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Assimil Spanish Question | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| BrianDeAlabama Groupie United States Joined 4315 days ago 89 posts - 113 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 9 25 July 2014 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a question about Assimil's Spanish with Ease. I live in the United States and to the best of my recollection I
have never met a Spanish speaker with the Spaniard accent. Is there anyone on HTLAL that has started out with using Assimil Spanish with Ease & Using Spanish and can say if they had any problems developing listening comprehension for Latin American Spanish accents? I'm on lesson 19 in Assimil now. I was just wondering. In review my question is simply this: Did Assimil Spanish audio help you to understand speakers from Mexico & Latin America? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3784 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 2 of 9 25 July 2014 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I spoke Spanish pretty well when I went through Spanish with ease and Using Spanish. Both contain some colloquial expressions that are used mainly or only in Spain and of course the recordings use the Peninsular Castilian accent.
However, in the appendix you can find reference to Latin-American usage. As to listening comprehension, I do believe that it will help you to understand Latin-American speakers as well, but after or along with Assimil do a lot of listening practice: e. g. Mexican soaps, radio programmes etc. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 3 of 9 25 July 2014 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Brian... definitely do not worry about the fact that Assimil uses Spain Spanish. It won't make much of a difference at all. The benefits of using the course (it is great) far outweigh the accent and slightly different vocabulary. Seriously, do not worry at all about it. In the long run you will definitely want to be familiar with the "Latin American" Spanish, but you will get enough exposure as you continue.
The fact that you are learning Spanish at an Assimil level is much more of a "problem" to worry about. Trust me, nobody is going to say to you... wow, you speak with an accent from Spain (your English-isms will far outweigh it). I used Assimil (all three courses) heavily and speak more with the Spain accent than Latin American and no native speaker has ever told me I sound like I am from Spain! Think of it like this: if you are blind and there is an intruder in your house, which would you rather have... vision and a 9mm or a .45 (but still blind)? Figure out your vision (the language) before you worry about tools that get the job done right in the long run. The details definitely make a difference, but don't worry about this problem right now. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BrianDeAlabama Groupie United States Joined 4315 days ago 89 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 9 26 July 2014 at 1:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm on lesson 19 and haven't had much problem being able to actively translate English to Spanish or Spanish to
English. I'm definitely not perfect on Spanish but I already have a decent grasp on verb tenses and person and singular & plural plus I have a vocabulary of a few thousand words already before coming into Assimil. I'm just ready to understand spoken Spanish to a higher level and want to be able to watch internet news, Netflix & podcasts with a lot more ease than my current levels. I don't have cable so I am handicapped in that respect for now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4104 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 5 of 9 29 July 2014 at 1:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I finished Assimil's old Spanish Without Toil - it made up the bulk of my listening
material thus far - and I find it relatively easy to turn my ear to latin American accents. I've had more problems with varieties of German than I have had so far with varieties of Spanish from either side of the Atlantic. But that may just be me. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 9 29 July 2014 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Try Destinos, GLOSS and lyricstraining :) Assimil itself is not a problem, the problem is that you need more variety. That's a common issue with audio courses regardless of the accent they use.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7001 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 9 29 July 2014 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | ||
It shouldn't hurt. There are a lot of Latin American accents. Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Honduran, Guatamalan. They all have something in common with Peninsular Spanish. Some unpronounce different things. I remember a Cuban lady saying she thought Spain's Spanish was easier for her to understand than some of the other Latin American accents. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5171 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 9 29 July 2014 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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The various accents don't make a difference. I agree with Luke. There are different words and idioms that are used in Spain and not in other countries, etc, and that is the only thing that really makes much of a difference. Imagine yourself speaking with a South American who is stumbling his way through an English conversation. How often is someone going to notice (or care) if he learned American English or British English... I'd say never. I have spoken with a ton of people who are Spanish speakers learning English and I have only noticed the American/British thing one time and that was in a very advanced English speaker. I know that American/British English and Spain/American Spanish are different, but I personally think that most of the differences in Spanish are even less noticeable than the differences in English.
Edit- I should add that the plural casual form of you is used in Spain and it is definitely be something you should be familiar with. You will learn it in Assimil, but won't learn it in Latin American Spanish resources. Edited by James29 on 29 July 2014 at 6:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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