Can a foreigner speak and/or write English better than nativ

As ever, I see this from a UK angle, I don't know any other.

I really love it when I hear a non-native speaker of English speak the Language with clear precision - it's quite a pleasure to listen to them, especially when they don't use all the colloquialisms and sloppy short cuts which most of us "natives" constantly do as a matter of course, not to mention the very pronounced and varied regional accents and dialectal influences which affect much of Britspeak, apart from the standard RP which foreigners are most familar with and on which most of them probably base their learning techniques.

The various accents of these non-native speakers just add to the charm, really. Naturally, these "foreigners" learn the more correct forms of spoken (and written) English, but I'm pretty sure that were they to stay here in the UK for any length of time they begin to adopt the aforementioned colloquialisms and short cuts, as well as all the local and national (and possibly international) slang terms. I know this is the case with the many Polish people now seemingly here to stay - so many seem to have little or no desire to return to Poland. In our local suburban shopping centre there are now two Polish stores which have opened up for business, mostly selling Polish foods. I'm very tempted to try some of it out.....

I love the Polish accent, but it's hilarious when some of them begin to use Scots expressions and even begin to assume hints of the Edinburgh Scottish accent.......so cool!

Damian, back in the 70s, there was an onslaught of immigrants from Vietnam--fallout from the war.

It was both odd and amusing to hear a Vietnamese speak English with a Southern accent!!

So I understand your point.

Cheers, Jasper! :-)

On a UK reality TV show last year one of the contestants was a girl of Chinese extraction - she was oriental looking in every way, yet her accent was pure Glasgow, through and through! Sadly, her vocabulary was often that of the barrack room following a Saturday night pub crawl. :-)

Damian,

When visiting my parents who have recently moved to Stockton up north, the girl in the Chinese takeaway has a thick north-east accent. Always takes me by surprise!

The fact is that native speakers don't enjoy the same level of linguistic ability in the broad sense, so in a native community there are good speakers and bad speakers in terms of how often they miscommunicate and how quickly they realise and patch up breakdowns in communication. foreign learners can be graded in the same way, so in terms of communacative ability there are foreigners that are more competent than natives, although the number of natives who have these abilities are far greater than the number of foreigners.

Rob:

We have exactly the same situation here in Edinburgh. We have a super abundance of Chinese (as well as other ethnic) restaurants, but it's with the Chinese in particular that you notice how amusing it is to be served by a very attractive Chinese girl/lady - or male, for that matter - why be sexist here? - all speaking in a very strong Scottish accent. But what else would you expect? - born here, raised and educated here, and with parents and grandparents who have also lived here all their lives, but strangely, it only seems to be the younger generation who now speak like the rest of us "natives". The same seems to be true of the Asians - the present generation speak "Scottish" while their older relatives (who have also lived here all the while) still hold onto their Asian accents, while some of the very old Asian people, particularly women, maintain that they neither speak nor understand English at all, but I find that a wee bit incredulous, tbh. I'd like to bet that they understand what they want to!

lasp posting was mine. We already have a super abundance of Guests without me adding to them.