Hey, looking for Spanish speakers near me.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

In 1960 I took a two yer college course in German and became quite proficient understanding and speaking it.  Neve could write it.

 

Now I have a Great Courses Spanish course "just because", but I'd like to find someone close who speaks it and would let me practice on them face to face.  I'll even tumble for lunch once a week for the help.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

There’s Spanish and there’s Mexican. They are different.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

My daughter in law is from Spain and says Mexican is hard for her to understand. 
 

I once worked with a translator from Columbia who said Mexican Spanish was different from her Spanish. 
 

Being in Arizona, you might find Mexican Spanish more useful. 
 

 

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

1 minute ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

There’s Spanish and there’s Mexican. They are different.

 Castillian Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Colombian Spanish, Dominican Republic Spanish, Cuban Spanish. Venezuelan Spanish, Costa Rican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish (the stuff spoken in P.R. is different from that which they speak in New York City or Chicago),  Argentinian (Peruvian and Uruguayan all of which are very similar), etc., etc, are all derived from the Mother Tongue (Spain), BUT all sound different  Spanish is my vernacular but sometimes I have a hard time understanding others whose vernacular is the same.  I guess that happens everywhere where there are large land areas.  Heck look at Hochdeutsch and Swabian in Germany.  In Italy it's a total mess with Italian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Sardinian etc., etc.

But to be able to get along with Mexicans you just need to say: "Andale, andale, manito"

[Alpo]

Faster, faster, little hand??

[Buckshot Bob]

Same with English, my bil is English and when his relatives visit and they are all talking I can hardly understand any of them , especially when their drunk 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

24 minutes ago, Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 said:

Andale, andale,

 

Touring the Alhambra in Spain with a group, when our guide said 'vamanous' [sp?]-- i.e. move along, one of our group said "andale". The guide said "That's Mexican, not Spanish".

 

I have a good friend who is a physician from Colombia, and know a friend of his, a doc from Mexico. I have had interesting discussions with them about various Latin American "Spanishes". The Colombian claims the purest form. Both say that Venezualans are incomprehensible, but Argentinans are pretty good. Cuban is a real outlier, they say.

[Dantankerous]

My high school Spanish teacher was from Cuba. My college Spanish teacher was from Spain. I've been to Costa Rica. I've been in Mexico and not just Spring break border towns. It's all a little different and nuanced from my experiences.

 

Mexican Spanish is probably most useful in many parts of the United States. Practicing speaking with a fluent or near fluent speaker is a great way to learn. I do personally know of one person who however learned Spanish from watching soap operas on the Spanish channel on cable.

 

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

I took three years of German in High School. Then the Army sent me to Germany. No problem I thought.

They sent me to southern Bavaria.

Imagine if you were Japanese and had just leaned English. Thought you were pretty fluent.

Then you visited Dothan Alabama.

Yeah.

[Alpo]

It's quite fun deciphering the difference between what the books say and what the people say.

 

For example - Celito Lindo

 

You look up the lyrics, and it says ai yi yi yi, canta y no llores

 

Now to me, that should be CANTA EE NO YOR-ES. But I have a record of Desi Arnaz singing it, and he says CAN-TIE NO YOR-ES. He put the Y - the word AND - on the end of conta and made a new word out of it.

 

I suspect this is like your textbook says GOING TO, and the man you're listening to says GONNA.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

2 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

There’s Spanish and there’s Mexican. They are different.

They are as different as Texan and New Englander and Aussie.  I'm learning the Mexican version but should be able to understand all the rest. 

[Rip Snorter]

9 minutes ago, Alpo said:

It's quite fun deciphering the difference between what the books say and what the people say.

 

For example - Celito Lindo

 

You look up the lyrics, and it says ai yi yi yi, canta y no llores

 

Now to me, that should be CANTA EE NO YOR-ES. But I have a record of Desi Arnaz singing it, and he says CAN-TIE NO YOR-ES. He put the Y - the word AND - on the end of conta and made a new word out of it.

 

I suspect this is like your textbook says GOING TO, and the man you're listening to says GONNA.

Desi was Cuban American, yet another flavor!

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Go to any Home Depot early in the morning and you will find all kinds of Spanish speakers standing in the parking lot.

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

51 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Imagine if you were Japanese and had just leaned English. Thought you were pretty fluent.

Then you visited Dothan Alabama.

Yeah.

I've been to Dothan numerous times.

 

And I agree.

 

The only thing worse is the little towns out in the middle of nowhere lke Standing Rock.

[Dantankerous]

And don't forget whatever it is that Teeter speaks...

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I took three years of German in High School. Then the Army sent me to Germany. No problem I thought.

They sent me to southern Bavaria.

Imagine if you were Japanese and had just leaned English. Thought you were pretty fluent.

Then you visited Dothan Alabama.

 

 I know a high school German teacher, born and raised in Eastern Germany. When she goes to Germany, she says that half the time she has to ask somebody to speak Hoch Deutsch. She can't understand the dialects.

 

We took a river cruise a few years ago, much of it in southern Germany. There was a young girl working on the line for the first time. She was from Hanover. I asked her about the language there down South. She said that she couldn't understand a word of it.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

23 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 I know a high school German teacher, born and raised in Eastern Germany. When she goes to Germany, she says that half the time she has to ask somebody to speak Hoch Deutsch. She can't understand the dialects.

 

We took a river cruise a few years ago, much of it in southern Germany. There was a young girl working on the line for the first time. She was from Hanover. I asked her about the language there down South. She said that she couldn't understand a word of it.

I got by pretty well with “Ein bier bitte.”

[PowderRiverCowboy]

12 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

I got by pretty well with “Ein bier bitte.”

Tschüss  , Stationed at Graf , well family was as I was In Iraq and  Afghanistan most of 4 years .

 KBR ran Chow at most fobs so  Indian  labor mostly , Talk about messed up , Went from that to German to Hawaiian LOL 

[Utah Bob #35998]

2 hours ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said:

I've been to Dothan numerous times.

 

And I agree.

 

The only thing worse is the little towns out in the middle of nowhere lke Standing Rock.

Don’t get me started on Mississippi. 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

7 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

They are as different as Texan and New Englander and Aussie.  I'm learning the Mexican version but should be able to understand all the rest. 

 

 

 

 

  .................... hey!, ... I resemble that !!!   

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

I went to high school in Gainesville, GA  After the first two years I got pretty good at identifying what part of the south a speaker was from.  I'm pretty good at acquiring the "sing-song" of a particular place after being there for a while.  My wife and I went to Argentina for a couple of weeks and after four days my wife turned to me and said "You're talking just like them".   My job required me to go to Oklahoma City quite frequently.  I remember one time that my wife said to me "You are doing it again".