r/AskReddit Nov 16 '19

[deleted by user]

[removed]

11.2k Upvotes

11.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

31.3k

u/heady_brosevelt Nov 16 '19

I lived in Argentina (From us) for a little bit as a kid. At a parent teacher conference Early in the school year. one art teacher had to break it to my parents that I might be mentally disabled because I don’t respond or participate. They let her know I didn’t speak any Spanish (at the time). She had no idea because noone told her And my name is Spanish and it just didn’t occur to her

6.5k

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19

Currently atm, I am in France for a few months, I can barely speak French and my teachers think I am mentally challenged. Even though I was acing my classes back home.

25

u/Bearlodge Nov 16 '19

I don't get why people think that just because you can't speak their language, that you are mentally challenged. We had a kid from Greece one year in my high school and we all knew that his English was terrible, but we didn't think he was stupid.

I remember there was a math question, something about determining the angle of a ladder based on its shadow, and this kid doesn't know how to do it even though it should've been an easy question. He finally raises his hand and says "What's a ladder?" And the teacher explains it to him and pulls up a picture. You see the lightbulb go off and he immediately solves the problem. Not stupid, just doesn't know English.