Half children!: Encounters with Thais/schools

[BKK Blues Brother]

I prefer the term dual heritage!

Kids are not half anything.

Unless you have funds to send them to an international school then you are selling them short and should return to the west and enrol them in a decent school.

Good luck to anyone who want's the best for their kids, it's not easy.

[falkan]

a lot of luk khrueng have no manners and been raised in a western home with western culture and therefore many schools with majority of thais does not accept these kids just because they don't think like a - thai -

[Beetlejuice]

"Principals of two schools spoke much the same:" Please don't ask to send your child here! We Thais don't really want
Luk Khreung in our schools"

I find this alleged attitude as the OP claims by Thai schools towards half European children extremely hard to believe. In fact I don`t believe this at all. Otherwise please name these schools and I will investigate further.

When my 3 kids were very young and all of them look half farangie, are bilingual, speak, read and write fluently in both Thai and English, we approached many 100% Thai schools here in Chiang Mai to see if they were suitable for my kids, and all were very keen to except them, almost pleading with us to admit them into their schools as half European pupils give Thai schools the appearance of having a good reputation and high educational standards if favoured by half Western or Westernised children.

In the end we decided against sending the kids to an all Thai school, not because of any prejudices against them, but because I preferred them to study in English and therefore sent them all to International schools.

If as the OP claims his nephew prefers his children to remain bi-culttral, and btw it`s bicultural, than why would he even consider sending them to an all Thai school?

Sorry, but I am not convinced unless there were some other reasons involved why the said schools were reluctant to take on these kids? Thai schools rely on good reputations and no way do I believe the schools would be so rude and upfront like that, not in a million years.

[Trembly]

I live in Chiang Mai. By comparison with much of Thailand outside of BKK and Phuket it is, as you know,

a relatively 'cosmopolitan' city.

My nephew and his Thai wife have a child who is completing P6; so they are looking to choose a secondary school.

The child is bright and perfectly bi-lingual in Thai and English. They have tried all along to ensure the kids are

bi-culttral

The child has brown hair and brown eyes

and creamy/brown skin

Principals of two schools spoke much the same:" Please don't ask to send your child here! We Thais don't really want

Luk Khreung in our schools"

Smile

Q: "Why not"

A: " Well, they are not Thai"!

Smile

Nephew says: "Well 70% at least of population of Thailand is not "Thai".

They are are Luk Kreung Chin, Lao, Khmer, Pama, etc."

Smile

A: "Never mind they are Asia people, not the same as Luk Khreung Farang"!

Smile

Nephew a bit stymied by this! Talks with wife, who is shocked..never thought about it.

She says: Would the children have this problem in England or France?"

Answer: No, no way..of course they might have some problems if they were say half, or entirely,

Black, Indian, Arab or whatever, and did not have the language!"

Wife goes to talk around..comes back even more shocked! She says: " Everyone says: Did you not realise?

Your children are not 100% Thai. They will never be

accepted as 'Thai' even if they become TV stars!"

Have you encountered this? How did/would you deal with it? What are the kids supposed to think/do?

As a loogkrueng myself who speaks 3 dialects of Thai and has also been a teacher in up-country Thai schools I read this with great incredulity.

Never, ever have I encountered what you have written. Not as a child and nor as a teacher. In fact the school I was teaching in up in Isan had a two loogkrueng teenagers in high school and they didn't seem to have any problems at all.

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the events you describe. Sounds really weird.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[ultimate weapon]

same problems that half breed kids of non European ancestry would get it occurs everywhere

[ultimate weapon]

a lot of luk khrueng have no manners and been raised in a western home with western culture and therefore many schools with majority of thais does not accept these kids just because they don't think like a - thai -

Not to mention they all probably have that superior to other Thai mindset. Honestly you don't have to look at luk kreung in Thailand just observe these mixed kids from other countries most of the time they think they are like superior to the pure breed Asians

[Jasun]

You could understand kids, but it's really sad to hear it coming from the top. I've got a friend who's half western kid was recently banned from entering English competitions at school. No problems with the half Chinese kids entering the Mandarin competitions, or even competing against 100% Thais in the Thai competition, until she won of course.

Well, winning English speaking competitions with native speakers is hardly the point is it....

