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Do Poles have a problem understanding American English? [76]
Magda, the more-or-less "standard" rule has been that at top flight colleges/universities, language institutes and so on, ALL foreign language instructional staff are supposed to be native or at the very LEAST, native bilingual speakers of the foreign language which they are teaching. I speak Swedish fluently, for instance. Yet no self-respecting school or educational institution would ever consider hiring me no matter how desperate they were, as ethically, I'm not anywhere near a native or even bilingual speaker of Swedish! This is as it should be (..and still is, by and large). I wouldn't, nor have I ever, deluded myself into thinking things should be any different. I have taught German at the college level, only because I grew up (as you did, I'm assuming), basically native to both tongues, in my case German/English. This therefore can be justified from an advertising standpoint. Case closed:-)
Concerning English as A Second Language programs throughout the country, far too often, Eastern Europeans especially, notably Poles, Russians, Hungarians and Serbo-Croatians, often slip past review boards and are allowed to teach English to foreigners, even when their English is accented and scarcely perfect.
So once again, why the double standard? English merrily butchered by practically anyone off the street, while e.g. French, must be taught and spoken by somebody with certificates from the Sorbonne and a clear Parisian pronunciation!!!
Isn't there something terribly wrong with this picture, people??
I dare to add at this juncture that when visiting Sweden umpteen years ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with a youngish English instructor from a local "gymnasium", i.e. "lyceum" in or around Goteborg. We just happened to be seated at the same table in the hotel restaurant where I was staying in town and, hearing my accent, asked me why I had learned Swedish. We got to talking and he was pleasant enough, although his English often had numerous errors which of course I was too polite to correct.
Having listened to him for a bit, I wondered to myself just how many generations of pupils were learning "svengelska" (Swedlish) without ever even realizing it:-)
