The TRUTH about NON-NATIVE vs NATIVE ENGLISH Teachers

[@dougdoug1513]

I am Brazilian and I got experience with native and non native teachers, If you want to talk so you should have a native one, but if you are looking for tests so many times non natives will give you a better advice.

[@michellea5415]

Hi this is quite interesting🤔 because my daughter’s English teacher for year 12 advance is of Indian origin and has a strong Indian English accent. She’s a great teacher who has helped so many kids get those high marks in the HSC. The difference is she uses is the English from the dictionary and doesn’t use Australian slang or what I would call the local English language of Australia.

[@charlymartini]

You nailed it , decide what your language goals are and go from there; simple as that.

[@gabienglishteacher2191]

I think you hit the nail on the head. It depends entirely on what the student wants to achieve. I’m a Brazilian English teacher who has been teaching English as a second language in Australia for more than five years and I’ve had students ask both to leave and to join my class. As a teacher we should give everything we have to help our students reach their goals.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

:D good work, Gabi! Thanks for being a hard-working non-native English teacher :D Where're you from in Brazil?

[@ggglllppp]

@@AussieEnglishPodcast Cheers mate! I'm from Porto Alegre. Bah! :)

[@atenacheraghi3997]

I agree with you Pete, I'm Iranian, in my school I was taught the US pronunciation but after immigration here it was kind of arduous to blend in but after all, with your videos, I kind of nailed it.

[@EnglishBlackFriday]

NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS or NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS? I personally think that one does not have to sound like a native speaker, but unfortunately people are very judgemental out there. Fact is that once I have mastered this "American English" thing, no one asked me for my curriculum or certificates or anything to prove my worth. Just being able to "talk like them" has been enough to get a job. That is sad and I think it is about time someone said that! Well, I am the one focusing on different accents from everywhere and I am so in love with the varieties of Englishes all around the planet. Unfortunately, I have only been exposed to a certain set of American Englishes. Later on, though, I got exposed to other varieties of English. As a non-native speaker and teacher of English, I think no one would HAVE TO sound like a native whatsoever. Your focus should be on COMMUNICATION alone. However, I don't see any problem if this is your personal goal. I've tried to sound like African Americans because I personally identify with the way they speak and I love it. The problem is that the ELT industry imposes certain accents, regions, and looks. Have you ever come across a textbook that brings African Americans, South African, Brazilians, Ghanaians, Nigerians, or Bangladeshis? Nah, It's always about the same accents BBC/RP and General American English. Well, that ain't right! You are not going to speak English only with native speakers and you should know that. Being a native speaker does NOT qualify anybody to teach the language. My whole family speaks Brazilian Portuguese as their mother tongue and I would never recommend them as teachers of Brazilian Portuguese. Same thing would go for the vast majority of my native English-speaker acquaintances and friends. I only know few who are teachers of English and qualified enough be referred to as teachers. Your passport does not determine whether you are qualified to be a teacher of any language, even if you speak it natively. Loved the video and it made me think a lot about this issue! Cheers matey. Rodrigo P. Honorato

[@DANIEL-ls5ku]

Tasmanian’s?

[@Rolando_Cueva]

A certain set? Sounds like more than I have been exposed to. I feel the only convincing accent I can make is a Californian one. I can try doing others, but not as well. I think I'm gonna have to travel to specific places for that. There aren't that many accents on the Internet or TV. Or maybe there are, but the sample size is too small.

[@arash2769]

As your follower for a long while and Iranian, I can say, our problem with Engish is that we speak all the time our mother tongue even if we are here and the second one is that we need to listen to more English videos and podcasts with Aussie accent like your greater videos that help a lot at least in my case.

[@valsampaio516]

I'm Brazilian and in Brazil I had very good nonnative speakers' teachers, and one of them told me that when comes to learn a new language, what is important is to be able to communicate.

[@cosmasofoegbu9496]

I speak enough English, I dream in English, think in English, write in English and have authored English books. I have spoken English more than my native Igbo. I do not wish to speak any version of English but Nigerian. I traveled to America and other English speaking countries and didn't have difficulty communicating. I do know I sound Nigerian but that is who I am and I don't see it as a problem. When I arrived Saudi Arabia, I realized that knowing correct English is not entirely an advantage just knowing English is enough. Here in Saudi I learnt to talk in phrases, speaking with only nouns and verbs. This is how I work and earn money. My good English didn't help me as my newly acquired bad English is doing. Thank you for this video. I believe a lot of people will be encouraged by it.

