Native Speakers Can't Teach Languages | The Truth About "Native Speaker" Marketing Trends

hey everybody i'm chris americos and welcome to another video before we jump into this video i have to give you a warning in this video i'm going to be using the term native speaker a lot and i'm going to explain why i use this term and why other people use this term and i just want you to know that you'll need to watch all the way to the end of the video to really understand what this video is about so let's jump right in first of all why do people use this term native speaker for the last hundred plus years people have been using the term native speaker to try to sell things and it's not only about english although today most people think that this is related to english language learning it's an issue that has been attached to other languages in the past as well and it's all about how people learn languages and where they can get the right example of a language so people have always thought that if they go to a person who speaks this language naturally if they go to a person who speaks this language fluently if they go to a person who has always spoke this language then they will learn the right version of the language in the time of napoleon people in russia actually wanted to learn french and they spoke french the aristocracy in russia at that time spoke french as well as russian and if you didn't know french then you weren't part of the upper class and they wanted their children to learn french so they hired native speakers and this is a really interesting period of time to look at because typically it was hard to find someone from france who wanted to go and live and teach french in russia and what would happen a lot of times is you would find immigrants from other countries near france um many examples of people moving from northern africa to france who learned to speak french fluently they would be hired and they would go to russia to work in these royal families and these uh aristocracy families aristocratic families and what the end result was at least this is how the story from russia goes is that those children would learn french from these people then they would go to france and try to make connections their political business connections they would try to get an education there and when they would get there no one would understand them because they were speaking a different type of french or they were speaking a different dialect or they had learned a different accent and this was the bane of their existence the people who were trying to find these tutors and teachers for their children they emphasized so much that the person must be from france because they wanted to avoid making this mistake and then the end result was overstated it was stated that no one understood them of course people understood them but they spoke with an accent and here is where the marketing opportunity came from right it didn't just start there i mean this has always existed in language learning but this is uh a past example that we can apply to our modern day world because we see this repeating over and over again around the world students believe that they need to study with a native speaker even students who have very low levels of language ability they might say that they want to study with a native speaker first because they don't want to learn bad habits or they don't want to learn the wrong accent and businesses and companies and schools have latched on to this idea because it helps them sell their product in many places around the world an hour lesson with a native speaker is two or three times more expensive than an hour lesson with a non-native speaker now how is that fair and it's not about fair and that's really the main point here that we need to underline and we need to remember that it's not about being fair it's not about what's right and what's wrong it's about money it's about marketing the term native speaker is a marketing term and that's why people use it to sell their product to sell a more expensive product and to convince people that this product is better than others so let's not forget that when we get into a discussion of native and non-native and when we compare quality and where people are from and all of these things that are connected to this discussion that has become popular in our recent times now i wish i could stop there i wish i could say that's the marketing trend and people don't realize it's a marketing trend but it's there i think today many people understand that that's about marketing and that most people don't actually believe that after they are educated in in the ways of language teaching right so pedagogical universities will hopefully tell you about this that native speakers aren't necessarily better at teaching a language and you can't necessarily learn a language better from a native speaker it should be clear to everyone right so why do people still not believe it well really the main people who don't believe this are beginning teachers typically native speakers or non-native speakers so beginning teachers who don't really have enough experience in this sphere in this area to know why that's not true or students who have just heard this marketing so much that they've believed it and that's just the beginning because today in our recent times we have a new marketing trend it's the anti-native speakerism marketing trend you'll see lots of people talking about how this is a problem how we need to change this belief that native speakers are somehow better than non-native speakers at teaching the language or that they're more effective or that you can learn better or faster from them there's going to be lots of people attacking this idea and they're attacking it for marketing also it's really an interesting study it's really an interesting phenomenon to look at because think about it in this video the title is something with the words native speaker and when i take all of the text all of the audio transcript from what i'm saying right now and i include it it's going to say native speaker native speaker native speaker all over it's just going to say the words native speaker a million times and when people write articles about anti-native speakerism and when they write about how it's