I once had a piece of written work corrected by a very experienced English teacher who told me that writing "according to me" sounded weird and nobody who was English/British would ever say it. I didn't question him, as there was another teacher, Australian, who nodded her approval and so, blushing I murmured "thanks" and felt terribly awkward and almost ashamed.
I surmised that my "mistake" must have stemmed from my living too many years in Italy. After years of exposure to the Italian equivalent; secondo me ("according to" me); secondo te (...you); secondo a lui/lei, (... him/her); secondo noi (...us); and secondo loro (...them). "According to me" just sounded natural to my ears.
Fast forward to this summer and what do I discover on EL&U? That my mistake was in fact, grammatically correct. Is the phrase "according to me" correct?
It's certainly grammatical. Whether and where you use it is entirely a matter of personal choice.
Another user posted this answer:
The use according to me is correct, but it doesn't have the same meaning as in my opinion.
I prefer the second answer because it explains why according to me sounded odd to the English language teacher. I now no longer make this mistake but after all this time, it still bothers me. Who is to say, that by saying according to him the nominated person is an authority. If I say:
According to my brother, our father will have to go to a nursing home one day.
Would that be technically wrong? "My brother" is not an authority, and he may be younger than I am. If I were to rebuke this claim by saying:
Well, according to me he shouldn't. He would hate losing his freedom and independence.
Would a native English speaker find this phrase odd and even laughable?