This paper examines a common belief that learners of English as a foreign language prefer to learn English from native-speaker teachers rather than non-native speakers of English. 50 Vietnamese learners of English evaluated the importance of native-speakerness compared with seven qualities valued in an English language teacher: teaching experience, qualifications, friendliness, enthusiasm, the ability to deliver interesting and informative classes, understanding of students' local culture, and advanced English communicative competence. Findings show that the respondents placed more value on all but one of these qualities than on native-speakerness. The only outlier was advanced English competence and respondents selected innate native-speakerness over this quality because they believed that native-speaker pronunciation was the ideal model. These findings build on a growing body of research that challenges the notion that native speakers of English are ideal English language teachers. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)