My Spanish teacher in a local language school was certainly a native Spaniard and never spoke any English in class (I would not have wanted to learn from anyone who wasn't) - the owner of the school was French and did not teach Spanish herself. They employed a native English speaker to teach English.Unicorn wrote: ↑Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:59 pm
I am unsure as to whom 'Katy' refers to those 'making up their qualifications on the plane'. The teachers in language schools here who teach Spanish are mostly, if not all, indiginous. From whence they have arrived by plane, enabling them to invent qualifications en route is a mystery. It would be sensible I think, to go to an actual Spanish person to learn Spanish, wouldn't it?
In my experience it is those who make a living providing services to the people who have not learned enough Spanish to be able to deal with Spanish businesses or tradespeople who are the most likely to have reinvented themselves and their qualifications by the time they arrive at the airport here.
Like yourself, I have helped some Spanish school students with their English and I don't think they teach English much better here than the English schools I attended taught foreign languages. I took French A level and would never say that I could actually speak French, although I remember a fair bit of it and can understand written French.
Neither I nor, as far as I can see from any of their contributions to the thread, any of the others who have commented have claimed to be fluent in Spanish. My aim was purely to become competent enough to deal with everyday situations independently and be able to communicate with the people I live amongst. To become fluent I think you really need to be in a total immersion setting for a long period of time, and those like myself who do not work with Spanish colleagues or have children attending Spanish schools are not going to achieve that.