And exactly how good is your English?

Rule: A native is always worth more than a non-native
Exception: When the non-native has made a bigger effort...

My grammar teacher at University tried to learn us Swedish students all about Swedish grammar. He was Dutch himself but had studied Swedish grammar (why?).
My creative writing teacher at University tried to teach us Swedish syntax and expressions. She was Lithuanian.
And, my rethoric teacher...was Austrian.

Earlier I had a fantastic Spanish teacher, who was Finnish...

And here I am working with English and Swedish. I am a Swedish native but my four years in Ireland, my three more years commuting to Ireland for work and my four years at University studying English does sometimes not count. I was at a business dinner where the man next to me explained how he got this nice English chap to translate his web site. The English chap was neither a translator, nor an editor - he was simply an English native and therefore he could write in English. of course.

Sarcastic? Cynic? Oscar Wilde-quote-temptated?

When I worked as a journalist I always met people who "also loved to write" and also "did a spot of writing" somewhere. It was hard to explain that my training actually made a difference. It is the same with languages.

But as Russian friend of mine found out...sometimes it is true that natives, even lousy-speaking such, are better. She was once complaining about her husband's bad Swedish and explaining that she spoke better English than he. If she hadn't made quite as many language errors in that short speech it would have been better. Much better. There isn't a Swedish native who speaks the way she did. You simply cannot make as many errors as a native speaker (but you can make other!).

And I may have my four years at uni but do I beat Elizabeth at Scrambles in English?

I think not.