受講生がネイティブのように話したいというときは、いつも私は、「どこのネイティブみたいに？」と質問します。
There is no such thing as a "native English accent", because there are a wide range of accents. English speakers native to Boston sound much different than those from South London, New Zealand or India. Furthermore, as English becomes more global, it may be that being understandable internationally becomes more important than sounding like someone from an English-speaking country.
Native speakers are not always mutually understandable
Sometimes the differences in accents between native speakers can be so great, that we can't understand each other, especially if we have grown up in very different areas of the world. This is because we emphasise different parts of words, have different slang terms, and pronounce words differently.
When I was a child, my family traveled from New Zealand to visit my grandparents in the North of England. Although we were from the same family, our accents were so different that my grandparents were in hysterics. They found our pronunciation so funny.
Sometimes native speakers cannot understand each other at all. For instance, Scottish English is famously difficult to understand—when I was at a train station in Glasgow I couldn't even understand simple directions. Furthermore, when New Zealanders travel to America, we often have trouble because of our accents.
This means in some instances, sounding exactly like a native speaker might be problematic. One way of speaking can be native to a particular area, and accents that are natural in one place will sound unusual elsewhere.
For business, Chinese or Russian English may be just as helpful
For many people that speak English as a second language (even if their English is really good), they have an accent that is influenced by their native language.
From my perspective, I don't think this is a problem, provided that I can understand what is being said. I have a friend from Germany who has deliberately kept his German accent because he wants to keep his connection to where he is from. I can always understand what he says, because his language is clear.
While new accents can take some getting used to, it seems strange to me the emphasis is often on learning native English accents. Why don't we focus on why English is being learnt? Why don't we think about which accents are the most useful to understand? For example, learning a Russian or Chinese English accent may be more helpful from a trade perspective, especially compared with learning a New Zealand accent. Obviously Russia and China have a far larger economy than New Zealand and therefore do much more trade. Why should New Zealand English have a special preference just because New Zealanders are native speakers?
English is the international language of trade, and a person learning English will probably talk to a non-native speaker in business. This means it is helpful to understand a range of accents of both native and non-native speakers. On saying that, I think the skill of learning about different accents is transferable. Getting used to a few different accents will make it easier to adapt listening skills to understand other accents. Focusing on being able to understand a number of different accents and speaking in a way that is easily understood is more important than choosing one area and speaking like those native English speakers.
In short, having any accent is fine, be it American, Japanese, or Vietnamese, so long as people can easily understand you. Accents are a reflection of where we are from, and that's a good thing.
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perception [n] - a way of understand of seeing something.
in hysterics [adj] - to find something very funny.
in some instances - in some specific cases
take some getting used to - take time or effort to become comfortable with