The term 'Native Speaker' is one that has worked in my favour since my arrival into Poland approximately four years ago. At first I thought it sounded like the name of a someone in a cult or something else quite suspicious and being addressed by this title was often the source of amusement and discomfort, I was never able to decide what feelings it produced.
On the one hand, it meant being able to teach English with a qualification given to me courtesy of my upbringing but on the other hand, it often led to school management expecting me to be the ideal candidate to work with students on their speaking skills. This is often more difficult than teacher grammar, a area which I have grown to enjoy teaching and it is a bit insulting as it is not really teaching in my opinion but practicing speaking. For me a teacher should be able to practice all the skills and not just specialise in one.
Having been here for some time and having come to grips with the Polish language relatively well, it is now hard to be a 'Native Speaker' who is expected not to use or understand for that matter any Polish in the classroom. I should not translate or react to Polish even if there are sly comments aimed at me by students who think they have the upper hand with which to impress the others in the class.
It is a pickle and I had a big test yesterday with a new group of teenagers. I pretended to be a 'Native Speaker' in the true sense of the word but at times I really wanted to shout out that 'I can help you!', 'I understand!' - but I could not. Thankfully, there were no insults hurled at me to defend myself against and to betray my progression from being a 'Native Speaker' to being whatever it is I now am.
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