Where were your foreign language teachers from

[Kathryn]

And do you feel like that affected you (mostly in pronunciation)?

 

I had three different French teachers. The first was from France, the second from Greece, and the third from Texas. The second disagreed with some of what the first taught us. The third was adamant tht we pronounce things her way and not as we'd been taught by the first or the second.

 

My Russian teacher was from Maryland, but her pronunciation was pretty much the same as the GA who ran the weekly lab who was from Russia (side note: I thought I remembered she was from MD, but just went to look it up and discovered that her father is Marvin Kalb. I never realized that.).

 

My Italian teacher was Italian-American and the only one I had experience with, so I'm not sure about her pronunciation.

 

I think the reason I wonder about this sometimes is my experience with the third French teacher being so insistent that what we were taught by the French woman and the Greek woman was wrong. I just couldn't comprehend her rationale on that.

Edited August 18, 2012 by kebg11

[Harriet Vane]

My kids have had a variety of Spanish teacher. One was a white woman originally from Michigan who had lived in northern Spain for a number of years. A whole bunch were/are from Central and South America. Dd currently takes both a weekly co-op class from white teachers who used to live in South America and also twice weekly chat sessions with South American internet tutors.

 

Because dd has had so many, many South American tutors, her pronunciation is South American. When she hears Spanish with an American accent she is disdainful, lol. She recognizes the difference between a South American accent and a Spanish accent (as in, from Spain), and also knows perfectly well when what she hears is pure American.

[RainbowSprinkles]

All 3 of my English teachers were German. I went to German schools.

[SKL]

The teachers that my kids & I have experienced were American-born but had spent some time in a country where the foreign language is spoken fluently.

[dangermom]

Mostly they were Americans, but I took a lot of language courses, so here are the exceptions:

 

Spanish 1 in HS was Mexican, and famously only interested in teaching Mexican students who had grown up in the US to know their language well.

 

German 1 in college was a Chinese woman who had studied in Germany for years, and who spoke virtually no English. Our class was very immersive! She spoke excellent German, albeit with a strong Chinese accent. This wasn't really a problem for me since I knew what German sounded like anyway.

 

My Russian TA, who I stuck with for 3 semesters, spoke excellent Russian and I believe was married to a Russian, but was American himself.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I had 3 different Spanish teachers over my 3 years in Spanish. One was an American who had lived abroad and had a decent accent. One was American and had a southern twang. lol. One was from Puerto Rico and taught us really well the pronunciation.

In college, I took German. My uncle's mother was German and I had heard her talk growing up. I miss her rum balls she made at Christmas. She passed while I was in college. My uncle was born in Germany and he speaks some still. I had a different accent going into the class. The German teacher was really nice and we talked about the different accents. So just like with our country different regions have different accents so I don't see how a teacher can say one pronunciation is correct over others.

[stripe]

I had a mix between white American teachers and native speakers of the language in question. One was a citizen of the country but from a minority ethnic group that had traditionally been oppressed. The rest were from the dominant ethnic group in their country. The French class I took was taught by a woman from France.

[Jennifer3141]

Goddess help my classmates and I... Our first French teach was from the South so we were taught, "Bon JURE!" The high school teacher had to spend at least one semester killing all our accents.

 

Everyone once in a while I'll say, "Comment tallez VOOOUUUUZZ?" just to make myself giggle.

[Ravin]

My Spanish teachers in high school were from Missouri and Texas. The latter had learned the language when young and had excellent pronounciation. The former had a dreadful accent and knew it; she relied on native speakers in the class to model good pronounciation for the rest. (For some reason, I often got lumped in that group; pronounciation is the one thing I seem to get a handle on in languages I study, even as an adult; I have very good phonemic awareness).

[lea_lpz]

I had 2 Spanish teachers from Mexico, one from Peru and one from Spain. Pronunciation wasn't an issue from any of them. They didn't over emphasize their own country or culture either.

 

In high school I took 2 years of French. Both teachers were Americans, but spent time abroad in college in France and one of them lived and worked there awhile after college too, so over all decent accents.

