UK, Ireland /
Common pitfalls for Poles learning English [187]
That is true, inPOlska but to be honest for lower levels (and let's face it, not many people do go beyond a basic level) a non native teacher is fine.
In my (extensive) experience the vast majority of learners - the ones who sign up for classes anyway - would be hard pushed to 'catch' any colloquial expressions or hear any difference in accent, even if they were played over and over again.
Good grief I have even had 'advanced' classes of Swiss Germans (and trust me, you cannot tell a Swiss German anything) who will talk about the plural of 'man' being 'mens' and will roll their eyes at you if you try to correct them.
For people like that, any teacher will do..:).
Besides it is about international communication , not about trying to sound like a native speaker (because they never ever will).
Actually it makes me laugh when some learners think they have learnt some colloquial expressions and tell you 'it is raining cats and dogs'. I tell them not to bother, nobody has said that since 1956, and even then it was only in England, and we are not teaching English for provincial slang anyway, we are teaching it for INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION. Not to sound like a faux Brit.
LOL.
I think the biggest pitfall for a Pole learning English are the articles, same as for Russians.
and btw InPolska , 'shall' is only used for offers and suggestions, and even then it is hardly used these days.
eg 'shall we go to the pub?' or 'shall I open the window?' . Even so it is more likely a native speaker would say 'Let's go to the pub' these days or 'Would you like to go to the pub?'. 'Shall' is really quite vintage and is not used at all in, for example, Irish English.
Just saying.
A conditional would be better there.
