Learning Spanish

[PatriotsFan]

At risk of being repetitive, will say that to improve communicating in Spanish it's essential to work on your accent. . English speakers have serious difficulties.

5 Ways to Lose the Gringo Accent in Spanish

You can study Spanish for years and still maintain that pesky gringo accent. Even if your grammar is perfect, if your accent is off, you’re going to have problems. The best-case scenario is that the gringo accent will be distracting, while the worst case is that it will be so off that native...

www.speakinglatino.com

I am from the Boston area, if anyone knows about this accent this adjustment has been ... hahd!

 

[SinPulgas]

I am from the Boston area, if anyone knows about this accent this adjustment has been ... hahd!

Pahk the cah, theah, PatsFan.

I'm from the Worcester area. When I went back to see my family a few years ago, my sister said, "Oh my God, you've got an accent!"

 

[PatriotsFan]

Pahk the cah, theah, PatsFan.

I'm from the Worcester area. When I went back to see my family a few years ago, my sister said, "Oh my God, you've got an accent!"

I actually grew up right down the street from Hahvahd Yahd.

 

[Agribotics]

I'm a US citizen and have lived a bifecta lifestyle between Taiwan and Japan the past twenty-five years. I tried all the usual classroom methods for learning Mandarin Chinese but none of them really worked until I came up with my own method which I call Street Chinese. It involves ditching the classroom and hiring an articulate college student to go out and about in the real world with you and discuss anything and everything you encounter. Your teacher walks you thru an endless variety of real world situations and you capture everything with videos for study later.

You ask questions, buy things, order things, pay bills, interact with banks, bureaucrats, and discuss the endless variety of real world phenomena you encounter. Once you and your teacher get good at the process time flies by and you rapidly become fluent in your new language because you're learning it the same way you learned your first language.

 

[FrankPintor]

At risk of being repetitive, will say that to improve communicating in Spanish it's essential to work on your accent. . English speakers have serious difficulties.

5 Ways to Lose the Gringo Accent in Spanish

You can study Spanish for years and still maintain that pesky gringo accent. Even if your grammar is perfect, if your accent is off, you’re going to have problems. The best-case scenario is that the gringo accent will be distracting, while the worst case is that it will be so off that native...

www.speakinglatino.com

This is exactly my problem, since I learned classical Castilian (*) Spanish in secondary school in Ireland (fairly unusual, normally French is offered as a third language). The teachers were a mix of lay and religious (who had come back from missions in Peru), so accent-wise we were pretty screwed, as well as the emphasis being on grammar and vocabulary rather than speaking.

So now I have good grammar, a fairly huge vocabulary, but an accent that has survived almost intact after years of living in LatAm. People here understand me, but one really annoying thing is that they tend to look at my lips rather than my eyes when talking. If it's at all possible to teach an old dog new tricks, I should probably look for an elocution teacher and work on that accent,

* This is not the "Castellano" most Latin Americans speak, it's got all the lisping, uses vosotros, sois, and so on.

 

[PatriotsFan]

Pahk the cah, theah, PatsFan.

I'm from the Worcester area. When I went back to see my family a few years ago, my sister said, "Oh my God, you've got an accent!"

I was often amazed watching all the cars sliding down the notorious hills when they got iced over.
I was always surprised that so many who obviously do not have the traction on their cars attempt this.

 

[xaxage]

Hi Everybody,

Has anyone have an idea what books are the best for learning argentine spanish? Becaue i have no idea whats the best option. Also recommendations for good and fairly priced lessons are welcome.

Mangas, cause they are produced here by local manufacturer . I think spanish is also argentinian

 

[jbeas176]

might include accenting the right vowel

 

[jbeas176]

also still have a problem pronouncing the h in hacer

 

[elhombresinnombre]

At risk of being repetitive, will say that to improve communicating in Spanish it's essential to work on your accent. . English speakers have serious difficulties.

5 Ways to Lose the Gringo Accent in Spanish

You can study Spanish for years and still maintain that pesky gringo accent. Even if your grammar is perfect, if your accent is off, you’re going to have problems. The best-case scenario is that the gringo accent will be distracting, while the worst case is that it will be so off that native...

www.speakinglatino.com

Did Maurice Chevalier work on his accent to sound more American? Did Dick Van Dyke work on his accent to sound more English in Mary Poppins? Well, okay, maybe he should have done but unless you are aiming for a career as a Spanish speaking undercover superspy then having an accent can be an endearing trait. At least that's what the waitress in the café told me this afternoon.