Advantages of studying with a native speaker
The second millennium opens with many aids and methods in language learning that are both exciting and effective, unparalleled historically. Web sites, podcasts, youtube, with other forms of electronic media add a depth and enjoyment to language learning that make the methods of only a few decades ago seem like drudgery. One might almost come to the conclusion that one could do without a teacher in the form of a living person.
But this would be a great mistake. The guidance, concern, and feedback a living teacher can provide are qualities technology cannot equal. Moreover, a teacher who is a native speaker has the ear that can detect whether your pronunciation is understandable, whether your speech is intelligible. This is particularly important in learning Chinese. One of the challenges for a native English speaker will be learning the four tones of Mandarin Chinese. English, with its 12,000 or so possible syllables has evolved without need for this tonal system. Also, many of the basic sounds of the Chinese language are unfamiliar to English speakers, and quite different from English sounds. A native Chinese speaker is in the best position to know how the student's Chinese sounds to the native ear, and whether it would be intelligible to other native speakers. Besides intelligibility, the way we use words, their tone, pitch, and stress, carry our feelings and moods, and often decide what impact these words will have on the person we are speaking to. Native teachers are the ones in tune with the subtle nuances of their language, and can guide us so what we intend to communicate is what gets communicated.
However, every native Chinese speaker is not a Chinese teacher. It takes more to be an effective teacher than fluency, even native fluency, in the target language. Good teachers should have a command of teaching methodology as well as a sincere desire to see their students succeed.