[edithcrawley]

I have had one Spanish teacher from Mexico, one from Venezuela, one from Michigan (not a native speaker), and one from Germany (also not a native Spanish speaker). The only pronunciation issues I had were with the one from Germany. It was odd to me to hear Spanish being spoken with a German accent, and made her a bit hard to understand at times. The other teachers I had all sounded pretty similar to each other. The Venezuelan professor did have a few pronunciation differences, but they were all relatively easy to understand.

[Mergath]

My French professor in college was from France, and my Ojibwe professor was from Minnesota. I did take some Spanish in high school, but I have no idea where the teacher was from. She looked Mexican, but didn't have any trace of an accent.

[Alenee]

My French teacher was from China. :D

[Sara in AZ]

My Jr. High Spanish teacher was American. We watched a lot of movies dubbed in Spanish and didn't learn a whole lot. My German teacher my very first semester at the university was Swiss. He didn't allow any English in the classroom. I was terrified. But I learned a ton!

[Classical Country Mama]

My jr high French teachers were English and Scottish; in high school she was Texan (I LOVE Texas, but that sweet, dear woman should NOT have been teaching French); in college they were from all over, though the main one I think of was (I think) from Lebanon.

 

I think the variety of professors (and lots of hours watching French in Action) helped tremendously with my own accent. Generally I stink at accents (when my dh wants a belly laugh, he asks me to attempt an Italian/Irish/you name it accent), but I THINK my French may be passable. At least no one in France has ever accused me of being American. :D

 

My Russian teacher was Russian (and had us all cowering in our seats), and my Arabic teacher Persian--that was interesting, as she told us regularly that standard Arabic (and her own accent, of course) were the most beautiful, but others were barbaric. She had colorful opinions on everything. :001_wub:

[ErinE]

My first German teacher was West German and the my last, American. I loved the way my first German teacher spoke and the day the Berlin Wall fell, we spent the entire class watching news reports. The American was awful and would butcher the accent. It's been years since I studied German so I have no aptitude for the language.

 

Although I don't speak Spanish, I am familiar with the Mexican accent. When my son spoke in Spanish, I would correct his pronounciation. He argued with me, insisting that's how his teacher said the words. I kept it up until DH (fairly fluent and well-traveled) let me know the teacher was probably from Puerto Rico. He was close; next open house, we found out she was from the Dominican Republic. Oops.

[dirty ethel rackham]

In high school, I had a man who had a German accent teaching Spanish. I then had a woman who had spent some time in Spain. In college, I had teachers from almost every Spanish speaking country around. Most teachers were respected the subtle differences of different areas, but insisted that things be done a certain way in their classes. The one exception was the teacher I had the semester after I had a woman from Puerto Rico. We were constantly corrected for being lazy and using too much "Spanglish."

[Classical Country Mama]

My French teacher was from China. :D

 

That's awesome. How did/does it affect your French?

[swellmomma]

All my foreign language teachers were not native speakers. :)

 

I don't understand the responses of some that included that the speaker was white. I wasn't aware that skin colour determined fluency in another language.

[justLisa]

I have had a mix. It never occurred to me that it would matter.

[FaithManor]

The BEST french professor I ever had was from Montreal, Canada. He knew how to teach the language; he was patient, kind, and taught at a steady, but reasonable pace. His mother was French, his father was French Canadien/First Nations.

 

BUT, the absolute WORST I had was an American who spent five years living in Paris. She was ALL OVER THE PLACE - no continuity, no logical progression in the content, unreasonable expectations, bizarre antics in the classroom, yelling at us for "sounding like you were born in America" - well, DUH WE WERE BORN HERE!!!! - and mostly griping about how much she hated America and wished she were back in Paris. We wished she would go back and secretly considered taking up fundraising to send her there so our LAC would hire a new professor!! I actually learned virtually nothing from her and spent a lot of time in the college library trying to self-study from other sources. I discovered that it was quite fun to read "National Geographic" in French. Definitely more enlightening than sitting in her class.

 

My high school French teacher was okay. He wasn't bad, he wasn't great...very middle of the road but I did learn from him. Not someone to be taking any kind of advanced training from, however if you needed a crash course in speaking some basics so you might survive a month in Paris, then he'd do.

 

Faith

[Mrs Mungo]

My Spanish teacher was from Mexico.

 

I had three Russian teachers, one was from Croatia and the others were from Russia.

[stripe]

I don't understand the responses of some that included that the speaker was white. I wasn't aware that skin colour determined fluency in another language.

