 Re: How many people actually speak the language of the country their in?
I speak fluent German. . . but with an accent. My wife is German, and we met when I was here studying German and refusing to speak English. That means she thinks it's strange when I insist on speaking English, but I don't want to 'lose' my English. When I have a lot of lower-level courses at work, and my whole conversations are "where are you from" and "what do you do" I begin to feel like I'm losing it. . . and I hate it.
But I agree with "Happy Camper" that language teachers should also be language learners. I think that learning the language of where you live is . . . well, I don't think I'd grant residence visas to people who didn't speak the language. But most of my colleagues fall into two categories: in Germany to learn German (and able to speak it pretty well) or Americans(and Austrailians) abroad with all the stereotypes that go with it. |