Uploaded April 2021 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago
Free daily email tips for improving English: doingenglish.com/emails
Also see this video about whether a “native” English teacher is really better than a non-native English teacher: youtube.com/watch?v=SLuO8F5K5UM
Transcript:
Hello, I'm Dr. Julian Northbrook from doingenglish.com. A bit of an English teaching question today came up, "How should I feel about myself as an English teacher whose first language is not English?" The question was asked, and then the person went on to say that they feel very insecure, especially when confronted with other people who are not English teachers who are better at English than them. This is a good question. And it raises some important topics. And I think the main point here is that if you are a teacher of English as a second language and English is your second language, then it's imperative that you learn to be secure, learn to be confident with your abilities because if you don't do that, that is going to rub off onto your students. They are going to pick that up from you. They're going to pick up those insecurities, those behavioral patterns, and that is going to become the norm for them.
For example, if you make a mistake in class and you try to hide that and you become embarrassed about that, what you're basically doing is teaching your students that mistakes are something to hide and something to be embarrassed about. Whereas if you bring that out, treat it with a high level of confidence and say, "Oh, I made a mistake. See, even your English teacher makes a mistake." And then you use that as a teaching point or to use a phrase from George Bernard Shaw, the very famous playwright, "Make that skeleton dance," then that inspires a very, very different kind of thinking in your students. They then learn to become confident about their own mistakes, see that they're not a big deal, that they are something to perhaps a laugh about rather than something to be embarrassed about and something to hide. And that's important.
Now, as far as feeling insecure in front of other people who you perceive to be better at English than you, well, the obvious solution there is to improve your English. Now this particular person said, "Oh, I was rated a C1 a few years ago." But what does that really mean? I'm C1 level, but that's just a score, a rating, a metric. And it doesn't really mean much in the real world. What really matters is what you can do and how you feel when you're doing it. And what kind of confidence you inspire in your students as you are doing it.
Right. That is about all I've got to say on this topic, for now at least. If you want help improving your English, good first port of call doingenglish.com/emails, sign up for my free daily email tips at about 8:00 AM. Ireland time every day, an email from yours truly is going to hit your inbox, packed with all kinds of ideas, tips, stories, and anecdotes for learning the English language.
All right. Bye-bye.
#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish
Free daily email tips for improving English: doingenglish.com/emails
Also see this video about whether a “native” English teacher is really better than a non-native English teacher: youtube.com/watch?v=SLuO8F5K5UM
Transcript:
Hello, I'm Dr. Julian Northbrook from doingenglish.com. A bit of an English teaching question today came up, "How should I feel about myself as an English teacher whose first language is not English?" The question was asked, and then the person went on to say that they feel very insecure, especially when confronted with other people who are not English teachers who are better at English than them. This is a good question. And it raises some important topics. And I think the main point here is that if you are a teacher of English as a second language and English is your second language, then it's imperative that you learn to be secure, learn to be confident with your abilities because if you don't do that, that is going to rub off onto your students. They are going to pick that up from you. They're going to pick up those insecurities, those behavioral patterns, and that is going to become the norm for them.
For example, if you make a mistake in class and you try to hide that and you become embarrassed about that, what you're basically doing is teaching your students that mistakes are something to hide and something to be embarrassed about. Whereas if you bring that out, treat it with a high level of confidence and say, "Oh, I made a mistake. See, even your English teacher makes a mistake." And then you use that as a teaching point or to use a phrase from George Bernard Shaw, the very famous playwright, "Make that skeleton dance," then that inspires a very, very different kind of thinking in your students. They then learn to become confident about their own mistakes, see that they're not a big deal, that they are something to perhaps a laugh about rather than something to be embarrassed about and something to hide. And that's important.
Now, as far as feeling insecure in front of other people who you perceive to be better at English than you, well, the obvious solution there is to improve your English. Now this particular person said, "Oh, I was rated a C1 a few years ago." But what does that really mean? I'm C1 level, but that's just a score, a rating, a metric. And it doesn't really mean much in the real world. What really matters is what you can do and how you feel when you're doing it. And what kind of confidence you inspire in your students as you are doing it.
Right. That is about all I've got to say on this topic, for now at least. If you want help improving your English, good first port of call doingenglish.com/emails, sign up for my free daily email tips at about 8:00 AM. Ireland time every day, an email from yours truly is going to hit your inbox, packed with all kinds of ideas, tips, stories, and anecdotes for learning the English language.
All right. Bye-bye.
#DoingEnglish #JulianNorthbrook #learnEnglish
