Learning from Non-Native Speakers

Before I went to Korea, I bought this book - with accompanying CDs - to do some pre-studying. There was nothing to indicate that the voices on the CDs would be...NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS. But so they are. They speak Korean with obvious native-English speaker accents. At the time I was disappointed with the voices, so I didn't do much with these materials.

In Korea, I had all native Koreans as my teachers. Obviously, you may think - but here in the US there are many professional ESL teachers who are not native speakers. In Korea I did not experience much diversity in the teaching pool. All my teachers were women. All were young - or young middle-aged. And as previously described, all used the same method.

Would I have been pleased with a little diversity? Well, yes - but only as long as the teachers were Korean. A man would have been nice! Or someone older. (I did have an older Korean teacher at De Anza College and really appreciated that!) But a non-native? An American?? I would have been disappointed.

But since I've been back, I've been using the Korean materials pictured above, and I have begun to realize how useful they are. When the Americans speak Korean, I can catch what they're doing to approximate the Korean sounds. Their sounds, their intonation seem halfway between a beginning Korean speaker's speech and a native Korean's, and they serve as a really useful learning bridge.

And then, coincidentally, as I've been watching a Korean drama called Jejoongwon, about the establishment of the first Western medicine hospital in Korea, one of the main characters in the drama is...American! See him back there in the black hat?

Easy on the eyes (!) - and how fun it is to watch him chattering away with the Koreans in his unmistakable American accent. When he speaks, I understand about double what I understand of the Koreans. That makes it exciting to watch. And actually, there are other American characters (more missionary doctors!), including a woman, all of whom speak fluent Korean with English accents.

So - I am feeling proud of my compatriots who seem to be able to speak Korean so well. When I hear them, I feel motivated to achieve what they have. When I listen to native Koreans, I get discouraged because native Korean speech seems so distant and unattainable. But - to be able to speak like these Americans - that would be enough. More than enough! And they make it seem attainable.

So I am learning to appreciate the non-native teacher.

Now - would I appreciate, say, a Korean teacher that was a native French speaker? or Arabic speaker? Right now, my prejudice says... no. How would hearing someone with a different accent altogether help me learn? But... I am also learning to be more open to the possibility. If I should get the chance to have such a teacher, I will welcome it. Much has been published in the US in recent years about the value the non-native English teacher brings to the ESL classroom. Maybe there is more that I could learn from such a teacher than I can even imagine now.