not right that native speakers are considered better what are they doing they're writing the for the phrase the words native speaker over and over and over again well this is also a great opportunity for you to market this because if you have thousands and thousands and thousands of people going to the internet and searching for native speakers then your website your video is going to pop up at the top of the list because clearly if you've mentioned it so many times you're speaking about this topic and people who are searching for it probably need to find you so when you find someone who is telling you that this isn't right and they seem to be on a hunt for the truth never believe that in the first place when someone seems to be on a hunt for the truth and to be so benevolently telling you why everyone else is wrong think about it for a minute by talking about this topic they're drawing more attention to themselves and it's not only about native speakerism this is just a trend that's happening in our society and it's happening globally right now where you need to rebel against the traditional ways of doing things it's a marketing trend so why do businesses use these marketing trends they use them because they work if people already believe this idea it's harder to change what people believe than to use what people believe in order for you to get what you want and that's why you see people having these discussions that's why you see websites writing articles about is it really better to study with a native speaker or when is it better to study with a native speaker or should we stop studying with native speakers many people have different opinions on what this actually means for language learning in the future but one thing is for sure when you see people talking about this there's about a 99 chance that this is marketing so let's step away from the phrase native speaker for a second because there's another phrase that people use a lot they use the phrase without an accent in many countries someone speaks without an accent and that means that they are a native speaker and if you speak with an accent this means that you're not a native speaker and of course in those places when people say with an accent they mean with mistakes and when they say without an accent they mean without mistakes we all know the reality of this right that native speakers make a lot of mistakes and a highly trained non-native speaker might actually make less mistakes than a native speaker however of course that it doesn't matter because it's just marketing and most people out there who are discussing this topic don't actually care about what is right or what is wrong or which is better or worse right and most of us know already by just thinking about the simple facts we already understand what's true and what's not we already understand that every person in the world speaks with some kind of accent that every language has different variations and varieties we also understand that english is our global language the lingua franca that english is a standard for international business for online communication and as such english has taken on a new role that english does not only belong to the traditional english-speaking countries and those traditionally english-speaking countries are becoming less english-speaking more and more immigrants have moved there and influence how this language is developing and the english language is taking in foreign words all the time so you have different standards of english in different places so sometimes people will say native speaker sometimes people will say without an accent and both of these things are used to market products that are more expensive or to argue why they should be more expensive to say that they are more valuable more effective and that they get better results now in case you don't know the truth about this or in case you you feel that not everyone does understand the difference the truth is that with low level language learners it is typically more effective for them to learn with someone who speaks the same first language as they do so a bilingual teacher who speaks both english and russian would typically be more effective teaching low-level russian speakers who are learning english because if they just sit in a room with a person who speaks english at them they're not going to pick up very much especially if we're talking about adults and when we have someone who speaks the same language as them we can explain some of the steps we can explain some of the pieces in their first language and then we can give them english language equivalents now does this doesn't always have to be like a translation method right a grammar translation method or anything like that um it can be very effective when done properly and it's about getting the person to actually say the words to to produce the sounds and to start using the language however just putting them in a room with a native speaker isn't going to do that typically so with lower level students of languages native speakers are at a disadvantage because they can't communicate information that might speed up this process now at higher levels it's more of a debate because you could have a great teacher who teaches this material very well but if you're going to do a course on accent or pronunciation then this kind of course or study should be focused on a specific area geographically typically right so a specific type of accent and clearly if you want to learn the geordie accent you should probably review speakers of that accent so your teacher actually doesn't have to have that accent but uh wouldn't it be nice to have a live example in front of you and that's how most people think about it now you could also have a great non-native teacher teach geordie accent and use lots of examples of people who speak with this accent and maybe they themselves have even spent time there so there's lots of options and variations and ways that we might say that one kind of teacher is better or worse but really what is a native speaker it doesn't really exist this term exists for the purposes of marketing so let's break it down there are some people who we call native speakers and native speaker typically means that a person has spoken this language for their