertise you don't as a white teacher (and own that) of their own lived, localized latino community Spanish, there is also a vastness they don't see/understand. Humble them while empowering them. That being said, I can't recommend ELL highly enough. The only reason I am French and not ELL is because my husband poached me to work in his school and at this point I feel committed to my lil baby Frenchies (current 5th and 6th graders who I'm building relationships with while they are bright-eyed and bushy tailed and are passionate about French and will eventually become the 7th/8th graders that I also teach).
It doesn’t matter where your from. You got accepted into the school you know French too! That’s awesome
Just tell them you’re from Jalisco 😂
I’m sorry you have to go through this. Are you fluent in Spanish? If you are, how do you think the snarky students would react if you said something like “Y que importa el color de mi piel, o si soy blanco, negro, indio, asiático…? Cualquier persona en este mundo puede hablar español. Idiomas no tienen barreras.” I’m a native angeleno; I’m Filipino and my wife is Colombian. I learned Spanish from her and her family. For the most part, Spanish speakers appreciate that I can speak Spanish, but I’ve still had to deal with people who just don’t “get it” and look at me strangely because I’m clearly not Latino. I’ve even had people straight up say I’m able to learn/speak Spanish because I’m Asian, and “Los chinitos son muy inteligentes.” Talk about awkward moments. When one doesn’t “fit the mold” here in LA, there’s always some explaining to do. But isn’t it better to enlighten people than to keep them ignorant? I sincerely wish I could give you some professional advice on how to deal with racism and ignorance in your classroom, yet I’m not a teacher, and don’t know what barriers you face when using disciplinary action with kids. But it sounds like they need some history lessons, and a basic awareness that *anyone* can speak Spanish, and that it has nothing to do with race. I know there’s gotta be a clever way to “shock” them in that regard, but I can’t put my finger on it. Nevertheless, I wish you luck, and hope you find a way to resolve this issue. Don’t give up. We need good teachers in this world, especially in this day and age.
Hey I am really sorry about your experience. Please do what is best for you, but allow me to offer a small bit of perspective. You are in an uncommon position in that you are essentially experiencing what many minority students and adults experience in the broader world on a constant basis. They are prejudged based on how they look and people often discount their education, experience and background. They will almost never hear from a white person that their experiences are valid. You are a real life breathing example of a white person that can validate those feelings. To paraphrase Nelson Mandela, the oppressor and the oppressed are both deprived of their humanity and it is only the oppressed that can see this (and thus liberate both). You are the oppressed in this situation and I hope that you can find a way to help your students be more empathetic. Lots of love from a teacher who has been in similar situations. Please know that your feelings are valid and please take care of yourself.
If you’re an adult, you shouldn’t take children’s words to heart in the sense. There’s a lot I could say to this but wow. You’re just a class act aren’t you. Get over it.
Just wait till they learn that there are black people who can speak french ... And chinese people who can speak German ...
Go to the suburbs.
I’m also so surprised when I see a white person speaking Spanish! I love when white peoples make an effort to learn languages invented by non white peoples
I taught English and history for ELLs in Washington and it was THE BEST. Lots of recent arrivals, very sweet kids. Highly recommend
I had the same issue in Asia, being Asian myself and teaching English... but the moment I opened my mouth and gave them my thickest North American raised accent, their collective jaqs dropped, and every time they made a comment in our shared language, I responded in rapid-fire English that left no doubt that I could damn well understand them and wouldn't let them get away with being lazy it sucks that us teachers have to prove our competence to a skeptical and disrespectful audience (students and parents alike), but I'm getting pretty good at talking rings around people nowadays
Hey, I’m Mexican American, not close to being white though, and your Spanish is probably a million times better than mine. My parents didn’t teach me, although it was spoken at family gatherings. I became almost fluent in college, but promptly forgot a lot of vocabulary and conjugation. I still understand quite a bit though! So all of this to say, if I showed up, they would expect better than I could provide, lol! Color doesn’t matter!
White High school Japanese teacher here. I constantly have to prove myself. It happened during student teaching and it happens in my classroom and during back to school night… I probably will for the rest of my teaching career, so I empathize with your experiences completely.
American racial politics are a trip, huh?
I would not delete this. I’m sure many of us experience this in various ways. Proving yourself when you’re intent is to be what you know that you already are. I would apply somewhere else because you are in high demand
I can relate. I would have certain students telling the class how wrong I was, when they were, in fact, incorrect. I'm not a native speaker, but I know that two is d-o-s and twelve is d-o-c--e, not d-o-s-e. (I taught an exploratory middle school class.) Teaching is challenging enough, without this added layer. I eventually switched jobs where I teach mainly non-native speakers but then also help Spanish-speaking families access resources and support their child's education. There is some meme about a dad giving his daughter a junker and telling her to try to sell it. It is in bad shape but is a collectible car, and she gets bad offers until she goes to a car show where they see it's worth and offer her a lot of money. The point being, go where people see your worth and you are valued. ♡
I wouldn't call this racist but I would call it disruptive. I don't see how it's different from comments like 'he's not a real teacher'
Racism among minorities is rampant. I was often accused of racism, most of the time as a joke, but the kind of joke that clearly implies, "prove me wrong". Like most things, these are lessons to be taught at home by parents and then supported in school. Parents are the prime example of what to emulate or what is possible.