[@Bash512]

Hi will you please make a video on digits pronunciation as well. Because I found very hard to understand the digits as well. Specially when someone tells about their birthdate. And thanks for the lovely videos they are really helpful.

[@hanhuc259]

I totally agree with you. English is a tool to communicate and it doesn't belong to anyone, as long as we pronounce clearly and correctly and people can understand us, we are successful. I want to be an English teacher as a second language in Australia and my husband keeps saying it's extremely difficult and I never have Aussie accent but I disagree with him. I have been learning many different languages and can speak 3 languages so I know what difficulties my students face.....

[@Nataly0709100]

That's an awesome video too, as many others, 'cause I am a non-native teacher and I get such doubts a lot. That is, whether I am good for people as a teacher, or at what stage of their learning process they should switch to a native... So, thank you again 🙂 p.s. Even though I am a teacher, there might be some mistakes 'cause I was texting in a hurry 😁

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

I think it's silly that teachers (non-native or not) are seen as gurus or perfect beings. It's way too much pressure to put on anyone and it's unrealistic. Ultimately, a good teacher doesn't need to be perfect at all, but be able to explain things effectively, inspire, and lead students to answers. The best teacher teaches students how to teach themselves without feeling like they're being taught haha

[@xheikhhadeel326]

I'm from jummu&Kashmir. I do love your teaching.especially the way you are teaching honesty it's pretty owsome,anyways I have been watching your episodes all the time.so here I have a request how to get Aussie accent because in my surroundings there is no one who can speak English apart form that I don't have any friend or acquaintance from abroad whom I can do practice I'm extremely anxious abt it. I have been fallowing this accent half of one year but,I don't know how to figure out my problem ,so I want you to help me how can I improve Aussie accent thanks Hope u gonna pay attention on my request .....

[@thiagopooh86]

Na minha opinião, os dois se completam. Acho importante um professor não nativo ( principalmente se for nativo na mesma lingua materna que a sua ), pois como voce disse Pete, ja conhece e enfrentou os mesmos pathways que voce durante a jornada, e pode lhe ajudar a superar alguns desafios como phrasal verbs e prepositions por exemplo ( the hardest part ever rs ) . Por outro lado, acho importante tambem termos algumas referencias e um modelo para "copiar" de um falante nativo, para melhorarmos nossa pronuncia e entendimento da lingua. Moro na Australia ha tres anos, e no meu caso esse "modelo" é voce Pete, e tento ao maximo te "imitar" quando falo ingles. Meu objetivo é ter o melhor aussie accent possivel. Conheco professores brasileiros maravilhosos, mas acho que a unica maneira de soar menos "brazilian" é tendo muita esposicao a lingua vinda de um native speaker. Parabens pelo trabalho Pete! Cheers from Adelaide!

[@danielback]

Hi Pete, my first language is Spanish, but I've learn English as my second language with a strongly American pronunciation when I was a kid, now I've acquired a taste for British / Australian pronunciation I've learned some of it by myself, and now I'm kind of a mix of accents hahaha deep down I want to immigrate to Australia, so base on that I'm quite interested on developing my accent according to the place I wanted to go! Cheers

[@joacomaskaric2598]

Where I live (Buenos Aires, Argentina) the non-native english teachers I had were either excellent or horrible. Their pronunciation was either native-like BBC/RP english or “Argentinglish”. No middle ground. (Also, when I visited Germany during my student exchange a year ago, all german english teachers were also in the excellent category, in terms of their language level and teaching expertice)

[@agme8045]

Hahahah😂 it’s literally just like that, ive always had non native English teachers, i went to a bilingual primary school so i had hours and hours of English classes every day, and all my teachers, most of them young, had perfectly native accents. Now in high school, the english classes are quite crappy, and from the 5 teachers I’ve met, 3 of them have disgusting pronunciations, like really horrible pronunciation, not accents, they just mispronounce a looot of words. Thankfully i have private lessons with this awesome teacher that already has some years lol buts still awesome, and she basically travels every year to the UK, and she has a really nice english accent resembling a British one but not as closed, i guess she does it in order to be understandable for her students since the British accent can be tough to understand if you are not used to it. She mainly focuses on international and local english exams though.

