Why don't they like my accent?

[woodcutter]

I have been slightly frustrated recently by a number of people from the southern hemisphere who cannot possibly understand why somebody would prefer a different accent in young kids classes, where all the input comes from but one source, if at all possible. The argument always seems to run that since English is an international language it doesn't matter in the slightest, and people should in fact be particularly grateful if their language teacher comes from a remote hamlet in the Drakensburg mountains, or the jungles of Queensland, and has the accent to match - the kids have to get used to all accents!

That kind of subject came up on the China forum....

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic ... sc&start=0

I do appreciate it isn't nice to be snubbed for an accent - it happens to me too - but why lose all sense of logic about it?

At the method school I worked for the students might see 12 teachers in a month, and in that kind of situation a range of accents is quite positive. But if you were choosing someone to teach basic French to your kids, would you ideally select a backwoods man from Quebec? Or for Spanish, a Spanish teacher from Equatorial Guinea? A German speaker from the Pennsylvania Dutch community?