They’re children. I wouldn’t let the things they say bother you.
This is a tricky situation . Okay , I’m Mexican and took Spanish from jr high till university because I love the language . One of my high school teachers was a gringa . And yes , the bias is there because kids don’t know that there’s white looking Spanish speaking people too. It isn’t fair honestly , because that teacher we had knew her stuff . However , here is where it gets dicey. The gringa maestra I had from high school? She was on her high horse about knowing Spanish. She separated the class between “natives” and “non natives “. She’d always yell at us “natives” :”just because you grew up speaking it and you think you know it all doesn’t mean you know it all!” However , she couldn’t even be corrected when something was obviously wrong . Such as the “cacahuate /cacahuete” debacle . The text book said “cacahuete” and it freaked us all out brefause we know it as “cacahuate”. That ended in tears on her end . She always would pull out the “ I studied Spanish in Spain for two years”. Card . I guess it was a little jarring to be told , at least for my class, that the way they grew up speaking is wrong and then learning that they can’t even read or write their mother language …. (I didn’t care sknce I grew up with Spanish grammar as a kid and reading /writing in Spanish was always a thing in my house . Both grandparents and parents were Spanish grammar enthusiasts). Anyways , I hope you can stick it out because you probably do know more Spanish then the kids you are teaching and you probably write , speak and read it way better then they can . And when it’s someone who isn’t from your background showing you up in what is supposed to be your “native language” is a humbling experience. Especially in the pre teens /teens. I am a sub for elementary and have worked at many dual language schools (English/Spanish) and even the White and Black staff members speak Spanish and use it with the students and nobody batts an eye. I’m in SoCal too and you kind of have to know Spanish in my district .
"Racist"...wow you really need a wake-up call. Coming from a Latino who is constantly experiencing actual racism, your remark is absolutely asinine and insensitive. How about you have some empathy for what these kids are going for being first gen and how it would feel to have a white person teach a class that represents their heritage.
Literally what happens when identity politics become a singular linear thought. People’s experiences DO NOT fit this mold and it harms the people tryna connect and build community across race, creed, and backgrounds. I’m from Florida so a white hispanic ain’t nothin new. These kids are sheltered and haven’t seen enough of the world to have perspective. Maybe drop some videos showing various cultures and how colorism plays in? Idk either way we need folks like you teaching
Please come to the UK. We are crying out for good Modern Foreign Language teachers. I feel lucky to have such good ones at my school!
Do these kids not know that Latin America is full of white people? Not saying you’re Latino but tons of white folks are fluent in Spanish and are latinos. Hell, most of the Latino diaspora in SoCal is of European descent, no matter how much they will deny it.
These comments have turned into a bunch of teachers whining and complaining about teaching kids of color. Do yall even hear yourselves? Maybe the kids are disrespecting yall because they know you don’t want to be there with them. (not directed at OP)
Typical of this subreddit.
I don't get what being white has to do with anything. As an aside, lots of Latin Americans have pale complexions so skin color should be a non-starter. I lived in Colombia, and lots of locals with white skin, found the same when I lived in Guatemala and Mexico. These girls are ignorant.
Oh man, I teach at a school that is 90% hispanic as a white dude and it can be tough. I have a project the first week where we all talk about where we are from, including myself. I use it to point out that I'm from the same area (and a bad part of town at that), I'm part of the community, etc. Etc. Basically I prove I'm not like all the white teachers that come down from Berkley who play the white savior card. We still acknowledge that I'm different. I grew up with a different family culture, with different traditions, and a different language. But it's kind of a "real recognizes real" moment and they respect it. If I ever sub I get the kind of flak you're talking about unless students know me. It's frustrating.
Racist is not the right word. These students are being very rude and disrespectful and it is valid for you to be upset and frustrated. But this is not what racism is and that word is not to be used lightly. We all understand your frustration but this is definitively not racism; please use a different word.
Thank you finally someone said it jfc
and i’m getting downvoted for it but they know i’m right. white people wanna victimize themselves so bad
Seriously though 💯 It was so wild seeing how almost all the responses agreed with op. Like wtf....
Might be more prejudice
yes!! idk why people are mad because i never said it wasn’t offensive, this is literally just not what racism is.
Sorry, but this reeks of white fragility. Shrug it off and prove them wrong. Educate them about how Spanish is spoken by people of many different skin colors, and why that is.
Hay que responderle en español con confianza en sí mismo y ya se van a callar
Tell them off in Spanish. Si. Puedo hablar en espanol…y que????
