In kindergarten, I was new to America, and though I spoke English, I didn’t know the difference between English and my other 2 native languages (Solomon Island Pidgin/Hindi) and therefore often mixed the languages together when I responded to my teacher. Because I fully understood English, she didn’t realize I was mixing languages and thought I was simply being malicious. She often sent me to the corner in such situations and had me face the wall. The wall became “my corner”. Once, another student was sent to face the corner because he was being disruptive. I immediately stood up and yelled out “That’s MY corner!” My teachers response… “You’re right, go sit facing your wall” while she sent the other student to a different wall. Once… she even made me a hat and wrote “DUNCE” vertically along the front of it. I now had my own corner and my own hat. >_<;
My first grade teacher immediately realized I wasn’t being disruptive but rather speaking a mixture of languages. I was put into ESL (which was a waste because the class focused on helping Spanish speaking students speak English. I was further confused by all the Spanish being throw around.) My kindergarten teacher was notified and I even remember her coming to me and apologizing over and over to me for sending me to the corner so many times. I told her I didn’t mind, because I was the only student in the class who had his own special corner of the room, that nobody else was allowed to call their own. =)
(via mirakurun)
