An invitation to BushOK in his hour of need

[Insula Dei]

A friend suggested to me a few years ago that I should teach English in Italy. I told him I know only a little Italian so I could never do it. Amazingly, he claimed that wouldn't be an issue. Sorry, I still don't buy it. I think it's one of those "see it/experience it to believe it" things.

Surely most Italian kids know at least some English.

[Insula Dei]

Would you definitely have to be a native speaker in order to be capable of embarking on such a 'career', though?

[Insula Dei]

I know plenty of Italian teens know English. All of my friends know at least a fair amount. That doesn't make me comfortable to teach them more. Things have to be explained in their native language.

Grammar and so on is best taught in the language you're trying to teach itself. (And when teaching modern languages it's always advisable to be very sparse with superfluous grammatical information. Most people pick up the basics easily enough when you immerse them deeply enoough in the language as it's spoken and written.)