[@sarashamshiri2081]

Peter, Check this out : kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXKbdmmEqJuZhaM (Sorry not relevant to this episode but interesting if you would like to hear about how an American try to teach how to nail Australian accent )

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Hehe yeah I'm thinking of doing a reaction video to this soon. Someone sent it to me but I've only watched the first 30 seconds. Will try and do it soon :D

[@sarashamshiri2081]

I am Iranian and unfortunately we don't have much of the option of having a native speaker as English teacher due to political issues. I started learning English from a non-native speaker and I can say from my experience that it looks easier to start your learning a new language journey with someone who speaks your language but to me it is just easier and not a good way. I believe learning a new language from a native speaker has more advantages than from a non-native. I think the ideal teacher is a native speaker who has learned at least one other language to an advanced fluent level so he/she is familiar with the learning process and the hurdles you may face in learning a new language.

[@petercottrell7606]

I have spent two years in Colombia teaching English ....since my return to Australia in January I have been helping six students who are studying English at university level and a couple groups of younger kids. The courses are ,in the main, virtual classes. The standard is not good. The questions that the students have to answer are most often in Spanglish. It is often very hard to translate content into understandable English. When I was in the country I spent many hours translating documents from spanglish into understandable English. It appears that a lot of material is translated via a translation app and the longer the document the more confusing was the Spanglish

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Yeah that sounds more like it's about a poor method of mixing the languages than whether or not a teacher is native or non-native.

[@gonzalezdavila517]

awesome vid.

[@하루하루-p2z]

Thank You! Your video is best for learning English. Keep going.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

My pleasure, mate! Keep up the hard work :D

[@oclebin]

I’m from Maranhão, and I leave in Melbourne.✌🏻

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Hehe small world! From São Luís?

[@oclebin]

Aussie English I’m from Fortuna, a small city in the south of the state.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

@@oclebin Hehe que legal cara! Minha esposa falou "quais são as chances?!" hehe

[@meSNakeIce]

My point is you need to learn English from as many people speaking it as you will met. A person using it individually, in their own way. Native speaker can explain you grammar, can improve your pronunciation. But sometimes they can't explain why it's working like that. Here's a story. I know an Aussie guy, he's learning Russian. We spoke time after time, but only English, he has been correcting my mistakes since the very first day we started. I asked him for that. But one day he answered in Russian. I've corrected him, he understood. Then another mistake, again corrected by me. Another the same. And bingo! He understood how it works and he had explained me, Russian native, how it works in my mother tongue when I even didn't think or know about the way we use it. That's why it's important to have non-native teacher. To conclude, both are great native and non-native. I've heard from my Russian English teacher that they're learning some English stuff from me. That's why it's important to learn it from anyone you meet.:)

[@urso3000]

What matters is learning the language, speaking in a way that anyone in any country that goes, understands what you say, whether the teacher is a native speaker or not, makes no difference, study, learn and communicate.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

That's it. Communication is the most important aspect of learning any language.

[@briancassey9735]

In the early 2010's, I've attended english sessions with a group of nearly 12 students.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Good stuff, mate!

[@briancassey9735]

@@AussieEnglishPodcast Thèse English sessions happened in Eybens with a non native english teacher within nearly 6 years.

[@AlbertoLoredoDesigner]

Non-natives English teachers sometimes are more qualified by the fact they must master the language before to start teaching someone else. The majority of the time, it is quite easy to hire a teacher just because it is a native English speaker. Even natives speakers commit fatal mistakes when it comes to grammar, and sometimes if you apply a language proficiency test to them they barely reach a B2 level. A non-native English teacher must have at least a C1 level of proficiency. This applies to any mundane native speaker not only in the English language department.

[@Pinksorceresss]

Thanks !!!

[@Amirhossein8844]

Thanks for the kind words about Iranians!

[@Mgreat-o7v]

If it is for a PTE or IELTS test, I prefer a non-native, now if it is something for life, immigration, I prefer a teacher born and raised in the region who has a strong local accent.

