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What makes me, as a very advanced speaker,  feel ‘different’ from a native?

Silvia Stephan, Germany

Independently from what I do professionally, I would like to stress the advantage and pleasure of being able to speak a foreign language fluently, no matter what language it is.   Speaking a foreign language at an advanced level doesn’t only prove the fact that the speaker is able to use the right words or structure, but also that the person can adapt and express the emotional attitude which is included in every language.

Language does not only allow me to communicate; the way I use it reflects my feelings, my personality and education.  It represents culture, tradition and habits.  A native speaker incorporates all these aspects naturally.  Whereas for a non native speaker it is hard to disguise your own nationality when speaking a foreign language (which is not what I necessarily want to achieve!).  I believe that the closer you get to becoming a native speaker (if ever) the more you unconsciously slip into a different personality.  My family claims that whenever I speak English I sound a different person.  And I must admit, I sometimes feel it, too, particularly when speaking to native speakers.

As a non native speaker I feel challenged when speaking to native speakers, which means that I feel linguistically inferior but not ashamed and I expect to profit in the way I use English.  The aspect of improvement still plays an important role, particularly seen from an English teacher’s point of view. But I expect a native speaker teacher of English faces certain linguistic problems  as well,
but not in the sense of having to improve their own use of the language.

As a non native speaker, I’m quite aware of my inability regarding accuracy, maybe even more than a native speaker who assumes that his performance should be correct.  I obviously envy native speakers whose competence in their mother tongue is, or at least seems to be perfect at all times and who are able to respond more spontaneously and with the right choice of vocabulary, expressions, attitude and tone necessary.  Even if I sound like a native speaker sometimes, which undoubtedly makes me feel proud and happy, I will never lose a certain anxiety or hesitation when dealing with particular people or topics.  As a qualified teacher of English, I don’t really feel inferior towards a native speaker colleague, as I might have other advantages in teaching English, but I often regret not having the right answer ready as quickly and as convincingly as a native speaker would.  As a native speaker you can be sure that language students believe and accept any explanation or answer given, whether correct or not. As a non native speaker, when you admit that you are not quite certain about whatever problem it may be, your professional quality might be in doubt.  When teaching advanced students as a non native speaker, you need a lot of self-confidence and belief in qualities other than the knowledge of the target language.  I suppose that native speakers teaching the same level can linguistically offer more and therefore achieve better results.