IT Courses in English recorded by Non-Native Americans

JuanMartin

Is it true that Americans don't buy IT courses (self-study) recorded by foreigners? They prefer native English-speaking courses and don't like (or don't buy) Europeans, Indians or Australians, right?

E Double U

Interesting topic. I am an American living in Europe so have taking my share of trainings by non-native English speakers, but have never taken the nationality of the instructor into consideration when choosing a course. I prefer knowledgeable instructors regardless of their native tongue. Maybe someone that struggles with certain accents might find it problematic, but that has not been an issue for me. 

JDMurray

For me it's important to be able to easily understand an instructor's presentation regardless of their national origin. If I am constantly distracted by not recognizing the presenter's pronunciations of words, the timing or enunciation of the presenter's accent, or the presenter's overall voice quality or recording fidelity, I will adjust the playback speed of the video (or podcast or audio book) to try and find a setting more palatable to my ear/brain. If a written, English-language transcript is available, such as on LinkedIn Learning and Pluralsight, that makes it all the easier to overcome any difficulties I might have in understanding the instructor's presentation. If I cannot adjust the presentation to suit myself, I will then only use the presentation slides and transcript.

One interesting thing to note is that Americans tend to be more attracted to British-speaking presenters. There is something about the British tone and presentation style that Americans find compelling and makes them feel they are getting better information from a more informed and reliable source. This also includes Australian accents too--as proven by the presenters at Digital Cloud Training and A Cloud Guru.

ypark

I don't mind the accent as long as I can clearly understand the presenter at the pace I like. I am more picky about their overall attitude and delivery. I love Keith Barker but I can't stand Anthony Sequeira. No offense to Anthony (his content seems great).

yoba222

As an American, English and Australian accents are fine for me. Even some non-English, European accents are okay too. For whatever the reason, I have the hardest time following thick Indian accents, so I avoid that training when possible.

LordQarlyn

Not for me. Some of the most helpful Cisco videos in getting my CCNA were recorded by Indian instructors. Sometimes with the accent it could be hard to understand, but mostly that's not an issue.

SteveLavoie

English is my second language, so someone with not too much accent is better for me. But good content is good content even if the accent is difficult to understand. 

volfkhat

Me:

*Reads the Title of this Thread.... then Leaps opon the nearest Soapbox*

ahem,

'America' is a Continental Landmass...  it is NOT a country.

For instance,
you can be from Canada, U.S., or Mexico... all would make you AMERICAN.

Just as, being from France, Spain, or Germany... all would make you EUROPEAN.

*Steps off Soapbox*

As for the substance of your thread...

i have definitely seen it play a factor for some folks.... (based on a resentment towards Outsourcing).

But... if you are thinking about putting together a Training Course... i say Go For it!
There's still plenty of folks who only care about the quality of the content.

Good Luck!

ABN_Sigo

volfkhat said:

Me:

*Reads the Title of this Thread.... then Leaps opon the nearest Soapbox*

ahem,

'America' is a Continental Landmass...  it is NOT a country.

For instance,
you can be from Canada, U.S., or Mexico... all would make you AMERICAN.

Just as, being from France, Spain, or Germany... all would make you EUROPEAN.

*Steps off Soapbox*

As for the substance of your thread...

i have definitely seen it play a factor for some folks.... (based on a resentment towards Outsourcing).

But... if you are thinking about putting together a Training Course... i say Go For it!
There's still plenty of folks who only care about the quality of the content.

Good Luck!

You're talking about North American vs American. American is a nationality of a citizen of the United States of America. Someone who has the misplaced enthusiasm of yelling 'Murica anywhere lol. 
North American is someone from the continent of North America. Canadian and American and Mexican.....

Regardless, IMHO, I don't mind accents as much as content. 
Stephane Maarek on Udemy has bestseller courses for AWS and speaks with a European accent. 
Another guy on Cybrary is from Venezuela and has a good course on GRC/OSINT/SOC analyst while speaking with a rather heavy hispanic accent. 
No bother to me! it's about the content! 

volfkhat

ABN_Sigo said:
You're talking about North American vs American. American is a nationality of a citizen of the United States of America. Someone who has the misplaced enthusiasm of yelling 'Murica anywhere lol. 

North American is someone from the continent of North America. Canadian and American and Mexican.....

No.

If you are from the Americas... then nothing wrong with identifying as American.
If you are from Europe... then nothing wrong with identifying as European.
Same goes for Asia.
Same goes for Africa.
Same goes for Austraila.

