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The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]
Perhaps the reason why almost every non-native English speaker has such a lifelong accent in English, is that their first English instructor, without exception, was probably a native of their mother country, not the UK, US or Canada. Here in the States
The real reason might be elsewhere. Perfect pronunciation becomes increasingly hard to achieve with age. It is a part of the so called "linguistic competence" and generally accepted border line is somewhere between 12 and 14 years of age (give or take in respect to individual circumstances).
The non native teachers you have in mind were often people who started learning their second language late in their lives - after they turned 14. Many though, had native teachers of English in Polish universities. The language of instruction was actually English and (at least in my case) a vast majority of teachers were Americans and Brits. Poles were usually junior faculty members.
The curriculum included pretty extensive courses in phonology and phonetics - 2 years in all. Without going into details - it was very thorough. Various students achieved various results. Some maintained very thick accents to this day, others are considered native speakers by ... true native speakers of English.
to be a state-certified German, Spanish or French teacher, native fluency is required. Sufficient pull however, could smooth the way in any employment situation, so naturally, some non-native French, German or Spanish instructors at the pre-college level do slip through the cracks! -:)
One of my English phonetics teachers was a Pole (University of Wroclaw). Since I remember, he had been always thought of by Americans and Brits as a native speaker of English. He now leads English Language Centre (elc.uni.wroc.pl)and neither Cambridge University nor British Council found any problems with him being more than capable of fulfilling his mandate in regards to some of the top lever English Language certifications. All his staff are Poles.