whole life or you know since they were born from the time that they were a child and we can really see that there's a lot of different people who might fit into this category and that's why it's difficult for businesses and for teachers and for students especially to know if the person is really a native speaker or not for example there are some people who are first and only speakers a first and only native speaker of english if we want to call them that first and only speaker this means that english is their first language and english is their only language now what do you think if this person has never learned another language before then how much experience do they have personally with language learning if you find a polyglot a person who knows many languages don't you think that they might have developed better strategies for learning languages in general i mean it sounds logical right it's not always like that we can never say that it's exactly like this 100 of the time but it makes sense doesn't it and then let's look at first and many language speakers people who speak english as their first language and then they also speak many other languages these people might also be native speakers but they have experience with other languages and this is where it gets really interesting because typically a first and only speaker of a language will consider their use of the language to be more pure to be purer than other speakers especially first and many speakers because when a person learns a new language this new language might affect how they think about their first language also so many people who are first and only speakers criticize first and many speakers and say that they are less of a native speaker than they are and isn't that interesting isn't it interesting that you could be a first and only speaker you could only speak one language you could make lots of mistakes in that language but then when someone points out that it's a mistake you say well those are just the standard rules and those don't apply to real life that's just what they say in a book but i have lived my whole life in this country i have spoken this language my entire life so of course what i say has to be right it's an interesting perspective it's an interesting philosophy that you can't be wrong because it's the only language you speak and just think about it if you needed to create a business and you only spoke one language and your business was connected to teaching that language to other people well it's a good position for you to take to defend against other people who might say that you don't teach correctly or properly and this is another point what does it mean to teach correctly or properly or speak correctly or properly this means that we have some standards of language use and we have to follow these standards now of course grammar in itself gives us standards that we should follow so there are rules to the language however many of these rules can change depending on where we go and it's definitely not the most simplified version of the language right people can still understand us when we make some mistakes but other mistakes will cause people not to understand us so what really makes a native speaker does it mean that you don't speak other languages i don't think so does it mean that you have to speak many other languages i don't think so i think that the term native speaker is just a marketing term it's just used to sell things so it really shouldn't make us feel so uncomfortable because there's lots of things that are used to sell things right lots of words and terms i mean if we think about food companies use the term organic natural but those things typically are not really organic or natural just like with native speakers so here's what you should remember you shouldn't be fooled by people using the term native speaker or the word accent you know if someone says without an accent or with an accent what's happening here is someone is trying to prove why they are better than others they're trying to show that their product is better than others another way that people do this very often is with certificates diplomas and other pieces of paper so just imagine a person shows you their diploma and what are they trying to say when they do that if they come to a job interview or if they have a call with a potential student and they say i have a bachelor's degree in this i have a master's degree in this i have a phd in this i have a certificate to teach this what are they really doing they're telling you believe these pieces of paper because i haven't proven anything right and that's what they're doing when they sell you on native speakers they're selling you this idea that they don't need to prove that they will get results but that because they have this label native speaker that you can just believe it it's crazy isn't it because we all know that a person who gets a piece of paper a certificate a diploma a degree we know that they're not the same that some people study hard and get a lot of results and then they really know what they're doing some people study a lot and don't get results and they don't put it into practice and some people don't study at all and they still get the piece of paper tefl certificates are exactly like this and all of you out there know that so let's think about it like really think about it just being a native speaker doesn't actually make someone better or worse just having a piece of paper doesn't make it better or worse it's just a term it's just a way that you are communicating value to someone when you're trying to market yourself it's all about marketing sales and advertising it's business so this is what is really important i'm making this video because i feel like a lot of people on the internet today who are in the efl esl tefl tessel tesol you know this community they're getting fooled by people making videos like this one making writing articles on their website posts on social media about anti-native speakerism don't be fooled this is a marketing trend it's becoming more popular now because of the unpredictable times that we're in right now there's a trend worldwide globally to take a stand against injustice and this trend always happens in history you can see it happening becoming