It is sometimes SO funny to hear the English learned in schools from Swiss/German teachers ....... "Lettuce" pronounced "Letoos" for instance, and many more such strange errors of pronunciation.
The strangest feeling I had was a student telling me something about "Obst Herrs". My mind did funny things with that one. I somehow got the feeling I was unaware of some obscure ancient Celtic god of fruit trees?
Turned out he was saying I was to go "upstairs". Accents can play havoc with language!
Nothing new, it's called Quereinsteiger.
The other way around would also be a good idea... if more people from the self proclaimed real world would get experience in teaching, many discussions about education would be very different.
My daughters English teacher is Ticinese, higher education in linguistics in french-speaking CH, and never studied/spent time in English speaking country abroad. Fluent in Italian/French/English. Belieive me I was more than a little bit skeptical.
But much to my surprise, he speaks perfect English, without accent, and even understands the jokes/slang. I have truly tested him out, and he is very very good and a dedicated teacher, couldn't ask for anything more.
One can only have Quereinsteiger if somebody wants to become a teacher... and stay a teacher. That's two huge difficulties to overcome, and the second is not to be underestimated. I've known a few Quereinsteiger colleagues, in Scandinavia and here. It doesn't take long for them to understand first that school is part of the real world and secondly that teaching is a real profession. Not only I don't mind late bloomers (that sounds German, sorry, but you get the idea), but from what I've seen, it doesn't make any difference in schools because no school system is so fragile to be influenced by a handful individuals. The only thing a teacher influences is his/her own teaching. And that's already a full time occupation, no need to aim at a revolution.
Ironically, I'd say that the Swiss and German systems rely heavily on professionals from trades and businesses for the huuuuge vocational/trade/apprenticeship part of the system. Even in my language and literature classes, I've worked together with tourist guides and we made it possible for some interested students to work as guides for summer jobs (under restricted conditions, ok, but still). It's harder in philosophy class... I admit that
Despite everything, I remain optimistic about the possibilities when it comes to studying pedagogy and working with children in Switzerland. It looks as if there are many doors that could be open, even if working as a classroom primary school teacher may be out of the question.