Language Barrier

Here's the scene:

Three little first graders are standing outside their room, talking loudly like first graders do.

Heck, like ALL graders do...

"You kill me!"

"No! You kill ME!"

"NO! I wanna be killed!"

A teacher, my teammie, was walking by and overhears this little conversation, and stops to discuss it with them....

...in Vietnamese.

She's not doing this just for fun. Two of the kids are Vietnamese, and speaking to them in their home language usually raises their level of respect.

The other kid is Chinese. No worries. She speaks that too.

The kids, of course, immediately deny their conversation.

The teacher, of course, tells them THAT is not gonna fly since she heard them.

Then, much to her surprise, one of the Vietnamese kids says, "I don't speak Vietnamese."

Leading her to ask, "Uh, really? Then why have you been answering my questions in Vietnamese this whole time?"

(insert pregnant pause accompanied by looking everywhere but at the teacher)

Looks like "deception" is just one more thing we don't do a good job of teaching in school.