[@kurosaki4809]

I don’t highly appreciate native teachers. Our country is rife with native teachers who just teach english in an inflexible pattern. How can a native teacher teach english as a foreign language when they have never learned a foreign language? If someone has never swum, how can they teach others how to swim??? If there was a person born overweight, you asked him or her how could you put on weight like them, they would be stumped as they were born overweight. But if you asked one born slim and worked very hard to gain weight, they would give you useful advice on how to gain weight for the slim which one born fat never knows. For me, native teachers are ideal for conversation practice, not the ones from whom you can draw advice on learning a foreign language.

[@lorensmachado86]

As a non native I learned English by myself with native friends and non native teachers. Now I speak English trying to imitate the natives and trying to sound like a native Brit instead of Brazilian English...

[@bestteam1228]

Non native speakers who teach English also learned from native speakers and they still learn on a daily basis using lots of English resources that are based on English speaking background It really depends on the context in which the learner manifests his/her usage of language For me learning languages is not only about communication it’s also about assimilation. In this respect, I’m quite skeptical about non-native speakers

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

I think it really depends on context, but you're right in terms of the amount of input you get from native speakers through series, movies, audio books, etc. But I'd say that's an argument for not worrying about whether or not your teacher has an accent or ever makes mistakes (again, I make mistakes), and more about how effective they are at teaching. If you're massively motivated and engaged with your teacher, that's going to help you level up your English rapidly, whether or not they're a native speaker.

[@patjayne5273]

A non native here, tho I might as well be a native ‘cos I’ve been living here for 20 odd years. It’s more frustrating when a native makes mistakes regularly. I used to correct my former supervisor’s grammar and/or spelling mistakes and she’s a native. But I do agree when you want to speak well, talk to a native. A question, why do you sometimes say “Inguish” and sometimes “English”?

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Haha do I? Might be my pronunciation. Do you have a time stamp for me to know the examples?

[@patjayne5273]

0:11, 0:18, etc. it’s peppered throughout the whole clip.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

@@patjayne5273 Ah, it's just my pronunciation. I'm still saying "EngLish" with the L though it's further back in my mouth sometimes I think and it changes the vowel sound after it a little.

[@sumonsingha6414]

I'm kinda starting to like your video as a platform of leaning English. However, this is my First Comment. Have a great day!

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Cheers, Sumon! You too, mate :D

[@milotheaxolotl4709]

In mexico the school systems make us learn english, cuz there are not many oportunities here, that's why there are mexicans that prefer to move to other countries to give their family a better life.

[@user-ik8wd9vm7r]

It's known that Australians are good public speakers as all the vowels comes out very clear. I don't see why would it be less international than British or American accents. Why for someone that wants to speak to a wide audience can't just study Australian accent?.

[@wedemons5215]

Am from India I always wanted to learn diffrent accent I learned american british and aslo Australian accent no teacher to classes just watching youtube and talking to diffrent ppl on pubg it took 2 year i may not be 100% proper but yeah am good enough u need no teacher nor any classes and training all its takes is it's how intrested u are in learning some thing

[@ColinDoyle-n2e]

The whole "Are native English teachers better?", debate simply comes from non natives wanting to get more students and consequently, more money. Being qualified and knowledgeable in how to teach does not mean you can teach, but being a native in the language you teach obviously means you understand the culture, history mannerisms, idioms and uniqueness which makes the lessons more engaging and therefore productive for the student. It is quite simple - If you wanted to learn English, German ........Indian! Would you want a French, Spanish or..........Somalian teacher????

[@emcarnahan]

I literally just caught the last 20 seconds of the live 😃 Will enjoy the replay!

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Hehe let me know what you think, Ellen :D

[@ourenwang9963]

I am from China. This video reminds me of some Australians teaching English in China who are trying to do an American accent. It makes sense to me now. It's probably because, as you said, they need to have a more global version of pronunciation.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Yeah, I think you might be right. There's probably also 0 encouragement for them to speak with an Australian accent anyway. Where in China are you from, Ouren?

[@ourenwang9963]

@@AussieEnglishPodcast lol, I'm from Chongqing.

