Oikophobe: Word of the Day (1 Viewer)

[Pat Hartman]

Again, Mexico wasn't the colonizer, Spain was so the language of Argentina started as Castilian Spanish probably. It has been diverging for hundreds of years as have Australia and Canada and the US and South Africa.

My friend Trinidad was Cuban and she spoke Castilian Spanish. Colombia is the second largest speaking population. How different is their language?

 

[Isaac]

I rather frame it in terms of actual experience, since most people learn spanish for the utilization of it in a practical way (although it's fine if you'd prefer to learn it for some historical, academic or sentimental reason).

The fact is this: In 45 years of lots of interacting with hispanics in daily life (living in Arizona for 20 years and CA for another one) , I've come across about a total of 1-2 situations where I could benefit from having that "spain spanish" accent. Ok, maybe 5-10. Out of 10's of 1000's.

Thus, my recommendation for the average kids learning spanish in school - learn the type that does you the most good, not the one you'll never use. Our next door neighbor is Mexico, not Spain. Hell, even when it comes to vacations, you're more likely to go to Mexico than Spain LOL

 

[Pat Hartman]

Thus, my recommendation for the average kids learning spanish in school - learn the type that does you the most good, not the one you'll never use.

I'm not sure that there is any high school where I could dictate what "accent" my foreign language teacher had. PS I needed three years of some foreign language to satisfy the requirement for a college prep degree. My choices were French, Spanish, German, and Russian. I tried French but I could never actually pronounce the words and since the course was "conversational French" I wasn't very good at it so Spanish seemed to be the most generally useful.

Question for the non-native English speakers here: Do any of you know what accent your teacher had? I was amazed when I was working in Kuwait because most of the natives and Indians I interacted with spoke English with a British accent. For those less fluent, I could detect an original accent so the Kuwaitis had slightly different "English" accents than the Indians did. I was "amazed" but that was only because every foreign speaker I had ever encountered had an "American" accent and I just never realized it. What made it really funny was when our good friend invited us to his home and his sister was visiting, we spoke to her and she spoke with an American jive accent I'm sure she learned English in India too and was converted by her 5 years in the US. What you hear from the "talking heads" on TV and in movies unless they're set in a particular time and place and require an accent is "Chicago standard". That is the non-accented version of American English and it is actually more prominent now than it was when I was a kid because everyone watches TV and that influences how they speak. I grew up with a slight Boston accent and sometimes you can still hear it in certain words but I've been living West of the River (Connecticut River) for so many years, I almost sound like a New Yorker now. The Connecticut River divides Connecticut vertically almost dead center. East of the River we used to get Boston channels for ABC, NBC, and CBS but West of the River we get New York channels and when I was a kid, Chicago standard was far less prevalent.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Isn't just a numbers game, you offer Mexican style Spanish in American schools because we share a common border with Mexico.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Isn't just a numbers game, you offer Mexican style Spanish in American schools because we share a common border with Mexico.

My high school days were a lifetime ago but I'm pretty sure no one asks a language teacher what "accent" he speaks.

 

[Isaac]

Isn't just a numbers game, you offer Mexican style Spanish in American schools because we share a common border with Mexico.

That's pretty much my argument, yeah - it's a no brainer to teach Mexican style spanish to USA kids, but you'd be surprised how many spanish teachers for some reason either ARE from spain or prefer to teach spain-spanish, I think they think it's the cooler, more aloof higher class spanish, but I just think it's silly, as it won't be useful to most people.

At University, we used to have discussions with our spanish teacher about this. She was from spain and teaching everyone only spain spanish, I thought it was the dumbest thing, I'd never run into a spaniard in everyday life

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I actually don't have a horse in this race. Since I really don't speak French, the fact that I live in Cajun country simply means I have an interesting "country-style" menu in my vicinity. My palate "reads" Cajun quite well, though.

 

[Mark_]

Isaac, are you referring to the Spanish in Novella's or the Spanish in the street? They can be as different as the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico VS that spoken in El Salvador. Due to immigration, even the Spanish in LA is different than the Spanish in Tijuana. Spanish is about as mixed as English or French these days.

Then again, for odd English parings, I'd worked for a bit with a Mr. Singh. His Irish Brough didn't cover local accent but made for a challenge some times. Blamed it on Irish instructors at his Catholic school.

 

[Isaac]

Isaac, are you referring to the Spanish in Novella's or the Spanish in the street?

No just the difference between Spains unique pronunciation vs others

 

[Pat Hartman]

She was from spain and teaching everyone only spain spanish,

So are Australians supposed to teach foreigners English with an American accent?

 

[Isaac]

Umm, not totally sure I'm following, but: if the Autstralian is an English teacher in America, they should probably teach American-style english, as it would be the most useful, yeah..

 

[Pat Hartman]

as it would be the most useful, yeah..

Then they'd have to lose their accent
French teachers teach Parisian French, not Hattian or Cajun French.

 

[Isaac]

Then they'd have to lose their accent

Ideally, you just don't decide to teach a language in a country you're not suited for
If I'm teaching English in Mexico, I probably shouldn't be British, as that won't help the youngsters much. Anyway, I believe we've beat this horse beyond death.