What?

I’m back from my mini hiatus. AP History + Biology honors = stressful. But I’ll skip the details and head straight into a –gasp- rant!

So, English is my second language. I learned around when I went to school, so I’ll say 4 or 5, the latest. Armenian is my first language. Armenian is a little different for pronouncing stuff, like more r’s are rolled, and there is a kh, ch, sh, and other sounds/letters that aren’t as focused on in English. So basically, I have an accent.

This year, in Spanish, I sit next to the girl that everyone loves for no reason. And I mean that, like she’s average and hasn’t done anything to deserve everyone fawning over her. And I’ve had 3 classes with her since 7th grade. Once, she literally walked out of the class because ‘she got hit with a tennis ball’. Okay, so we were playing catch and someone threw the ball near her, so she bitched over nothing. So, anyway, we have speaking activities. And last week, she told the girl sitting next to her something: I have an accent and she can’t understand me. At all. Honey, you’ve known me for like, 3 years now. Don’t you think it’s a little late to complain about my accent now? And it’s not like I could defend myself, because she said it too loud to be heard, but too quiet to confront her about it.

And then- this week. We had to do another activity where we read off questions from pieces of paper. And then, when it was my turn to read off questions, this girl just flat out tells me: ‘Do you speak any other languages? Like… Armanian or whatever at home?’ I said yes. Then she said ‘Oh, because… yeah’. WHAT THE HELL? I’ve been dealing with this girl’s BS for 3 years and she can’t just grin and bear 5 minutes of ‘Como te llamas?’ . Then, for the rest of the activity, she didn’t even bother listening, and she just kept asking me to repeat what I said before, until I just showed her the paper. And I can’t tell the teacher, because, as I said before, little miss Mighty Whitey gets loved by everyone for no reason.

So basically, I’m stuck dealing with this inconsiderate POS in Spanish class for a year.

It’s bad enough that she couldn’t just ask me to speak clearer, or be nice, or anything, but she just said it like ‘You’re bad for having an accent and you don’t deserve to be listen to. Now, do my work for me, but make it look like I’m doing all the work, k?’. I’m shy and quiet in school because of my accent, and being mistreated because of it won’t make me come out of my shell. I’m not asking to be treated specially, but honestly, would it kill her to just ask me to speak slower? I mean, I’ve disliked her for a long time, but I just put a fake smile on and treat her with the respect she doesn’t deserve.