When registering for Italki, should people choose their profiles country flag based on where they live, or where they are from? <o:p></o:p>
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Recently I have been noticing that quite a lot of people have their profile flags set to the country where they reside in, or may have acquired citizenship, but not where they are from. This can be quite misleading for those who wish to find a native speaker from a particular country. I will use Britain as an example, since I am from there. <o:p></o:p>
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Today I have seen a Turkish lady with her location being Birmingham, her profile flag British, but a conversation asking “how can I learn English quickly”. Yesterday, I saw a lady from France, who lives in London, her profile had a British flag, and she was telling someone that she has a very high level of English and can help them learn the language. With what is happening in Europe I have seen quite a lot of Arabic people setting their profile flags to those of European countries, and then asking people to help them learn those languages. <o:p></o:p>
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I’m not saying that someone who isn’t a native speaker can’t help someone else learn another language. There will people who learn to write the language better than natives, and some may even speak the language better than natives, due to natives picking up bad habits over their lives, and also some may not be that good at grammar, but can speak their language to a high level. ( I admit, I have actually had to brush up on my grammar. However, I pitch to high level executives on a daily basis and speak English with a clear accent, and to a very high standard.)<o:p></o:p>
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However, what I am saying is, that your profile flag should reflect where you are from, and I feel there are several reasons for this.<o:p></o:p>
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The first being accent: A lot of people want to acquire the accent of the countries language that they are learning. This is a very hard thing to do, and I have worked with a lot of foreign people who have lived in the UK for years and have never achieved this, and I am not sure many of these people would have. <o:p></o:p>
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Secondly- Culture: The exchange of a language is also the exchange of one’s culture. A person from abroad that resides in a new country might have picked up some of their new countries culture, but they wouldn’t have grown up in it, have all the same traditions as a native, and may never truly reflect the countries values, heritage, and culture.<o:p></o:p>
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I wonder what everyone else thinks?<o:p></o:p>
I completely agree with you. Your reasons are perfectly explained and quite reasonables. In fact sometimes I've had the same thought in this regard.
I also know people living in Spain for many years, speaking a great Spanish but they'll never have a "native speaking", in terms of accent and in terms of use of Spanish. In the use of irony, sarcarms, says, and all that stuff. Native culture marks the way you speak because you adcquire that from a child as a part of your personality and culture and there is a factor in the language skills that can't be learnt, if you want you might try to imitate, but that would never be the same.
Of course I'm not telling anybody what to do or what flag they have to use, but I'd be careful when advertising the world "native" as a speaker.
