Monday, March 14, 2011

Que! ?

Learning to speak Argentine Spanish has been full of challenges.  There are quite a number of differences between South American Spanish or Castellano and the Spanish I learned in school, which was more Mexican based Spanish. Argentine Spanish has been heavily influenced by Italy. Studying in Barcelona for five months and learning Catalan did not help either. I can say for myself that the biggest challenge about learning Argentine Spanish is that I can't understand their accent! Of course, this frustration was much greater in the beginning weeks and now that I have a better understand of the different sounds and consonants, I am not giving so many blank stares.

Vocabulary and slang, which is a whole language of it's own in my opinion, are also different for each region. Grammar, thank goodness, is more consistent among all the different Spanish dialects. I took a Spanish linguistics class in college that gave me a better understanding of how words are formed and the distinct features of each dilaect. However, I do wish I had payed more attention to the section when we covered Latin America!

One thing I am ashamed to say, but I think is quite normal, is that I have taken almost seven years of Spanish classes and I am more self-motivated and more excited than I ever was to study! And another thing... shame on the spanish teachers who never made their students talk in Spanish in class.

1 comment:

  1. Great blog! Very insightful and fun. You seem to be really enjoying yourself. I also agree about Spanish language education in the States; as someone who majored in Spanish, I feel that my classes really haven't given us the opportunities to converse and improve our communication skills, among other things like idiomacy. That's why I'm planning on moving to Buenos Aires after I graduate in May. So all of your posts will definitely help me get a better understanding of living in Argentina! How's the job situation down there for expats?

    Thanks!

    Caitlin
    James Madison University, VA

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