[@trevorhanlon6755]

Who cares ever one speaks different as long I can understand what they are saying I could not care people talk how they talk

[@007Layanne]

I wanna loose my accent because I wanna avoid situation where the guys say: "are you from Brazil ? I Love brazilian girls" espeacially when I'm traveling alone.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

That's a tough one as I think even if you didn't have a Brazilian accent people would still end up finding out from your name or history or friends that you're Brazilian and be interested in it as a result. I'd also suggest not aiming to change yourself because of other people. Do it for you :) There's nothing to be ashamed about with having a Brazilian accent. You should just come up with a witty come back to when people say that to you lol something like "Brazilian girls hate hearing the line "I love Brazilian girls!"."

[@007Layanne]

I'm not ashamed of my country It's just feels like brazilian girls are more likely to be hassared and If I could avoid it at least in short conversation it would be great. Of course, after a while when I get to know the person I would say that I'm brazilian.

[@arturvolpi]

Did you just say "Engwish"? Just kidding... Nice content.

[@DavidWalshFloyd]

One Q only - does this bollocks apply to Ns or NNS of any other language? No, thought not.

[@RishuVlog]

I don't like stereotyping like in this banner non-natives only states some specific countries. 🙄

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Hey mate, don't worry. It's just to get you to click :P I think you'll enjoy the video when it's released!

[@ruansouza5158]

👏👏👏👏👍🏻

[@SaludInformada]

Hey Pete, Thanks for the video. I've been watching your content and even listening to your podcast for a while and it's always refreshing although this one might be sort of a contentious issue. I have a couple of thoughts and I'd like to share them and perhaps I could get some feedback as it's the way that communication is meant to work. The first thing that caught my attention was the title of your video, especially the use of the word 'Truth'. I know this may be a strategy to get more viewers and that's fine, however, I find it a bit misleading. I know you got a PhD, therefore, you're a man of science. When you say that you're telling some truth, I'd expect to get some sort of information to back up your claims, however, on this video you provided your opinion but no linguistic or English learning research references, which is completely valid, but far from being the 'truth'. You know what I mean? I wouldn't expect that from someone who has a PhD. The second thing is the assumption that a person who is a native speaker speaks his or her first language to very high proficiency. My question would be, do we now that is true? From a common-sense point of view and being a native Spanish speaker, I know that not all Spanish speakers speak at that level, therefore, English shouldn't be that different. Being a native speaker is not sufficient and the proof would be that not all native English speakers get a full band score when taking the world-famous IELTS. The third thing is that you made the assumption that people who try to imitate an accent/dialect is more interested in fitting in the society/culture where the dialect comes from. Why do you think that? Are people imitating dialects more accepted socially than people who don't imitate? Where was that discovered? What's the source of that assumption? Finally, I'd like to give my experience (n=1), which is not very valid to provide justification but it may give you some info on how I've lived the process of migrating from Chile to Australia. In chile, two years ago, I hired an Australian physiotherapist to teach me English while I was applying for a job here. My objective was to get used to the accent/dialect and the way English is spoken down under, in other words, I wanted to improve my listening. Was it the right decision? No. Why? - My assumption was that in Australia, the English spoken was some sort of 'standard', however, the real English, the one you find when you're out there on streets, it's not. - The very first occasion where I needed English was at the Sydney airport and the goal was to hire a cab/van to take me to the hotel. As soon as I stepped out of the airport, there were dozens of Indian people speaking very fluently but I did not understand a word. I finally ended up hiring a guy who spoke Spanish. First test: Failed. - The second opportunity was at the hotel on George St. Again, an Indian guy. Guess what? was the first time I hated English and I felt so frustrated because I couldn't communicate in the way I was expecting. - Then I had to open a bank account so I went to the Westpac at the corner of George St. A Chinese executive, very friendly, help me out there but I had a really hard time trying to understand him. - At work, the CEO is Italian, the Director of my department is British, my direct supervisor is Australian born in Melbourne. My colleagues (the team I belong to) are from Egypt, Sri Lanka, USA, Australia, China, India. One of my best workmates is Australian born and raised but I could barely understand him within the first 6 months and I still struggle with his pronunciation. He's native, but his accent is not 'cultivated' as my Australian English teacher or even yours Pete. What do I think is a good teacher? Someone who knows how language works, science, culture and society who is able to guide you through this process by giving up-to-date evidence-based advice. Native speaker? doesn't matter, if you live in Australia, you must be able to understand a myriad of accents. Cheers, Fco