 

The question was where were they from. I think people would be interested if someone's French teacher were a French citizen of white French, Algerian, or West African origin. I specified that several of my (Japanese) teachers were white American. There are German citizens of African origin, and residents of Turkish origin (because Germany doesn't want to allow them to beocme citizens even after 2 generations). I think it can make a difference if someone is a heritage speaker, i.e. they speak it because they were raised speaking it. So, it might be interesting to note those who had Mexican American teachers of Spanish, versus teachers from Spain, other parts of Latin America, or whether they were white Americans. It is just a discussion.

 

One of my Japanese teaching assistance was from Japan. However, she was of Korean origin. In Japan, that makes a difference. And both she and the other TA who was from Japan but married a Japanese-American and took his last name, were supposed to write their names in katakana, which is the alphabet for foreign words. This is a subtle thing that's not really so subtle. But they were both fluent, native speakers.

[newlifemom]

Totally OT, but in my first year of German my prof had us all get pen pals via email. I started emailing a guy from Germany and it was going well until I tried to tell him that I babysat and loved children. [as in caring for them and wanted to have my own someday] :D

 

I must have worded it incorrectly as he immediately stopped correspondence. :o

[klmama]

Having teachers from a variety of places did affect my pronunciation and vocabulary choices to some extent. When I speak to people from Mexico, they hear a Spanish accent and vocab (spent a summer there and had one college prof); when I speak to people from Venezuela, they hear a Mexican accent and vocab (several teachers from there); and when I meet people from Spain they hear a Venezuelan accent and vocab (high school teacher). As long as everyone understands me, I don't worry about it.

[KungFuPanda]

My Arabic teachers were from all over the M.E. They all taught us Modern Standard Arabic (Fus'ha . . .the formal stuff). Then, your class was assigned specific dialect instructors when it was time to specialize. It was pretty clear that teachers from different countries pronounced things differently. They never said the others were wrong. They just excepted that the Egyptians said things one way and the Iraqis said it differently. Some dialects were closer than others.

[radiobrain]

Not that anyone cares, but my French teacher in high school was from Haiti. He was asesome. He was also body-buider. He was very nice to me as he passed me in French II, as he thought it was too cruel to make me take it again. :D

[Cinder]

I took Spanish in high school. Two teachers were American and one was from Venezuela. I don't recall noticing any differences among them as far as pronunciation. I suppose we learned a sort of modified Castillian--we didn't lisp. The big difference came when ds1 started Spanish in high school. His teacher is from Mexico and for certain words the pronunciation is clearly different. It kind of threw me off a bit hearing his pronunciation when I helped with homework.

[Rebel Yell]

My girls have had two different native Spanish speakers- one from Mexico, the other I'm unsure of her origin.

 

Diamond's Spanish pronunciation is AWESOME!

[sparrow]

Not that anyone cares, but my French teacher in high school was from Haiti. He was asesome. He was also body-buider. He was very nice to me as he passed me in French II, as he thought it was too cruel to make me take it again. :D

 

:lol: The only way I passed French II was at the mercy of a TA that made me pinky swear that I wouldn't sign up for French III. I will blame my problems on my sweet, elderly teacher from a holler deep in Kentucky :001_smile:.

[GWOB]

Well, my very first French teacher was my dad, who didn't speak a word of English until he went to school. Of course, he spoke Cajun French, not France French. Most of my middle/high school French teachers were from south Louisiana, originally spoke Cajun French, and spent significant time in France or Quebec. My freshman French 2 teacher was married to a Frenchman. I took ASL in college, so nationality didn't really matter.

[cin]

We had a Spanish teacher at our high school with a speech impediment (is that the PC word, nowadays?) She couldn't speak English clearly. Who knows what dialect we learned!

 

It was not an accent. DH had the same teacher for Spanish 1, 2, & 3 and says the same thing. It was a joke! :glare:

[lailasmum]

My first French teacher was Spanish and apparently had a bad accent, I don't remember. My later french teacher (I hated the her) was British and I think she had a good accent. I am bad at foreign languages but my sister has a good french accent from the same teacher though she studied French a lot longer so make have honed it somewhere else.

[EducationX2]

French: I've had 3 different French professors, one for many semesters, two for a semester each. All three are from various parts of the United States. The one I have studied with most spent a lot of time in France while she was working on her degree, and she's young, so it was fairly recent.

