Re: Has teaching English abroad affected the quality of the English you speak?
 

It's interesting, the trend is for 'horizontal' transmission of information and learning. (ie, students learn from friends, peers, internet rather than from parents and teachers.) This is even something that we encourage, but I can definitely see it resulting in 'worse' English.

Anyway, don't worry. Shakespeare would have said the same thing listening to us today.

Re: Has teaching English abroad affected the quality of the English you speak?
 

That's a wonderful sentiment. It highlights how worthwhile our jobs are... which we can sometimes lose sight of.

Re: Has teaching English abroad affected the quality of the English you speak?
 

I recently ran into a conference. The following three terms brought quite some confusion to the participants. Native English speaker, Near native English speaker, Non-native English speaker; mixing them up with people's birth places and nationalities in the search for who can make a better ESL teacher. The survey paper that went round surprising results

Re: Has teaching English abroad affected the quality of the English you speak?
 

I have ended up pronounciating like a Korean when I say things like "bus", "motorbike (autobie)", "tomato", "banana", etc etc. I have also started to pronounce the "B", "P", and "V" with the Korean phonetic equivalent.

I also have started mess up a bit more on word order and started to pick up the Korean-English from students. I have a difficult time speaking to my family and constantly have to ask what they mean. They just speak too fast most of the time.

However, my knowledge of English grammar has improved and my knowledge of the Korean language is constantly improving. I now understand more about how and why Koreans make particular mistakes and I can quickly anticipate as well as correct them.

Good thread. Nice to see I am not the only person.

Re: Has teaching English abroad affected the quality of the English you speak?
 

Whistleblower, I am in your shoes, I understand you perfectly.
Have you gone to the extent of saying sentences like "this I don't like" instead of "I don't like this"? If you are not yet at this level then a lot of your English is still safe.

How many years have you spent with the Korean community and how often do you go home? If I may ask.
Just curious.

I think native English teachers ought to think and suggest some ways of keeping their English intact. Someone mentioned earlier on this thread having to turn on English subtittles inorder to follow a movie well. I think that coud be very helpful...but thinking of some of the English subtittles that we have on our movies I'd rather just listen.
However I think this is an issue we should all begin to worry about; hence my curiousity to know how the world of English will be in the next decades.

Re: Has teaching English abroad affected the quality of the English you speak?
 

Denis, I have been in Korea for almost 2 years now. My wife is Korean and I have to speak Korean outside but my wife and I speak in English or Korean (depends on the circumstances). However, my wife's English is still very good and she can pronounce English like a British but she has started to say things like a Korean (countables, uncountables mainly). It is amusing to hear her conjugate a verb into past tense and hear "I wroted". Always cracks us up.

Anyways, I have said mostly to Koreans in English "You like what????", "This you have", "Why you here?" etc etc. It is mostly the small sentences or questions that are affected. However, if I stay in Korea for 10 years my English will be worst.

I try to get to go home every year but it is difficult from time to time. I just subscribe to Podcasts and listen, mainly, to Ricky Gervais and other comedy shows.