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

Hey Francisco, First of all, thanks for the detailed and thoughtful comment! I’m glad to see you’re so passionate about this topic. Re: “truth”. You’re 100% right in that this isn’t meant to be a linguistic/scientifically backed up video, but more my opinion. So, you’re probably right regarding it being a bit click baity. That said, however, I wasn’t making any empirical claims, as I said it was my personal views. Re: native speakers and proficiency. I think again you’re correct in that there’ll always be people who’re native speakers of any level but who may not have a ‘high proficiency’ level. However, my point was more that that is the assumption made about native speakers, which is why people obsess over them, which I think isn’t that compelling a point to obsess over. With the rest of the points you made about your personal experience, I know how you feel as I’ve heard many English learners telling me the same kinds of things, as well as me myself encountering plenty of English speakers, native and non-native alike, that I find hard to understand because of pronunciation or dialect. I think the key here is that there’s no 1 perfect kind of teacher. I also think you shouldn’t expect to ever find a single teacher who can prepare you for all of these situations, dialects, slang usage, pronunciation, etc. Ultimately, the perfect teacher is someone who, whether native or not, can help guide you to the answers/solutions (again whether they know them or not), and who most importantly can motivate you to keep improving and continue to engage with the English language. That’s the key. It’d be nearly impossible for you to find a single person who could prepare you for Indian and Chinese accents, strong Australian accents, pronunciation and slang use, etc. That all has to come from you and the materials you study with, the people you interact with, and the experiences you have. I’m not sure you can ever really prepare for that ahead of time either, you just have to jump in and ‘learn to swim’. Anyway, would love to know what you think. Pete

[@SaludInformada]

@@AussieEnglishPodcast Hi Pete, thanks for replying me!. I agreed what you've said and happily after 2 years I can say that I'm ok to go anywhere and speak with anyone even with phone calls.

[@cosmasofoegbu9496]

Your experience is almost like mine. From traveling to many places and using English to communicate, I have come to the opinion that the ability to alter or adjust your English is more important than your accent and proficiency level. Today, English is spoken more by non natives than natives. I bet I would get by with my English more than most natives and that could be because I learnt it from multiple sources and numerous accents. So, I agree with the video that learning from natives and non native English teachers has advantages and disadvantages. In the end every English speaker that travels will communicate more with non native speakers than natives.

[@layzamedina1144]

I'm a non-native english speaker. When I was a little girl, I didn' t was aware that I was studying english "as a foreign language". It has been part of my life since always. I have decided to take some TESOL courses to teach english.

[@TheInsignificant]

Language is all about sound. If you learn from a non-native , you wont get it right. period. Be it any language. Learning from anyone who cultivated an accent is not impossible, but very difficult to imitate and get it 100% right.. you may get 90% of his 95%.. so it might be less closer to the native language than an original first tounger.

[@AussieEnglishPodcast]

You might be right, but sound isn't always the only thing students are focused on learning.

[@agme8045]

Expecting everyone to have a native teacher is kinda dumb. English is a language with a very high demand literally everywhere, there aren’t enough native teachers out there. In a lot of countries english is a mandatory subject in schools and the migrant population from English speaking countries is extremely low or even close to none existent. Also English is different to other languages like Chinese for an instance. Bc not a lot of people know Chinese, and the Chinese language depends a lot on pronunciation, otherwise you might be saying a totally different thing. So in Chinese if you don’t get a native speaker as a teacher, you will struggle learning it. Also there are Chinese immigrants basically everywhere so you have a steady supple of native teachers lol. In the other hand, no matter how bad you pronounce something in english, chances are you will be understood, even more if the people are used to listening to non-natives, like in big cosmopolitan cities like London, Sidney, Melbourne, New York, etc. So yes, having native teachers is great, but not as easy to get by everywhere. Plus non-native speakers can be just as good as native ones, of course there will ALWAYS be a difference, but does it really matter if your teacher mispronounces ONE word or mixes up a sentence while explaining something?