My kids old school used to do this. They would regale the school with all their awards which of course had been won by luug kreung native speakers.

Agree, there's not much to gain from entering as a native English speaker (apart perhaps from helping to raise the bar). But the child is not a native English speaker, she is native to Thailand, born and raised in Bangkok in a Thai speaking household. Furthermore, the father is French, also not a native English speaker. The poor kid studied her guts out in her English Program, then was effectively told she couldn't enter because of the colour of her skin.

[Thai at Heart]

When faced with having kids in Thailand I realized I had two choices, make at least 150k a month or become a teacher at a decent international school for the free tuition. No kids yet though.

Since the good international schools are at least 50K per month (some 70+) PER CHILD, you probably need to increase that income goal.

If you qualify to get hired as a teacher at a good one, make sure to actually get the job from overseas, at least double the income of a local-hire position given the extra benefits.

And you left out the more realistic option - once your kids get to an age where you want to empower them to get into a competitive elite university back home - TAKE THEM BACK to your home country to get a decent free education.

IMO remaining here if you can't afford the top international schools is irresponsible parenting.

Other than a very select few, the whole international school malarky is incredibly hit and miss.

[chiang mai]

Think of the disruption in English class, when, after twelve years of lessons, the other kids are saying, "Where you go?" while little Luke is saying, "Where are you going?"

....and the teacher doesn't understand the difference, that's the real problem.

[brianP]

Small minds need small ideas.

[janpharma]

The Headmaster should be proud to have your child. Could be an encouraging example to all other children...and probably to the "T-English" teachers.

But unfortunatly it isn't, racism rules...When ASEAN forces to open the borders many Thai will be shocked when they realise they are so much behind...

[thailampang2012]

So if this is the attitude with those who are half-Thai and bilingual (and it most certainly is, especially amongst the lesser educated Thai) isn't it stupefying how certain members who regularly post here claim, and truly believe, they are embraced as "one of us" by their neighbors and other Thais?

Chiang Mai is on target. The other parents will not like a "half breed" far outperforming their precious ones. Think of the disruption in English class, when, after twelve years of lessons, the other kids are saying, "Where you go?" while little Luke is saying, "Where are you going?"

Confusion!

Maybe it is not a matter of the LKs outperforming the other students but a disciplinary problem: The LKs male or female might be much bigger in some instances than their Thai contemporaries and tend to be bullies or the LKs are picked on by their fellow Thai students and the LKs' parents come in threatening legal action against the school for the school's lack of proper supervision.

Discrimination of any kind is bad in any situation, but sometimes is a reason behind. I was an English Teacher Assistant at a countryside Government School for a while. I am not a native speaker. On my class of about 20 kids, most without no much interest or assimilation on learning a foreign language, just 3 of them, a boy and 2 girls, were good students and with some English skills. I noticed that they were not sharing common activities with the others.... and my feeling are that they were on the wrong school's environment. Probably they didn't have another choice....

[Braddockrd]

And why the F would they want to be accepted as Thai anyway?

[jackflash]

Not so sure about this report.

My mate has a half/half daughter living in Isaan. She frequently won class competitions and has now gone on to university.

Both the school and her parents were always very proud of her achievements.

[thailampang2012]

The Headmaster should be proud to have your child. Could be an encouraging example to all other children...and probably to the "T-English" teachers.

But unfortunatly it isn't, racism rules...When ASEAN forces to open the borders many Thai will be shocked when they realise they are so much behind...

True..and sad. I may understand why small kids are not very interested in learn a second language, but I cannot understand why University students do the same....here...in Thailand. Unfortunately the Thai Government is not doing enough in promote English learning at superior levels, and Immigration and teacher's hiring rules do not help at all. Thailand labor force will awake too late to face the competition from other ASEAN countries.

[Ajaan]

Yeah, the title of the thread is rather dumb. I understand that it's an attempt to be cute with a "direct translation" of a Thai term, but direct translations seldom do anyone any practical good and usually function to make the language of origin in question sound stupid..."luk khreung" doesn't mean "half children," of course, it means "person of mixed ethnicity," or something to that effect...

[HeijoshinCool]

[...] those who are half-Thai [...]

Confusion!

