BEWARE OF THE NATIVE SPEAKER

The man on the street who wishes to learn a language credits the native speaker with perfect knowledge of her language and whatever she says goes and is accepted as Gospel truth. I have been preaching the opposite for years: the native speaker is unreliable and mostly ignorant of his own language unless he is specially qualified in this field. As an example let me tell you of Spanish Minister and Vice President Yolanda Díaz, who, criticizing Ferrovial, the powerful construction company, said about it: "... ha crecido al albur de enormes contratos de la administración pública." This politician, a native Spanish speaker, does not know the meaning of the word "albur" and mistakes it for "amparo." Of course, she is intellectually lacking in linguistic abilities and in many other things, as we all know, but she is a native speaker, I repeat, and outsiders might take her word as Gospel truth. Take the language spoken by a Spanish speaker with a grain of salt, always, and double-check, please, do yourself that favor.