"As for me"

One of my students wants to know if it's okay to start a sentence with "as for me" to state an opinion or some other personal thought.

I'm not sure what to tell her because it doesn't sound wrong but I know I never say it, and everyone around me's got some degree of Russianisms incorporated into their English, and I honestly can't remember if English-speakers say this or not.

And if we don't say "As for me," what do we say? Usually when a student asks a question I can't answer, I play through situations in my head and get myself to use the language naturally. The best I could come up with was "Me, I like cheese" - so just saying "me," rather than "as for me." I was able to tell her when we use "as for you," but it's definitely a different context than what she's talking about.

HELP!

I'm a native US English speaker. I never say "as for me" but I do use it in written communication.

I think I'm more likely to say it than write it.

"As for me" is very common in English, though using it at the beginning of a sentence would only make sense if it were in response to something someone else said or a continuation of a previous thought. "He likes chocolate. As for me, I like..." It doesn't really make sense to use it out of the blue...(as Sabreuse notes in the message she posted while I was editing this one...)

..edited again to remove extraneous stuff...

I use it occasionally, but not in quite the context that she was asking about -- I find that it's almost always to mark a contrast with another opinion: "Fleela says she uses the phrase in writing, but as for me, it's totally a speech thing." Or even an unstated/assumed opinion that I'm setting myself off from: "Everyone goes crazy about desserts, but as as for me, I'd rather have a good cheese plate."

He likes chocolate. As for me, I ....!

"...me, I ..."? "Me, I ..."?

He likes chocolate, but I prefer ....!

As for me, I agree with the previous posters. It feels like perfectly natural English to me as a native speaker. As for "Me, I agree..." something feels a lot more awkward or maybe just unpolished, particularly if it were in written form. Of course, you can cop out by using a different construction altogether, such as "However, in my opinion..." or "As far as I am concerned..."

#6 - Yes. "..me, I.." That was an example of how it's used in spoken English. "For" takes the accusative form "me," but the I is in the nominative. Maybe the chocolate example isn't the best one, but it works.

Others may use the "as for me" construction, but I've never developed the habit.

Personally, I can't see anything wrong with "as for me..." when it's an alternative to some other choice previously stated. Starting a sentence in isolation, however, it doesn't really seem to make sense.

The Tone of "as for me" smacks of a matter of playing one-up-man-ship, , i.e., everyone else is obviouslywrong and "I will set the world right."

Joshua 24:15

As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

I knew I had it in my head from a specific quote.

#9 Exactly. A context is required for many idiomatic expressions. You are unlikely, for example, to frame a sentence in isolation which begins with "On the other hand..."

If you could specify at Google books that, say, you only want to search books translated from Japanese, I would bet you would find a far higher number of instances of "as for me" in them than any other category of book. Faced with "watakushi wa" (usually glossed as something like "I/me as-for") a neophyte translator has difficulty not translating it "As for me." It makes the self-reference explicit and even emphatic. The Japanese original suggests why Japanese try not to use the first-person. When they use it, it always comes out sounding like an "as for me."

As for me, I try to avoid using it, though not for the reason given by Naren as qualification (like a prefacing "I think") need not smack of conceit but can rather be a mark of humility as the powerful need not mention themselves as they would talk for all of us. Perhaps Erilarlo says about all that can be said.

"Say again." although somewhat preferable to "Huh?", can better be something to the effect of "I beg your pardon."