Is There Good English?

Teaching entails more than the word itself. It's an attitude of the teacher him- or herself towards life and others. I remember some student came to me bothered with how an English native colleague questioned her ability of being an English teacher. She sounded frustrated and even became afraid to teach her students any longer. Enthusiasm, passion and constant learning are the foundations to be a teacher. Due to cultural differences, the qualities of a good teacher also differ. However, there is not such things as "correct " English pronunciation. Correctness is questionable. As an English teacher, we should demand ourselves to pronounce comprehensibly to our students. We are their models. But there is no need to take one person or a group of people as the only example of correct English. There is no one whose English is world-wide recognized. Our purpose of learning English is not the same as that before. Language use is what we concern with. In particular, do not overestimate the English native speakers around us. They are not all " English teachers." You can do better than them since you know Taiwanese students. You are going to stay here longer than they are. Trust yourself and keep learning. Being a good English teacher is something you can reach. Remember, what you teach doesn't matter much more than how you do it. In the following is how I comment on it:

People change and so do dialects. In the United States, dialects vary from one place to another in terms of accents and expressions of some certain words. Even though people in the United States all speak the same language, the way of one’s talk further represents not only one’s home language but the social class one may belong to. Among a variety of dialectal differences, one dialect that may sound funny to one person is music to another. Under this circumstance, whether there is one correct way to pronounce English gives rise to heated debates: whether “Standard English” is the best and most correct to be spoken.

What is so-called “Standard English? ” The type of English favored by TV news broadcast, newspapers and so on is the answer. The reason is it is the language everybody can understand. However, the phrase “Standard English” may mislead people to a false stereotype that there must be “non-standard English.” In fact, no language is superior to another. Those who speak English “correctly” are not smarter than those who don’t. Dialectal differences are just regional or cultural distinctions between people of a language, but cannot be indication of which group of people is more desirable or acceptable in society.