more prevalent and less prevalent it always happens in periods of history where there's a destabilization of international order right now the united states has been a leader internationally and its influence and power is waning it's becoming less it's decreasing and this means that there are going to be lots of challengers it means that all of the traditions that have stuck with this paradigm up to this point are going to fade away and that's why people are challenging them right now because there's available space in the market so you'll see people talking about racial injustice more you'll see people talking about inequality of all types more and this concept of native speakerism and non-native speakerism is just one of those topics it's one of those points and people are going to use it to their advantage to gain a position that's more advantageous to them and to their business or their company or their organization so if any of you thought that that's not what's happening i just hope that in this video i'm able to communicate at least a little bit of this idea to make you think about it in fact this video itself is going to be a marketing tool where i'm using this topic to attract attention don't be fooled i'm one of these people so uh most people who are who are focusing on this topic they don't actually want to take action they just want attention because let's face it if they wanted something to change then they would go out and they would hire non-native teachers and they would promote those lessons and those products but they don't they just make a video or a blog post and they tell you this is bad this is wrong we need to change this but if they really want to change they would just do it how many of them are actually hiring non-natives non-natives right i mean we've already discussed how this term doesn't actually make sense uh how many of them hire non-natives maybe zero maybe one of the people who you read who are talking about this most of them aren't in a position to hire anyone they haven't even built up uh you know some position of of advantage or strength that they're able to use to incite change and they haven't even rallied people enough around this topic they don't focus on this topic completely it's just a marketing trend it's just the title of a blog post it's just the title of a video so don't be fooled by that but how can this change if we really wanted to change then how can we make it change i really only see two ways the first way is going back to this traditional concept of native speaker and non-native speaker where because it's all about marketing one way that this can change is students can become more aware of this and that's probably one of the goals of most of the people who are writing posts and and making videos and releasing information about this that are attacking this idea of course they're taking advantage of this current market trend and they're taking advantage of the current times where we're rebelling against everything traditional but what's going to change things is really when students vote with their dollars when students choose to give their dollars to non-native teachers and to organizations that hire non-native teachers over native teachers native teachers that's when this will change when companies are impacted financially they will see that this marketing trend has ended so that's one way that this might change but the other way that this might change and this is more realistic i think is that the whole field of language learning will more or less be made obsolete by technology and this is a real option this is a real uh situation that's approaching us right now because as we speak companies like google facebook amazon are working on products that can understand language and translate language so well that you won't ever need to learn the language you'll be able to use some kind of tool or instrument or gadget to just translate what you want to say we already have google translate that you can just hold up to a sign on the street and it will translate it for you or you can speak into it and it will translate for you and these programs and tools they're only going to get better so it's less likely that we're going to end this marketing trend of native speakerism and it's more likely that this will just become obsolete because there will be less people trying to completely learn the language now of course when this technology first comes out it's not going to completely make everything obsolete people will still learn languages and even when these gadgets and machines become widespread people will still feel like they want to learn the language so that they can speak without the machine right they'll want to feel more comfortable and natural and they'll want to pass this on to future generations however we can see that traditions die and future generations will probably think that learning languages have become has become a less important task a less important thing that they need to master because now they have a machine that does it for them so that's all i have to say about this topic for today uh if you found it interesting go ahead and write something under this video if you thought that this was a waste of your time um i mean i'm sure that you'll let me know by writing a comment or complaining about it right that's the beauty of our world today but i hope that at least it caused you to think about why people are discussing this topic and maybe just maybe the next time you see a video like this one you'll understand why it was really made for marketing purposes again my name is chris amerikos and thanks for watching i will see you in the next video bye bye

Channel: English With Kris Amerikos

Views: 7,869

Keywords: native speakers, native English speaker, native-speakerism, native speaker of English, English language native, English native, English native speaker, native of English, English speaker native, real native speaker, speak with native speakers, speak with native English speakers, talk with native English speakers, talk with native speakers, American native speaker, British native speaker, Australian native speaker, Canadian native speaker

Id: Rd6yHa-SG_s

Length: 31min 53sec (1913 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020