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Easiest & Most Difficult Spanish Accents | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| NACIREMA Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4825 days ago 17 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 48 29 September 2011 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the opinion of those of you who study Spanish as a second language, which countries' accents are the easiest and most difficult for you to understand?
I realize that we may each have our own biases, mostly likely determined by which nationality of people we speak with the most and/or which country we studied abroad in. For example, to my ears the Mexican and Ecuadorean accents are "clear," but those are the countries where I attended language school. However, I would nevertheless be interested to know what everyone else's experiences have been to see if there are any commonalities. Here's my experience: While the accents in central Mexico and Ecuador seem clear, I find the Puerto Rican accent to be challenging, especially at work where I sometimes attend to Puerto Rican customers on the telephone. Although it is said that Colombia has a very neutral accent, this must be the case in Bogota because when I spent a weekend in Medellin (travelling from Quito) there were times when I felt like my level of comprehension dropped a notch when talking to some people there. What have the rest of you experienced? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 48 29 September 2011 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depends on what you're accustomed to. I live in the Caribbean. Caribbean accents are easiest for me because I am exposed to them (PR, DR) on a daily basis. I have little exposure to Rioplatense (Arg/Uru) Spanish, as a consequence, I find it to be more challenging. I am a native English speaker. I found Scouse and North Yorkshire accents to be difficult when I first started living in England. After a couple of months, there was no problem. It's what you get used to. Accents are the spice of languages!
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| MarcusOdim Groupie Brazil Joined 4848 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes | Message 3 of 48 29 September 2011 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mexican accents are tough for me
I LOVE the Argentinian accents, but the easiest to understand are the Venezuelan/Colombian ones, which I hate with all the hatred inside of me 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| NACIREMA Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4825 days ago 17 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 4 of 48 29 September 2011 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I can ask, what do you find so distasteful about the Colombian and Venezuelan accents? Edited by NACIREMA on 29 September 2011 at 11:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| July Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 5274 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishB2 Studies: French | Message 5 of 48 30 September 2011 at 1:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Although I live in Spain, when I started out learning Spanish I thought that Mexican
accents (minus the slang, obviously) were easiest to understand, because they didn't 'th' to much. But now central Spanish accents are easiest, because I hear them every day. The only Spanish accents I still have real trouble with are those from Cuba. I still have to kind of smile and nod when people with Cuban accent talk to me - although they're usually so friendly that they don't make me feel foolish! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MarcusOdim Groupie Brazil Joined 4848 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes | Message 6 of 48 30 September 2011 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
They sound way too clear and irritating aaahhhhggghh it's like they are speaking Brazilian Portuguese just like it's written and rolling their Rs to extreme Brazilian Portuguese would also be irritating if we spoke it just like it's written, fortunatly we don't do so and most accents don't roll the R Edited by MarcusOdim on 30 September 2011 at 3:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 7 of 48 30 September 2011 at 4:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm only at an A1/A2 level, and I thought the Spanish in the Yucatan was much easier to understand than in Mexico City. My guess is that the Yucatan is still very indigenous, and so Spanish is a second language for lots of people. I only spent a few days in Chiapas, but the Spanish there also seemed slower and easier to comprehend.
People in Buenos Aires sounded like they were speaking in Italian to me. It sounded cool, but it also sounded like a whole different language than the one I studied. I can't understand Spanish speakers in Miami either. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| NACIREMA Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4825 days ago 17 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 8 of 48 30 September 2011 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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If the Spanish spoken in Miami is difficult to understand, I wonder if it is because of the Cuban influence. Carribbean accents in general seem somewhat difficult, in my opinion.
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