Sunday, May 7, 2017

Acento Misterioso

Argentinian Spanish and Chilean Spanish are the most difficult Spanish accents dialects for language learners to understand




19 comments:

  1. So true... As a Spanish, I still remember the fist Argentinian movies that I saw, I always needed around 15 minutes into the movie to fully get used to their accent.

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  2. Yup, or even within Spain - I'm currently working here, and as a Spanish learner, Andalucian is an accent that makes no sense to me at all...

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    1. The fact that Andalucians drop their "s" at the end of words makes it really hard for me to understand what they're saying.

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    2. And then you have my brother who learned Spanish in Andalucia and Chile (on top of his native French accent!). He's been asked often where he learned it.

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  3. 100% how I feel! Having learnt Spanish in Madrid I felt fairly confident in communicating in Argentina. My first experience there was stopping at a bus station that was experiencing a black out, and a guy asked for my orange peel for his mate. The combination of his bizarre accent and request (at least to me) totally threw me off for a good while.

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    1. I'm just curious... why on earth did he ask for an orange peel?

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    2. Haha sorry, I just re-read that and realise I didn't make it particularly clear. He wanted to add it to his flask of herbal tea (called Mate, pronounced Maté I think...). Don't know whether that new information makes you less or more curious now! :)

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  4. On the opposite side, I (spaniard) still have trouble understanding Australians and New Zealanders.

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    1. I'm a native English speaker and I sometimes have trouble with really pronounced accents.
      Add regional slang and sometimes it's like "I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be English, but I have no idea what you just said."

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  5. There is a "saying" in Germany - ein sächselnder Schwabe in Bayern - putting together the 3 most ununderstandable dialects to mean something like "he just does not get understood".

    When I was in Japanese class (near saxony) there was a Schwabe. When he first said something you could hear the gears in all people's heads coming to a stop.
    The Japanese teacher needed 2 seconds, then she got what he said. She was probably the only one in the room.
    We got used to him but the first week was strange.

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  6. This comic is wrong, an Argentinian and a Chilean wouldn't be able to understand each other lol

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    1. Dude, it's a joke.
      I'm argentinian and I'd know lmao.

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  7. This is so true... I was at a party a couple months ago hanging out with some Chileans speaking French. One of them said something in Spanish and I responded without thinking, and he said "Oh you speak Spanish too? Let's just speak Spanish then!" I understood maybe 10% of what was going on. Then one of my friends, who's from Mexico, walked up and asked what was going on. I swear the Chileans switched languages. Suddenly they were speaking comprehensibly and I understood 95% of the conversation (and actually took part in it). Then my Mexican friend went to get a drink, and just like that, the Chileans switched back and I was lost. I secretly think they don't really speak Spanish down there...

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    1. Too many local words, and all of them too fast. (Chilean here). When speaking with people from other countries, we slow down and stop using the local slang. I understand how that seems like a different language.

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  8. tell me about it dude. maybe this can help? :D https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Diferencias_de_vocabulario_est%C3%A1ndar_entre_pa%C3%ADses_hispanohablantes

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  9. I remember when I was working on my Spanish listening comprehension, I watched this Chilean movie called El Club, and aside from being a terrible movie, I only understand about 10% of what was being said.

    Really discouraged me, but I didn't know the reputation Chilean accents have at the time...

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    1. My wife and I watched a Scottish film recently and I had to assure her that yes, her English is excellent, and no, I didn't understand anything they were saying either.

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  10. Every single word in the spanish language is slang for "genitals" somewhere in south america, and it's always a random different one. I've heard many stories of such confusions

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