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Spanish Accents | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| drp9341 Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4913 days ago 115 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 7 12 August 2012 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone!
I want to ask those of you who are learning Spanish if anyone else experiences this with Spanish. I recently went to Peru for 2 months, I was in Cusco, and I had absolutely no problems with understanding anyone who spoke Spanish natively, (some of the Quechua speakers speaking Spanish at first were tough to understand, then I became accustomed, as I lived with them in a Quechua village for 6 of the weeks when I was there.) I got home wednesday, and thursday I went back to work as my summer job (Plumbing :P) and I was chilling with a lot of the Guatemalans on the job and it was tough to understand them when they talked to eachother, honestly about 75%, although when they talked to me it was just about all of it, Yet before I went to Peru I understood a lot more I feel like, considering I learned Spanish from mainly El Salvadorians, who I believe sound kind of like Guatemalans, at least relatively. Does this happen to anyone else? or could this just be that I've been like REALLY out of it since I came home. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gala Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4551 days ago 229 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 7 12 August 2012 at 10:32pm | IP Logged |
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Peruvians speak very clearly (at least to my American ear); Guatemalans don't. You got
spoiled in Peru:) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 3 of 7 14 August 2012 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
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It's a problem of getting used to it. Accents vary a lot within each country. Here in Spain I barely understand people from Andalucía when I first meet them, but after that I begin to understand them slowly. The same situation occurs when I come across someone who lives in an isolated village in the North, since many of the mountaineous and isolated zones in Northern Spain have got their own dialects and languages, and people from some of them often mix Spanish and their dialects/languages.
Of course it's pretty the same everytime I meet a Latin-American tourist from a region which accent I haven't heard yet (Latin Americans who already live here are more understandable). And of course, of course, of course, it's the same with English. That really drives me mad, he, he. Edited by Dagane on 14 August 2012 at 6:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4611 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 4 of 7 14 August 2012 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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That's a very common problem, drp9341. There are lots of differences between the
Spanish spoken in the Andes and that spoken in Mexico/Central America; accents vary, plus different aboriginal languages influence the Spanish spoken in different regions. I had a similar experience after living in South America and then living in Mexico some years later. I arrived very confident in my Spanish-speaking ability and then discovered that many words I had learned had different meanings in Mexico, or weren't used at all in Mexico. Switching from saying "coger" to "agarrar" took me some time! Edited by embici on 14 August 2012 at 5:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| angeltreats Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6295 days ago 48 posts - 49 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Swedish | Message 5 of 7 14 August 2012 at 10:58pm | IP Logged |
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You'll get used to it no problem, it just takes a bit of time.
When I learned Spanish at school, we did an exchange with some Spanish kids, in Granada. That was a shock to the system. Then years later I worked in Gran Canaria for a while. Those are both accents that are quite far removed from anything you hear on Teach Yourself or similar. But I not only got used to them, I learned to love them both! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4639 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 7 14 August 2012 at 11:25pm | IP Logged |
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It is definitely a matter of exposure. Many Spanish students I've met realize that being able recognize and understand various Spanish accents is a challenge. However, it's really a matter of knowing the differences and then exposing yourself. Most have noted that some Caribbean, Central American, and the Chilean accents as particularly difficult.
As a native speaker, I had some trouble understanding Cuban and some very rural accents in Bolivia - but it was, as mentioned earlier, a matter of getting past the initial impression and paying attention to notice that exposure is key. I felt the same way about Arabic - there is no doubt that it is accents/speech patterns that make adjusting to different Arabic dialects difficult to understand sometimes, especially for non-natives. The diglossia and misconception that the dialects are so shockingly different, IMO, are not even the main reasons that it can be difficult. Again it's a matter of exposure. I also had some similar experiences with French dialects. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5220 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 7 of 7 15 August 2012 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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I started out aiming for an Andalucian accent but I watch Mexican films and have a madrileña tutor so my accent is now all over the place.
Eventually it will sort itself out Andalucian style I hope! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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