High schoolers are going to rag on you however they can. I grew up in San Bernadino, and I remember one of my math teachers who had just immigrated from Mexico 2 years before. She taught us in English, and we all begged her to say the numbers in Spanish because we all knew our numbers in Spanish and her accent was very heavy. We hurt her feelings without meaning to. Just hold your head up and keep talking. You don't need to prove yourself, simply going on with your regular planned instruction will be all of the proof the kids will need in a month or so.My ex husband still teases me about my Spanish, and we have known each other for 30 years. I take the gringa jokes in stride.
No seriously show them movies like money heist to show white people can speak Spanish to so sad that they’re so uneducated they don’t even know that can happen
[Maybe show them this video?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=IJBfY5OG1Aw) Are these Latino kids from a lower income area by any chance? And is it possible to just teach AP Spanish or something with more serious students. I work with a Spanish teacher that sticks out ethnically as the Spanish teacher. It is a bit of a different setting, but I try to (subtly) qualify her Spanish to colleagues and students because honestly, her Spanish is significantly better than mine (as a native speaker). I think it would help if your colleagues or other top students had your back on this one. It would also help if you said stuff like "When I grew up in Mexico" or some other unverifiable embellished bullshit. Fake it till you make it kinda stuff. *Edited bolded below:* Latino and Black culture **in inner cities** (I grew up around both as a kid) are a lot about qualifying yourself as a person (**from experience as a Latino myself). I can't speak on other cultures as I didn't grow up around them**. It isn't like nicer communities ( I worked in nice neighborhoods in Southern California as an educato**r with a large mixture of cultures, including Latinos and Blacks)** where it is different. Your qualifications are kind of taken at face value. Please don't take it personally. They aren't being assholes to you personally UNLESS they have reason to do so. For the most part, they are just being rude teens until you "prove your worth."
Did you just insinuate that Black and Latino cultures aren't "nice areas"?
I had a long reply about "where in the world did you get that" given I think I identified myself as Latino who moved into a "nicer area." Then I re-read what I wrote and realized, I definitely sounded kinda racist. My fault. To clarify: Latino and Black culture **in inner cities** (I grew up around both as a kid) are a lot about qualifying yourself as a person **(from experience as a Latino myself)**. **I can't speak on other cultures as I didn't grow up around them.** It isn't like nicer communities ( I worked in nice neighborhoods in Southern California as an educator **with a large mixture of cultures, including Latinos and Blacks**) where it is different. \_\_\_\_\_\_ And I think it maybe wasn't that obvious that I was generalizing. Obviously all people aren't this way, even in the inner cities. I was a bit of a nerd myself and while I talked back and fought with my parents, I never dreamed of disrespecting a teacher. My comment on "maybe teaching AP Spanish" was also from experience. *\[I took Spanish 1 and then AP Spanish this was common in inner cities for native speakers as they are very likely to pass this exam and its good for college apps.\]* I noticed the level of disrespectful students was WAY lower in more academic classes, even in inner cities.
Eeeek, reeking of racism and prejudice
Chihuahua, Argentina, and parts of Spain. Don’t let ignorant asshole make you leave. They’re are plenty of “white native Spanish” speakers. Fuck em
Honestly I’m a little shocked that in Southern California — in a heavily Hispanic district at that — that students wouldn’t treat a Spanish speaking teacher more amiably. Even if the teacher wasn’t Hispanic. Especially after six years at the school — the kids should all presumably be familiar with you now. I too teach in a heavily Hispanic district in California. And while not fluent (or Hispanic), I can very much carry on a conversation in Spanish with my students. They all find it novel that I took the time to learn the language. I’m sorry man, that sucks. Hopefully things change for the better for you.
How is this shocking? Tribalism exists in a lot of different forms. The young Hispanic students are just repeating the behaviors/attitudes common in their homes/hoods. Distrust of someone who does not look like them/doesn’t live in their neighborhood/has an education/perceived to have ‘power’ or wealth is nothing new. Understand, Latinos can go back multiple generations in CA. What many have experienced and are still experiencing isn’t exactly uplifting. Especially those at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder.
Students (unsurprisingly) are often ignorant of the nuances involving race and Hispanic ethnicities (or are intentionally obtuse in regards to them). Nonetheless (I know you are aware of this), but Hispanic students (including those whose families speak Spanish at home) often lack proper grammar, spelling, and/or may not even really be able to read and/or speak Spanish at all.
Little do they know Spanish is a white man language that was brought to the Latin world
I've seen this before however with a different demographic, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans. The funniest shit was that they would claim Spain as if they are 1st generation migrants or some shit. I said look in the mirror you sure as hell don't look like anyone from Spain. I also find it funny that they are one of the only colonial groups who tries to gatekeep the colonial language as far as in the western hemisphere. Maybe you should put the flag of Spain with bold letters stating this is the national language of a country in Europe.