Yes a lot of confusion here. The child is a "full" Thai citizen according to the OP not something half.

Well, I'm not the one who's confused. I was writing sarcastically from the point of view of the director and parents.

And the OP is not about citizenship, it is about mixed heritage and prejudice.

I am half British and half American. Came out that way at birth not long after WWll, was called a mutt all my childhood with kids making fun of my mom by poorly mimicking a cockney accent (though my mother was born nowhere near the Bow Bells and spoke beautifully), and I am just fine being called "half-and-half," stronger for it, like the boy named Sue. I put it in my coffee and order my beer the same way.

A few years back, I had a kid in my class whose American father left the family when he was born. Handsome boy, with intelligence hiding behind green eyes. The girls were gaga over him and the boys hung around, I suspect, because that's where the girls were to be found.

So the kids didn't care a bit but t did indeed see the way some, not all, but a fair number of teachers and some parents treated him for no other reason than his looks. Despite lots of encouragement, he was the worst student in my class. I finally asked him why he didn't try harder or study to speak English?

"Because the other kids won't like me if I speak English."

[wolfmanjack]

You could understand kids, but it's really sad to hear it coming from the top. I've got a friend who's half western kid was recently banned from entering English competitions at school. No problems with the half Chinese kids entering the Mandarin competitions, or even competing against 100% Thais in the Thai competition, until she won of course.

When I enrolled my kids in their new school the teacher doing the interview asked if they would be willing to help the other kids learn english but they have the same problem with the english competitions that your friends kid does. Even though my daughter is in the English club and they have her practice for the competitions, when the competition comes around the other schools complain that it isn't fair for her to be in the competition.

[I knew this would happen]

My six year old daughter is the only half Thai, half white student in her school.

She is very well accepted and even loved by the students. They spoil her!

The teachers on the other hand are very rough on her and I think they actually discriminate against her because of her "mixed race".

She gets lower grades on her homework than Thai students when she does a better job then them. I have compared her homework with that of her friends and confirmed this.

At every school function awards are given out to at least 2/3 of the students for achievements, no matter how small.

All Thai children receive some awards.

In three years, my daughter has never received any awards, and she is a very good, well behaved student.

She spoke both English and Spanish before coming to Thailand and became fluent in Thai within a couple of months.

She speaks English better than the Thai English teacher, so, he ignores her in class.

They had the nerve to tell her they want her to represent the school in the yearly English speaking competition!

I told them that if she was good enough to represent the school, her grades would be as high as the Thai students!

Racist and discriminating?

Yes!

But Thais love to win!

Right now it is a financial struggle for us,

but I am trying to find a way to send her to a good private school without racist Thai teachers and administrators.

Let your daughter represent her school in the english language contest. Just tell her before the contest to only answer according to the grades she´s got from the teacher.

If all her classmates have better english grades then how could she win?

Hello, me name is.......aid my 15 year. Me wan win engrish contest for saagooll mine. Me is besd sadudent from glass.

We don´t have children yet, but´s about time actually. Bad to hear that in Los it might be even worse for loog krueng than in Europe. Strange actually, as they look asian and should be more under the radar than when they are in the west. But the opposite can be the case

[simple1]

The Headmaster should be proud to have your child. Could be an encouraging example to all other children...and probably to the "T-English" teachers.

But unfortunatly it isn't, racism rules...When ASEAN forces to open the borders many Thai will be shocked when they realise they are so much behind...

True..and sad. I may understand why small kids are not very interested in learn a second language, but I cannot understand why University students do the same....here...in Thailand. Unfortunately the Thai Government is not doing enough in promote English learning at superior levels, and Immigration and teacher's hiring rules do not help at all. Thailand labor force will awake too late to face the competition from other ASEAN countries.

Aside from the free flow of trade between ASEAN members, the AEC, at least on paper, is designed for free flow of labour in eight professions i.e. doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects, accountants, surveyors and the tourism industry. It’s not open season across all industry sectors.

[PaulHamon]

it is legal to home school in Thailand, do that.

[HooHaa]

I thought a lot of the TV superstars are half...

Naked?

On drugs?

i fail to see the issue with either.

[wym]

Other than a very select few, the whole international school malarky is incredibly hit and miss.

