The Premium of Native Speakers

This year I had an opportunity to work with my PhD supervisor to write a book chapter. Well it was primarily written by him, with research done by the co-authors (myself and another). 

I have learnt immensely on writing and analysing based on his writing (for the record I know how to write and analyse before this, but by working on this project I got some ideas to improve my own thesis). Being a native speaker (of English) and of course a good writer (and a super smart person), the work was pretty solid. We added some comments and contribution. The work has been submitted for review & we will know by the end of next month if we made the cut for publication in Jan 2024 (we most probably would). Yay!

Many3 years ago I went to A-Levels with a girl whose mom is British. We had to do an IELTS exam to qualify to study in the UK. The IELTS Band range from 0 to 9, 9 being the highest at the native speaker level. I managed a meagre 7.5 which qualified me to do law (I had to get at least 7.0), but this girl got 9.0. Wowie. Words got around like wildfire on campus. Nobody ever got 9.0. Good for her.

When I worked at the university, an advert was released by the Language Centre to recruit English and Korean language teachers. "Native speakers" welcome/ preferred, or something along that line. There is something about them that carries a bonus. I have also come to realise that not being a native speaker, some nuances of the language might be completely lost on me. 

2 years ago (or non native speakers like me may write it as "Last 2 years") I re-did my IELTS exam and got an 8.0. Still not at the native speaker level, but I would say pretty decent. Keep on improving please.