 

Spanish: I've had 4 different Spanish professors. The first from the United States, but spent an extended time and is married to a Colombian. The second was from Uruguay. The third was from the United States. The last from Chile.

 

I think my French is much stronger, and part of that has to do with the teachers. I actually think it is easier when you are first learning a language to learn from a non-native speaker. Native speakers aren't always aware of all the grammar rules, why they say it this way instead of that way, they just do it, because it's always been done that way. Now that I'm further along in my language studies, I make an effort to listen to native speakers from all over (in both languages), I'm hoping that will improve my pronunciation! :D

[Kathryn]

French: I've had 3 different French professors, one for many semesters, two for a semester each. All three are from various parts of the United States. The one I have studied with most spent a lot of time in France while she was working on her degree, and she's young, so it was fairly recent.

 

Spanish: I've had 4 different Spanish professors. The first from the United States, but spent an extended time and is married to a Colombian. The second was from Uruguay. The third was from the United States. The last from Chile.

 

I think my French is much stronger, and part of that has to do with the teachers. I actually think it is easier when you are first learning a language to learn from a non-native speaker. Native speakers aren't always aware of all the grammar rules, why they say it this way instead of that way, they just do it, because it's always been done that way. Now that I'm further along in my language studies, I make an effort to listen to native speakers from all over (in both languages), I'm hoping that will improve my pronunciation! :D

 

I have no idea how common this is, since I wasn't really interested in asking lots of questions of my first French teacher, but this was my experience with the GA who conducted the Russian labs. She could help with sentence structure and vocabulary and with pronunciation, but she wasn't able to tell us the WHY often.

[TechWife]

My French teacher was from south Georgia, USA

[Rosie_0801]

Some of my Auslan teachers had Chisholm accents and some had Latrobe accents, but they all used the southern dialect. ;)

 

Rosie

[FaithManor]

Oh, and this is funny...my brother's freshman English Composition class at uni was taught by a man who had recently moved to the US from South Korea. He spoke only minimal English that could be understood. The course was a disaster until the university provided a translator so the professor could teach exclusively in Korean.

 

But, of all the classes on this professors schedule Korean language courses were NOT amongst them. Dear brother always figured that somewhere in the bowels of some campus building there was a poor American professor who spoke no Korean "teaching" through a translator.

 

Faith

[Jean in Newcastle]

My Japanese teachers were the neighborhood kids and their parents and the t.v. Which sometimes led to an interesting mix. For example one favorite t.v. show was a drama set in feudal Japan and another favorite was a modern crime drama. It let to an interesting mix of vocabulary, something like telling the man on the bus that "The fuzz hath wrought an interesting search of the neighborhood."

[Jann in TX]

My French teacher in high school was from rural east Texas near the LA border. On the first day of class when she greeted us with

"Par-Lay-Voo-Fron-Say"

I knew I would not be learning how to speak French. I did learn to read some thankfully-- I ended up going to Europe on my honeymoon a few years later and I could read the menus and basic maps (which was important!).

 

-

My middle dd took Spanish in 8th grade at PS-- her teacher was from Mexico. She took Spanish again in college (dual enrollment)-- one instructor was from Madrid and the other from Costa Rica. She had a 'diverse' experience but has a good command of the language. One of her first friends in college spoke little English and was from Mexico (just across the TX border)-- the girls helped each other out language wise!

[Mabelen]

All my high school English teachers were from Spain. I think I had three in all, the first one had a strong Spanish accent but was an excellent teacher and she inspired me to pursue English in college. The other two had better accents but were not as good as teachers as the first one.

 

In college I had a mix of British professors from different parts of the UK. I also had an American Fullbright lecturer for American literature, I don't remember where he was from in the US. The worst one was a Hungarian professor who was teaching Practical English Language. Her accent was simply atrocious both in English and Spanish!

 

For Arabic I had two professors from Spain. The first one was amazing, the second one was average, I have no idea what their Arabic accents were like.

 

For Italian, I had again two professors from Spain. Both had very good accents.

[Clear Creek]

My French teacher was from China. :D

 

So was mine! If I recall correctly, she also taught Spanish, and I am sure those students fared just as poorly as we did!