I was surprised to learn that one roughly quarter of ESL teachers in the US are not native speakers of English. They may be just as good at teaching as the native speakers. However, if I emigrated to China or Poland, I would certainly prefer to learn the local language from a Chinese or Polish teacher, rather than an American or French teacher. I wonder how many students who travel to a country to learn a language would happily accept a non-native speaker as a language teacher. Surprised.
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Hi. I’ve just been introduced to your blogs and websites and this post intrigued me. I am an ESL teacher here in the Philippines and surprisingly, thousands of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese flock here to learn English. Now, I don’t know if it’s just because of the comparatively cheap educational fees here but I think ESL students are OK, if not more comfortable, to learn English from non-native speakers because we empathize with what they are going through. We have struggled with what they are struggling with now and so we know how to handle the problems that they might be having. 🙂