John Smith and Jean Pierre

Today, English (the language) does not necessarily, belong to England, alone. Apart from Australia, Canada, America (a few of the well known ones), English has been native to Nigeria (English is the lingua franca there, which is used to communicate between people of different tribes with various different language groups), Singapore (I would dub it as 'Switzerland' of south east Asia, given its financial status, along with its tri lingual or more languages, that it harbours. English is also the lingua franca there and is one of the official state languages), Sri lanka, South Africa, Kenya and a host of other lesser known countries have English as their native language and they tend to be fluent as well.

Just because you do not have 'John Smith' for a name, it does not necessarily mean that English is not your native language. Many make the vital mistake of thinking that native speakers will inherently possess a sound knowledge of grammar of their native language, and be articulate in expressing themselves with an eloquent speech, consisting vocabulary, known only to Shakespeare or such literary figures of such a stature.

Having said that, even if you are English or American or Canadian, with John Doe for a name or Smith, and you are white and you were born and bred in, be it London or Toronto or New York, it does not mean that your English would be perfect! These are just stereotypes, and a proper, native speaker, possessing extensive knowledge for correcting or teaching, would SOLELY depend on his or her educational prowess and NOT race or nationality. This can go either way, whether you are from England or Kenya or anywhere else (whether it is a well known English speaking country or one of the lesser known ones!)

The same, can be said of French, which has a similar history as English, thanks to the colonisation (or, curse of it?) of lands, far and wide. Both have variants of native speakers in faraway lands, with unique characteristics. Just a light example; 'Bob's your uncle' may be readily understood in England, but not so, if it was in America. Same way, 'What's the 411?' may be taken for granted in America, which would baffle people from England. These are just minute examples of the complexities, that can exist in the same language, natively spoken in England, Canada, Nigeria and so forth.

These two languages (English and French) got native and fluent speakers in the far corners of the planet without necessarily possessing the names of John Smith and Jean Pierre (as default), thank you very much! ;-)