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Different Versions of Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| thephantomgoat Groupie United States Joined 5472 days ago 52 posts - 103 votes  | Message 9 of 13 20 November 2010 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Understanding different accents will probably not be as difficult as accounting for
regional differences in vocabulary. Take "coger," for example. In Castilian Spanish, it's a perfectly acceptable term meaning "to take, hold, get, catch"...but in Mexican Spanish- -and in the Spanish spoken in some other countries in the Americas--it means...well, something else. Why, if I may ask, are you studying the Spanish spoken in Colombia and Spain? Edited by thephantomgoat on 20 November 2010 at 12:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5257 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 10 of 13 24 November 2010 at 6:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure about the demographic in Texas, but in San Diego most native Spanish speakers are not educated in the language and speak a bastardized border Spanish that is neither grammatical nor easy to understand. I find it much easier to understand Spanish podcasts and TV shows than the maintenance team that works at my complex. In addition to the difficulties understanding San Diegan Spanish speakers, I'm constantly worried that grammatically incorrect Spanish will slip into my speech. I'm not sure how this applies to Texas though. Edited by MixedUpCody on 24 November 2010 at 6:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| katilica Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5472 days ago 70 posts - 109 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: French, Catalan | Message 11 of 13 27 November 2010 at 3:30am | IP Logged | ||
So Mexicans do not speak proper Spanish? Gee, I should really go back and relearn the language then. No i'm kidding (sort of), I get what you mean but I am afraid that you are really expressing your experiences with Mexican-Americans when you refer to Mexicans. Every Spanish speaker uses slang whether the person is from Spain or from Mexico. The thing is that slang varies from country to country. Words that are not slang are the same for the most part except for certain ones like coger for example. Some countries also favor different synonyms of a word such as lodo vs barro. Most Latin American accents will be the same if the person is speaking 'normally'. You do get people that have strong accents particular to their region even within a country. Argentinians do pronounce the ll and y like 'zh' (think French j) so that llavero sounds like zhavero. However, a Spanish speaker should have no problem understanding. People from the Carribean such as Puerto Rico have the thickest accent in my opinion and drop some letters and speak really fast. Not all of them speak like that but you can still hear a small twang despite that. A previous poster asked about the Chihuahuan accent and they do in fact speak differently. Most pronounce 'ch' as 'sh' so Chihuahua is actually pronounced as 'shihuahua'. It's always fun to ask someone from that region to say ochocientos ochenta y ocho and watch them get mixed up. The point is that if you are fluent in Spanish, understanding others shouldn't be too hard. The hardest thing to understand is in fact slang. For example I had to get used to Guatemalan words such as chumpa for jacket, pacha for baby bottle, shute for nosey, etc. If you know the language well enough however, it is easy to decipher meanings or simply ask for them. In Texas, you will probably find a lot of Mexicans who have been here for generations or that speak less than stellar Spanish. A lot of it is colloquial or Spanglish. However, there are always tons of people who do speak proper Spanish as it is spoken in their country. When I was in school, most of the kids who were in Special ESL classes could not speak Spanish properly either. They spoke mostly slang and although it is not hard for these people to understand higher vocabulary, they cannot easily produce it themselves. It is just like people who only speak English but cannot speak or read it past an elementary level. Just go for it and communicate and you will only benefit from it, Besides, nobody actually speaks like they do in the textbooks. Even in Spain where slang abounds. Don't get caught up in the lie that they speak formally because nobody really does, in any language. Slang varies even within a country and I know for a fact that Colombians have tons of slang. It is speaking with people from different backgrounds that helps you learn more Whether they are Mexicans, South Americans, Spanish, or Mexicans from Texas, you will learn new words and ways of saying things. Good luck. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| katilica Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5472 days ago 70 posts - 109 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: French, Catalan | Message 12 of 13 27 November 2010 at 3:49am | IP Logged | ||
Ha, I was born and raised in San Diego and never really noticed this. It's cool to see another person's point of view. It really depends on who you are talking to really. For example, are you speaking to a high school kid born in California or to an immigrant? I grew up in Logan Heights which is seen as a ghetto and scary place full of Mexicans and a lot people there spoke grammatically correct Spanish. However, there were a lot of people who were only conversationally fluent in the language. We would often make fun of my seventh grade teacher since he was Mexican but made a lot of mistakes in Spanish, especially when he tried to use slang and didn't succeed. I moved to Arizona in high school and since I now live in the suburbs, the Mexicans here speak Spanish horribly in my opinion and some don't speak it at all. Perhaps if I went down to South Phoenix I would have better luck. So don't be too harsh since there ARE people in San Diego who can speak Spanish. You should probably just stay away from the cholo types, girls with the Sharpie eyebrows, or those whose vocabulary is mostly made up of 'omg' or 'like'. Just seek out people who grew up in Latin America or someone who had Spanish schooling in Elementary school. Heck, even the people who use mostly slang can teach you something. So don't despair, there is hope. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jave Diglot Newbie Chile niveldebonus.ne Joined 5109 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 13 01 December 2010 at 12:03am | IP Logged | ||
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If you are fluid in Spanish, chances are you will be able to communicate without problem regardless of country.
Something that maybe you should worry about are words that are fowl language in some countries are common in others. Spain, for example has several words that are commonly used there but are rather "strong" in context on other countries. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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