Student in Chinatown struggles 'to know' the right answers

Wesley Ng's paper remained blank as the other fourth-graders drew grids on their math worksheets. He couldn't understand the instructions. He twirled his pencil and looked around at his classmates.

''It makes my brain think really hard, and I keep on don't know [sic]," said Wesley, 10, in halting English. ''I struggle to know."

Wesley, whose native language is Chinese, is one of four limited English speakers in a class of 24 at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Boston's Chinatown. He was born in Boston to parents who immigrated from Hong Kong.

Wesley attended separate English immersion classes for three years at the Quincy. His teachers taught mostly in English but when he was lost last year, they would explain instructions in simplified English or Cantonese. Wesley moved into a regular class this year after getting solid grades and passing the state's English fluency exam.

His teacher, Cynthia Soo Hoo, who will be trained for the first time this summer on how to teach limited-English students, knows Cantonese but teaches in English only. Her students include native English, Chinese, and Spanish speakers.

Soo Hoo said she wishes Wesley would ask for help more often. She knows when he's confused because he just sits at his desk and does nothing.

The fourth-grader, who gets tutoring after school, does not like to admit he's lost. ''Because when I say what I don't know, I'll be really embarrassed," he said.

Yet Wesley said he likes being surrounded by only English in school.

''I don't want any Chinese words to come out to help me," he said. ''It'll make your brain smarter because when you go to college and when you go to work, if you don't learn English, you won't know what to do."

TRACY JAN