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Easiest & Most Difficult Spanish Accents | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 17 of 48 16 October 2011 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Colombians often miss off s in the middle of a word, which can make them incomprehensible until you get used to the trait. I also have had problems understanding Cuban Spanish. Hondurans are OK once you get used to voseo.
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| 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 18 of 48 16 October 2011 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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How dare those native Spanish speakers have different accents! With over 300 million native speakers in the Spanish-speaking world the diversity among accents is wide but it is all still Spanish.
Dropping final "s" is common in some accents in Spanish. Hey, I drop final "g" in English a lot. The same wide diversity exists in the English-speaking world. We deal with it. In order to deal with accents in the Spanish-speaking world, increase your exposure to them. Having trouble with accents in Spain- listening to Radio Nacional de España or watching Spanish films will help you. The same goes for the other accents in the Spanish-speaking world, interesting content exists all over the internet for every accent. Cuba- the radio show "La tremenda corte", "Fresas y chocolate", "son", salsa. I think this is one of the pitfalls of learning languages via courses. As a practical matter, the courses don't generally include a wide range of accent diversity and this leaves second language self-learners somewhat at sea when confronted with the real world. Your language learning is never over, even after you have "arrived". The way to overcome this is to realize the problem exists and expose yourself on a regular basis to those troublesome accents in order to become more familiar with them, if you want to understand the widest possible diversity in your L2. My Spanish-speaking life would be infinitely poorer without that diversity, as would my English-speaking life. Now that I'm learning Portuguese, because I live in the Americas and adore Brazilian music and culture, I am concentrating on Brazilian Portuguese. I also regularly expose myself to, Northeastern Brazilian, Iberian and African Portuguese accents. I don't want to be in a situation where I happen to go to Portugal or meet a speaker of Iberian/Angolan/Bahian accented Portuguese and not be familiar enough with the accent/constructions to understand. Your Spanish-speaking life will be more rewarding if you make the effort to become familiar with other accents in the great big, wide, wide Spanish-speaking world. Isn't that one of the attractions in learning Spanish in the first place? It's a language spoken from Tierra del Fuego in the south to the US border and beyond in the north. Edited by iguanamon on 16 October 2011 at 3:54pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 19 of 48 16 October 2011 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am not annoyed that Spanish varies from place to place. English also varies quite a bit. It is just a difficulty I have encountered and one that makes total mastery of the Spanish language more difficult.
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| NACIREMA Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4825 days ago 17 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 20 of 48 16 October 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Iguanamon: Thank you for a well thought out and well written post. You have an interesting and useful perspective in pointing out that part of what keeps Spanish interesting and a continuing challenge is that there are so many variations. I learned much of my Spanish here in the United States and then in Mexico, where I studied or visited multiple times, and thus in a sense Mexican Spanish sort of feels like what I am the most "at home" using. However, it has been a good experience to expand my horizons over the last year or two by studying in Ecuador, briefly visiting Colombia and Puerto Rico, and interacting with Colombians regularly back here in the U.S.
Edited by NACIREMA on 16 October 2011 at 7:08pm 1 person has 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 21 of 48 16 October 2011 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Nacirema, por nada. I came across this perspective the hard way when I made my first visit to Spain 15 years ago. I was totally unprepared for what awaited me. It took me a little over a week to get used to the accent and then I was ok. I made it a point to never let that happen to me again. Here, I am constantly exposed to Puerto Rican and Dominican accented Spanish and I have Argentine and Chilean friends. Also, there's nothing like listening to good Cuban music whilst driving around the island with the windows rolled down.
To many North Americans, Mexican Spanish is the baseline norm and that is natural. If people just branch out a little beyond they'll discover the richness and variety out there in the greater Spanish-speaking world. What would life be like without salsa, the food and the music? 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4866 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 22 of 48 18 October 2011 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree with you on this. I recently took a couple of informal listening comprehension tests, one in Mexican Spanish, which I passed with flying colors, and the second from Madrid, which I failed miserably. I listen to Madrileñas and wonder sometimes what language it is that they are speaking. I really do want to get good with understanding all the various accents, but I realize it will take a lot of time and practice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nature Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5238 days ago 63 posts - 80 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 23 of 48 28 October 2011 at 3:57am | IP Logged | ||
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I actually find Spain Spanish the easiest to understand. Maybe it's because I can speak Italian or of what I do watch in Spanish is from Spain? I don't know... my current Spanish teacher is Cuban and I don't understand what the hell he's saying half the time.
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| Hiraya Diglot Newbie PhilippinesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4767 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Tagalog, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 24 of 48 07 November 2011 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have only been studying Spanish for a few days but I did have background of the
language back in University 10 years ago. I find it challenging when Spanish speakers drop the final "s". I can understand Spanish words better if spoken with the Spain accent as I was accustomed to my ex-professor using it in class. I have very little knowledge of the others, but I intend to at least converse with native speakers from each of those countries you mentioned as soon as I get better with word conjugations. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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