Helping English learners to save lots of money...

I studied English with 3 native speakers (1 year) and no much improvement. Respectfully none of them knew how to teach English. Example, they have no idea of DO vs Make etc. All they knew was that they were native speakers with white skin, blue eyes, a BA/Master and a TESOL diploma looking for part time jobs on newspapers, good people though.

I saved lots of money by hiring later a Japanese English teacher(Aki)who learned English in Canada. The results in six months were awesome, because Aki knew all my flaws right away, and instructed me how to study using sounds on cds and the net sites. I still improving with all the secrets Aki gave me. I can understand English movies finally, movies like Brave Heart. As for Aki, he taught many of my friends too. Another friend I have in Fuji city learned by hiring a Japanese English instructor there. Her English is better than mine without never learning from a native English speaker.

I do recommend to any ESL student outthere to hire first a person of your same country and language with professional knowledge of English. Then later on when you are ready for conversation only, why not try a native speaker. With all the new voice sound new technologies (professionals native speakers recording) really there is no need to have somebody repeating the same word when you are learning.

Ciao!

Hiko
Osaka
PS I'm presently learning French with a French teacher (Japanese). My job is travelling abroad representing a company.

> I agree that there are many English users out there with a good level
> of English. For younger students and beginners they are often very
> good teachers. However, even good users make mistakes. Take you post,
> in one part you said: ..."establishemnt in Asia has failed to
> recognise"...
> which has a spelling mistake (probably a typo) and a grammatical
> error. When you are teaching more than the basics, you should teach
> *good* English, and *good* grammar, without these mistakes.
> If I were to learn another language I would want a "NATIVE"
> speaker to teach me.
> You said that it is an international language, which is correct of
> course. However, just because people use it doesn't mean they are
> qualified to teach it.
> Having said all of that, I agree there are lots of native speakers
> that don't use the best grammar and don't have the best spelling in
> the world.