Living in a place where you don’t speak the primary language can be difficult.

What would you do if you sent your child to a French-speaking school, but you only spoke English and Gaelic?

That is what happened to the Mom in this story, and when the teachers sent notes home in French, she replied in Gaelic until they finally compromised and communicated in English.

Compliant home/school communication

I went to elementary school in the 70s. The school I attended was all French-speaking, intended for kids whose families spoke French at home.

Learning to speak two languages is a good thing.

My family (mom, me, and my one sibling) spoke English at home. (I was moved from an immersion program to this one for reasons.)

The school sent home notes to alert parents of things, as one did in the years before email and text alerts.

This would be difficult for the parents.

These were in French, obviously, which my mother didn’t read or speak. Getting 7-year-old me to translate was problematic—the level of vocabulary in the notes was above my expertise.

Mom wrote some notes to my classroom teacher asking for translations of informational stuff that was sent home. She also contacted the principal.

At least the school is being accommodating.

At both levels, she was assured that an English translation would be made available. She wasn’t looking for a formal paid translator to labour over a precise equivalency or anything.

Both the teacher and principal spoke English. A two-line summary on a PostIt would have been fine.

Oh, I guess they changed their mind.

After her seventh? Eighth? request for accommodation, the principal said something like, “Well, French is our first language. We write in our first language.”

Mom took that as a challenge. She wrote her response in Gaelic. She told me what it said, and sent it to school with me the next day in a sealed envelope. I left it on the teacher’s desk.

This is just petty.

I got called down to the principal’s office near the end of the day. “Uh,” he said, in French, “do you know what this says?”

“Sure,” I answered. “It’s a note from my Mom. She says that if you want to write in your first language, fair’s fair. And also that you and she have a language in common—English—and it’d probably be more convenient to use that instead of having me translate everything.”

Well, her petty effort was effective.

We got short notes with all the sent-home letters for a while after that.

That is funny. She made her point, and the school ended up complying.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this situation.

Translating is a lot easier today.

This person says their father did similar things.

The school should have just sent notes in English like they originally said they would.

This commenter says it served them right.

These notes can help people to learn a language.

What’s the point of the notes if she can’t read them?

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a cashier who had to tell a customer she couldn’t use her WIC card to buy the bread she wanted.