Yesterday at 4:30 I met with my conversation partner (Ohnurhan from Turkey) again after his classes at CIES. On one of our previous meetings, me mentioned to me that he enjoyed smoking huka, so I decided to go there (Their is one on campus where the old sweet shop was). Ohnurhan mentioned that he wanted to go to study in Virginia after the TOEFL exam. Some dude behind us, who had gone to the University of Virginia over heard our conversation, and joins in talking about the different Universities in Virginia. This dude was not articulating his syllables, and I knew Ohnurhan could not understand. I later asked him if he could understand; and he responded by saying 'I could understand so-so'. By this point in the conversation I had to stop smoking, as I was coughing a lot. This is normal for someone who doesn't smoke often.
We talked about different English accents from America and from England. This conversation led him to mentioning bad English used in America, such as: gonna, wanna, and ain't. I told him that this was really bad English, and not to use it (especially in class or on an exam). He told me, however that he wanted to learn this for comprehension purposes, and because he is in America, and that is how Americans speak.
I would avoid using terms such as "bad" and "good" when regarding language use. It is best to explain grammar descriptively and prescriptively.
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