A little bit of an unusual lesson type, but it's not really a lesson.

I just want to talk to you about what it means to be a native speaker.

Now we've had some comments on our pages or a few of the teachers that some people are a little bit offended that we say, learn how to speak like a native speaker, learn how to listen like a native speaker or write like a native speaker.

So I want to just address this little uh debate, controversy, whatever you want to call it.

I want to tell you what it means to be a native speaker.

There are three elements to being a native speaker.

Geography, idioms and slang or dialect and cultural references now.

Am I a native speaker?

Yes, I'm a Canadian english native speaker.

If I go to England, am I a native british english speaker?

No, I'm not.

There are many things in the british language, the british english language that I don't actually know or understand.

There are many things that I say that they don't know or understand.

I lived in a few different countries.

I've taught english in a lot of different places.

I've had coworkers from all kinds of english speaking countries from England, Australia, new Zealand, Ireland etcetera.

All of us spoke a little bit differently.

Are we all native speakers?

Yes, in our native land.

So that's what basically being a native speaker means.

So when I say I'm going to teach you how to speak like a native speaker and, you know, I'm Canadian, you should understand that.

I'm going to teach you how to speak like a Canadian.

I can't even say I'm gonna teach you how to speak like a north american because how they speak in texas is not how they speak in Toronto in Ontario.

Right, Very different.

So geography in England, even how they speak in London is not how they speak up in Birmingham or other places.

Every area has its own little bit of accent and dialect.

Every area has slightly different nuances to the language.

They use different idioms, they use different slang.

So if you're brand new to a different part of your own country, there are certain things that you will not understand because you're not from there, Especially cultural references, certain things happen in certain areas and the local population knows about it and they refer to it when they're making a joke or when they're making a statement and if you're not from there, you might not know what they're talking about.

Does this mean that you're not a native english speaker?

No, you're still a native english speaker in your native area.

Right?

So if I go to the east coast of Canada, they will say certain things that I will not understand and that's okay.

And if you're thinking native speaker is all about accent, it's not that either.

There are people who come to english speaking countries as Children and become native speakers but retain some of their accent from wherever they came from.

In fact I had a coworker once and I won't say where she was from, but one day we were sitting in the teachers lounge, we were teaching at a language school here in Toronto and I asked her, oh, where's your accent from?

And she got so upset, she got all angry at me and she goes, I'm a native english speaker.

I've been speaking english my whole life and I said, yeah, okay, I'm not, you know, I'm not saying you're not a native english speaker, but you certainly have an accent.

Eventually she told me where she was born and where she, her parents came from and all that and it wasn't Canada and that little bit of accent stayed in her speech but she got so upset at it.

I didn't say she wasn't a native speaker.

I just said she had an accent.

People always think that I have an accent like they don't know where to place me, but they think I have an accent, I don't really have an accent.

I enunciate.

I say each syllable clearly because I'm an english teacher, I want my students to understand me so I speak very clearly and some people mistake that for an accent.

Okay, so that's a little bit interesting as well.

And then there's the idioms again, I mentioned the idioms one time I was living in Japan, I was teaching there and I had a british coworker and one time I went, her boyfriend and I went to the store to get some things and we were having, I was having a cigarette and he said to me, can I bomb a fag?

Now I looked at him and I was like, if you want, yeah, I mean who am I just tell you what to do right.

Because my understanding of the word fag and his understanding of the word fag were completely different in England.

A fag is a cigarette, but I had never heard this before.

So this was a brand new to me.

So it was a little bit of a funny situation.

Another time I was at a bar with my Australian friend and we were just talking and his friend also, Australian came in right from work and he was wearing a nice suit and he was holding a plastic bag.

So my friend said to his friend, nice bag of fruit, nice bag of fruit.

So of course I looked at the bag to see the fruit.

That nice fruit.

I was looking, oh I want to see some nice fruit and I look in the bag and there's nothing in the bag, there's some papers and things like he was using for teaching and they both looked at me and started laughing because they realized I didn't understand what they were saying in Australian slang, nice bag of fruit means nice suit because they like to rhyme things if you saw the movie Ocean's 11.

The guy I think basher is his name.

He he goes to the sewer, he wants to blow up the hotel and he tells them that they're in barney and they don't understand barney rubble.

They still don't understand trouble.

So barney is short for barney rubble, which is a cartoon character, but it rhymes with trouble and that's what they was saying to them.

Right?

So being a native speaker is not about having a particular accent or speaking within a particular speed or knowing a particular number of words.

It's about communicating with the people who are from the same place without trouble.

As soon as you go out of your area, you are no longer a native english speaker.

On the other hand, a person born in Mumbai and spoken english his or her whole life but has a very noticeable indian accent.

Is still a native english speaker in Mumbai, but not in Canada.

And Canadian is not a native english speaker in Mumbai.

Right, so that's the basic gist of what I want to say here.

Ellis.

And don't forget the cultural references.

Of course you have to know what the other person is speaking about.

So if those of you out there who are getting upset because we say speak like a native english speaker.

Just understand when I say speak like a native english speaker, I want you to speak like a Canadian.

If you don't want to speak like a Canadian.

Watch one of our british teachers and learn how to speak like a british native english speaker.

If you want to speak like an Australian, find an Australian teacher.

If you want to speak like whoever you want to speak with, that's the native you need to look for and otherwise your aim should not to try to be a native speaker.

It should try to be fluent with or without the accent.

Okay, I hope that clears things up a little bit.

If you have to comment back to me.

If you're upset, let me know you're upset.

If you're happy that I said all this, let me know that you're happy.

I said all this, I won't get offended.

It's up to you to deal with the world you're living in.

Okay.

Until next time.

I hope you like this video, like the video.

If you liked it, subscribe to my channel and come back next time for more hopefully useful english tips to help you improve.

See you then, bye bye.