I'd say maybe a dozen, but more like eight are truly worthy of the label.

Past the top twenty and they're not "hit and miss" but just flat-out woeful.

Pretty straightforward indicators of quality:

• Tuition at least half a million per child per year, plus food, transport, trips etc. Best are up to 800K once you get to secondary/sixth form.
• No school run by Thais comes close. No Thais in pedagogical management over teachers, only admin/business, headmaster shields all foreign staff from owner's whims.
• All home-room and academic subject teachers (other than Thai language) are genuine native speakers, vast majority hired from overseas, lots of young western couples. No Filipinos or subcontinent except at TA level, maybe PE or art, music and then are truly talented specialists. Teacher salaries on par with those back home, with bennies actually higher.
• Higher proportion of students with foreign passports the better, and note even the best count luk krung as foreign even if Daddy's only home two weekends a month.
• And of course, the bottom line: more than a handful of students get into the elite international universities. Unfortunately the majority of these will tend to be the Thai kids, who for whatever reason (cough cough Tiger Moms) just flat-out work harder than the farang.

[In Search of Space]

My daughter is LK and 22 years old. She will finish her art "studies" (i use the term very loosely after seeing her facebook pages) in London in the summer and wants to come to Thailand to be a teacher. She has dual nationality, speaks Thai but cannot write, but do you think that she will face discrimination, or difficulties ?

[wym]

it is legal to home school in Thailand, do that.

Absolutely, if you have the time, background and confidence this is a great solution.

Have to compensate for the socialization, provide a context for strong peer relationships as well, not easy in more developed contexts, not a problem up country.

As you approach secondary age though definitely more of a challenge but these days if both parent and child are intelligent and motivated so much is available online. . .

[ggt]

I dont know how your nephew kept calm withn such openly racist behaviour. From kids or low class people maybe but from a principal!!

I suspect...the principal...is both racist...low class...crass...insensitive...and suffers from delusions of grandeur...

[RigPig]

Well I don't know and I haven't got kids here nor am I in a position to do so. I did however plan the children I do have including their education and I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would want to send their kids to a public Thai school in the first place. 2000 schools without electricity, "Elite" Thais sending their kids overseas for and education and my own experiences with employing people with "University Degree's" that have less of an education than high school...... I can't imagine myself hating my own children that much.

It's just not worth it for a free tablet !!! Maybe you need 'em to look after you in your old age....

If you can't afford it don't have 'em.....

[wym]

My daughter is LK and 22 years old. She will finish her art "studies" (i use the term very loosely after seeing her facebook pages) in London in the summer and wants to come to Thailand to be a teacher. She has dual nationality, speaks Thai but cannot write, but do you think that she will face discrimination, or difficulties ?

No but she won't be paid well without being certified as a schoolteacher back there, and ideally be recruited by an I.S. from there rather than job-hunting here.

The more farang-looking she is (less so Asian) the more accepted she'll be as a TEFLer.

She should do the CELTA (one month) if she'd otherwise have confidence issues, may even get a better-paying gig in the commercial TEFL sector - check out British Council as top choice there.

If she likes little kids and speaks Thai she'll be a shoe-in for kindergarten jobs too, some of those pay better than regular school jobs, and less stress, fewer hours.

[tingtongteesood]

I agree with h90. You don't want to send your kid to 'Thai' school to be brainwashed with the rest of them. Find a better school, move house if you have to.

[rct99q]

OP, I understand your concerns.

Thais are renown for their nationalistic sentiments both on the street and Gov't level.

Your kids will be discriminated against.

Being half cast or half breed can not be changed but you can turn this to their advantage.

Explain to them that they are different - that is better.

Politically incorrect. Psychologically saves them from hurting.

Sorry, but this is life. Since you cannot change Thais, - adjust and prepare the kids.

Or take them out of the country.

But if / when they come back they will develop the same attitude of superiority.

Your nephew should have thought about this before they were born. Your family is not racist. But Thais are. You can't change this.

Take the children to England, then the OP will truly know the definition of Racism. The US and Australia are bad but in no way compares to the UK.

I have 2 children here with Thai, UK, Irish, Canadian and Jamaican nationalities and so far the two countries with the least problems...Thailand and Canada.