Short background: I am Lithuanian. I've been learning English since school times graduated in 2000). I've got 2 degrees in English philology plus IHCTL/CELTA.

Where do I stand here...this topic calls for another article, one day I might go for it. But as for today, from my own experience, I can draw the following conclusions:

1. Native English speakers can be a big soap bubble. "Oh, we hire many native speakers, our teaching standards are very high, come to study and bring your money to us!" Pure self-promotion. However, I do agree that qualified teachers do a good job. Meaning, they have more teaching background than a 4 week course on how to use communicative activities!

2. Some schools have standards to maintain, meaning they must hire a certain number of native speakers. BUT once they can hire a person who is less qualified, they can pay less and save more! Especially if visa requirements do not have a firm say about the education of the emploees, now we are in EU, open borders, no visa to some countries!

3. If I were a native speaker and asked to teach but I had no qualifications, I would be afraid to do harm. It is a false mentality that everybody can teach! Parents and students complain about lessons because THEY just know better! It's a great deal of so called teacher's mentality. Some see it as a challenge, some as a fraud. However, I admit the fact that exeprience comes with practice, nobody is endowed with it from their birth. Starting with CELTA/TESOL/ other is a good idea.

So much for now.

Ele