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Originally Posted by Central Mexico 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. |
Grammatical correctness is important, but it's not the only thing that matters when it comes to learning language. Teaching a language is very specialized. In my opinion, one must have some sort of natural ability, and one must learn on one's own how to do it to some extent. Otherwise, it just might turn out to be going from chapter to chapter. I've seen it, and I've heard of it.
I can tell by your viewpoint that you're on the right path. Keep on going.
