Refreshing New Uses of a Language by Foreign Speakers

It is a common viewpoint with learners of a foreign language that their command and use of the new language will necessarily be inferior to that of native speakers. I would like to point out several ways that foreign speakers can, and often do, make improvements in the use of the new language.
First is the hang-up that many students have with accent. To the analytical listener, accent is only meta-data that is communicated along with the main communication content that tells where the speaker comes from. Why hide it? You are from somewhere else-- what is the point of pretending that you are not? Why spend time communicating with a non-analytical listener?

In English, certain patterns of speech are more common than others-- often much more common-- but that does not mean that lesser used patterns are incorrect, or even that they are inferior. Often the lesser used patterns are from a higher register of English-- they may be more formal, or even poetic. That can be a pleasant change to the native ear that is used to hearing the same old normal, or even sub-normal, patterns used over and over. The use of a higher register of English helps to maintain the integrity of the language by raising the average level of use. Don't be afraid to be "not cool". We already have more than enough "cool" users of the language that do nothing to maintain the integrity of English. Personally, I expect a non-native speaker, who learned English through formal study and learning, to use a higher register of English. For those who do, thanks for the help with maintaining our language!

Some phrases or expressions we use in American English are given more life when used by non-native English speakers. A great example is "OK", or "okay". Many asian speakers of English can really get into making an enthusiastic expression out of it, as in "OK!!! ;)".

It is not unusual for other countries to have stronger cultures than we have here in the USA. English speakers that are natives of one of these stronger cultures can add life and color to the language, or even have some of their cultural strength "bleed over" when they begin to use it. German influence can be seen, especially in a blue-collar or "country" register of English. Some expressions that have derived from German:

"What gives?" or "What gives here?" from German "Was gibt hier?"

"young'un". Most assume this is a degradation of English "young one", but actually it is more probably derived from the German "Jungen" (boy).

"this here" (used as indicative pronoun) is a low register, "country" expression in English, but probably comes from the German "dieser", which is a quite correct German indicative pronoun.

In most English registers you would hear "Let's go home.", but in blue-collar America it can be more common to hear "Let's go to the house." That is the German way of saying it. They go "zu Hause".

A lower register affirmative is "Yeah", which correlates well with German "Ja" (yes).

I am guessing that the reason that so many German expressions were adapted into this register of American English was due to a respect for the work ethic of blue-collar German immigrants. Usually it works the other way around-- the new immigrant is encouraged to change their way of speech and adopt American English expressions, so to have a broad acceptance of changes to the native vernacular in accordance with immigrant speech is quite a positive statement about that set of immigrants. That is probably the best way for a set of immigrants to earn respect-- through a strong work ethic, which is part and parcel of some cultures.

To sum up, foreign speakers of English can help to keep the language fresh, and with a higher average register level, as long as they can get over any reservations they have of being the "straight man" (or woman). Playing the "straight" role is easier and more straight-forward. If you really feel the need to play the "comic" role against your "straight man" friend, you are going to need a much greater command of different registers of English, so its not the recommended starting point for someone learning English.