It's silly to accept the notion that one country can own the naming rights for an entire continent.
 

JDMurray

volfkhat said:
It's silly to accept the notion that one country can own the naming rights for an entire continent.

It depends on who named the continent. Take the naming of the Americas for example.

xagreus

To jump on the tangent, volfkhat, I see your point  - I used to espouse the same perspective.

The United States of America is abbreviated as either "The United States" or "America." In Spanish, the terms for someone from the US are "Estadounidense" and "Americano," each emphasizing a different aspect of the full, official name of the USA, and yet both referring to the same citizenship. But in English, the only term for a citizen of the US is "American," similar to to a citizen of Canada being a Canadian, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany being a German (rather than a Federal Republican), and a citizen of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka being a Sri Lankan (rather than a Democratic Socialist Republican). Perhaps most relevant is this: Mexico's official name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" (United States of Mexico or United Mexican States). And yet we call people from the United States of Mexico "Mexicans" (by the way, this is the example that was a turning point in my use of the term "American" many years ago).

If we're being descriptive and not prescriptive, while "American" can refer to an inhabitant of either North or South America, it most commonly refers to a citizen of the US, while "North American" or "South American" is more often used to refer to an inhabitant of one of those continents (speaking from personal experience having lived in the US, Mexico, Argentina, Senegal, and Costa Rica, as well as from academic training in linguistics). And in the Americas, when speaking of a person's identity, their country of origin or citizenship is much more emphasized in than their continent of inhabitance . I realize that Europe may be different - I have not yet had the privilege of visiting that continent, so my experience in that realm is limited to contact with European relative and friends. Perhaps the question is more one of citizenship vs inhabitance.

Having said all that, titling this thread, "IT Courses in English Recorded by Non-Native English Speakers" would probably have been more to the point.

I appreciate the friendly discussion, all around.

volfkhat

xagreus said:

To jump on the tangent, volfkhat, I see your point  - I used to espouse the same perspective.

The United States of America is abbreviated as either "The United States" or "America." In Spanish, the terms for someone from the US are "Estadounidense" and "Americano," each emphasizing a different aspect of the full, official name of the USA, and yet both referring to the same citizenship. But in English, the only term for a citizen of the US is "American," similar to to a citizen of Canada being a Canadian, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany being a German (rather than a Federal Republican), and a citizen of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka being a Sri Lankan (rather than a Democratic Socialist Republican). Perhaps most relevant is this: Mexico's official name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" (United States of Mexico or United Mexican States). And yet we call people from the United States of Mexico "Mexicans" (by the way, this is the example that was a turning point in my use of the term "American" many years ago).

If we're being descriptive and not prescriptive, while "American" can refer to an inhabitant of either North or South America, it most commonly refers to a citizen of the US, while "North American" or "South American" is more often used to refer to an inhabitant of one of those continents (speaking from personal experience having lived in the US, Mexico, Argentina, Senegal, and Costa Rica, as well as from academic training in linguistics). And in the Americas, when speaking of a person's identity, their country of origin or citizenship is much more emphasized in than their continent of inhabitance . I realize that Europe may be different - I have not yet had the privilege of visiting that continent, so my experience in that realm is limited to contact with European relative and friends. Perhaps the question is more one of citizenship vs inhabitance.

Having said all that, titling this thread, "IT Courses in English Recorded by Non-Native English Speakers" would probably have been more to the point.

I appreciate the friendly discussion, all around.

Great insight!


You know...
perhaps the better question... is to wonder WHY people think this "common" way, in the first place?



Or, to make my point in a different way:

Here in the U.S.... most people commonly call the original natives (and their descendents) "indians".

But, if you've ever thought about it.... i'm sure you've realized how Absurd that is.


"Indians".....  come from INDIA.


There is NOTHING "indian" about the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas 
(aka, Native Americans).


Just because Columbus got lost & thought he landed in INDIA... doesn't somehow change a People's identity.
And yet, five centuries later... here we are.


I care less of what is "common"....
I care more of what is Correct.

Projuktirpathshalabd

From Bangladesh ,
Having said all that, titling this thread, "IT Courses in English Recorded by Non-Native English Speakers" would probably have been more to the point

johnkent21

Yes it can be like this. You can see for yourself if you wanna buy a tutorial you will prefer it in your own native language.

bhiter010

there are a lot

when I need some specific (or not) information

I go to youtube