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Originally Posted by X Mode I would like to continue studying Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. I would always expect to study with a native speaker of one of those languages.
On the other hand, I know of an Iranian who speaks English so good you would think it's his first language if you ever heard him. I'll bet he teaches English a lot better than many native speakers of English. In fact, the last I heard he was teaching writing to native speakers of English. One never can tell. |
Me too! I prefer to "Go Native."
I once knew a young woman from South America that prided herself on being a better speaker of English than most native speakers. She did have astounding command of grammar beyond everyday people's abilities .... but she still had an accent and her social language wasn't really very expansive (idioms, slang, how we talk normally, etc.). I want a native speaker as a teacher to not only learn grammar, but to also answer and model my questions about ever changing social/informal customs and language usage. Of course, anyone from any ethnic background (Iranian, Indian, etc.) that was primarly schooled and raised in an English-speaking country is considered a native speaker equivalent in my book, regardless of their birth soil. The CNN International commentators are proof of this.