Study Abroad - Language Barriers?

mommyrocks
Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:15:27 +0000

The way people in Spain and Argentina pronounce Spanish is vastly different. There are many different accents already within the language, from country to country. A native Spanish speaker can generally recognize if someone is from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Columbia, Chile, Argentina or Venezuela, for example. If you want to get rid of your American accent, you will need to ask yourself which Spanish accent you’d like to have. Even when foreigners learn English in their own country, they often have the choice of learning British English or American English from an appropriate teacher, and they pick up the accent and any special wording along the way. Learning to recognize different Spanish accents may even help you get rid of your own as you hear the differences in pronunciation.

You can certainly immerse yourself online in any number of Spanish movies, music videos, and TV shows and news stories for free, but if you can afford about ten dollars a month then you can sign up for https://spanish.yabla.com/ which has English subtitles provided under short Spanish videos from many different countries, and you can play the videos at any speed. You can even practice repeating after the Spanish speakers and with your own device record yourself, and track your improvement over time that way. To get a really proper accent will not only take more fluency so you are not hesitating while speaking, but will involve holding your mouth in ways that feel strange to you. As you watch Spanish videos of any kind, pay attention to how the speakers are positioning their lips as they speak (which will vary depending on their own Spanish accent).

Keep in mind that some American accent is okay as long as you’re understood. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mark Zuckerberg had a heavy American accent while speaking Chinese, but that didn’t stop him from having fun with it or his audience from being thrilled at his attempt to communicate in their language. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_168pH9GJk Spanish speakers are usually also very supportive and appreciative of people learning their language.