Learning Dominican Spanish

Alltimegreat

Member
Nov 16, 2012
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Can anyone recommend some good sources for learning Dominican Spanish? I'm not looking to learn slang, but rather to study Spanish in general. Wherever they are differences in vocabulary, I'd like to learn the Dominican words (and not the Mexican, Peruvian, etc.). I saw that Rosetta Stone offers Spanish (Latin America), which is good in that ignores European Spanish, but I was wondering if there was anything out there that teaches specifically "proper" Dominican Spanish.
 

Jaime809

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Aug 23, 2012
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They won't teach ghetto Spanish, nor more Taino-based words. Pimsleur has a Latin-Spanish set that's ~$30 on Amazon last I looked. All MP3 files, and very conversational-based.
 

donP

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Dec 14, 2008
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Unpreferable Vernacular

Can anyone recommend some good sources for learning Dominican Spanish?

It escapes me why someone would like to learn Dominican Spanish... :tired:
Apart from a few dozen vernacular words which may be useful to know I would not recommend to emulate how Dominicans speak.
The reputation which comes with it, is not desirable.

donP
 

franco1111

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May 29, 2013
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It seems there are three kinds of Spanish spoken most in the DR. I am sure there are more.

Spanish from Spain. These are the people that colonized this place and want to keep it that way : ) Still, at least two distinct dialects - north and south of Spain.

Regular Latin American Spanish - Rosetta Stone Spanish - spoken in Mexico too. All the s's intact.

Dominican Spanish - or the famous "gutter" Spanish people complain about. Spoken by less educated Dominicans. Taxi drivers, security guards, bartenders, store clerks, etc. All my friends : ) Also spoken at home by bank empoyees, lawyers, and business managers when off the clock jjjjjj.
 

franco1111

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May 29, 2013
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Can anyone recommend some good sources for learning Dominican Spanish? I'm not looking to learn slang, but rather to study Spanish in general. Wherever they are differences in vocabulary, I'd like to learn the Dominican words (and not the Mexican, Peruvian, etc.). I saw that Rosetta Stone offers Spanish (Latin America), which is good in that ignores European Spanish, but I was wondering if there was anything out there that teaches specifically "proper" Dominican Spanish.

The word co?o is used differently in the DR.
 

Major448

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Sep 8, 2010
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Just my personal thought ... Rosetta Stone consistently gets less than stellar reviews (and is expensive). Do a search of reviews before you buy.

One of my sons used "Rocket Spanish" and has done pretty well with it ( a summer semester of law school in Madrid ... despite his Spanish training being Latin American).

The one that I am working with is "Learn Spanish Like Crazy" (LSLC). It is more intense than "Rocket Spanish" but is known to get decent results.

Both have web sites with marketing that reads like a hard sell ... but get beyond that. They are competing against Rosetta.

Here is a video of a guy who used LSLC. He did half of level 1 ... then went to the DR for few months and continued studying the rest of the training (levels 2 and 3?). On other videos, he claims that he was "conversational after 9 months total study/immersion, and advanced after a couple of years. He says that he may now have a Dominican accent. According to the comments on this video, I might believe him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEmnny7W01k
 
Jul 28, 2014
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"proper" Dominican Spanish is an oxymoron, I presume you mean all the slang that's used common place in the R.D. ?

Learning proper Spanish from Spain is not bad (called Castellano), It's how I learned, and the reason it's not bad is the foundational Spanish is still the same, its when you get into places, as described, such as the R.D. where conversation is less formal and slang is more common, i.e. Guagua. Once you learn basic Spanish, its easy to pick up on the differences in the 2 as well as, now that you know the basics, and you are able to ask, what does "X word" mean in Spanish to a Dominican...
 

Gringonazo

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Sep 27, 2014
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You learn those as you go along. There are several lists online. Guineo is banana in several other countries too, by the way.

Dominican Republic Spanish Expressions and Slang Terms

Best to learn a more standard form of Spanish first, as others have said, as it will serve you well in any Spanish speaking country.

I could not agree more with this statement. If one speaks a general Spanish, he will get along just fine in basically any Spanish-speaking country he visits. I've traveled Latin America, and although each country has its own idiosyncracies, I've done just fine communicating and understanding those to whom I have spoken. I'm so thankful for my first Spanish teacher who drilled this element plus proper pronunciation and complete pronunciation into my head. However, it is fun to say sometimes, "Ey, compai, ?Qu? lo que? ?c?mo t? t?? Apaga esa vaina y habla conmigo, pol favol."
 

MikeFisher

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Feb 28, 2006
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It seems there are three kinds of Spanish spoken most in the DR. I am sure there are more.

Spanish from Spain. These are the people that colonized this place and want to keep it that way : ) Still, at least two distinct dialects - north and south of Spain.

Regular Latin American Spanish - Rosetta Stone Spanish - spoken in Mexico too. All the s's intact.

Dominican Spanish - or the famous "gutter" Spanish people complain about. Spoken by less educated Dominicans. Taxi drivers, security guards, bartenders, store clerks, etc. All my friends : ) Also spoken at home by bank empoyees, lawyers, and business managers when off the clock jjjjjj.

can you name me one country which talks "regular latin american spanish"??
such does not exist.
each single spanish speaking /Latin American Country has it's own way of specific vocabularies, differeing one country from the other. and even the same vocabularies differ Waaaay a lots on the pronounciation from country to country in America Latina. have you ever talked in spanish with a person, let's say, from Argentine?
and then each single one of those Latin American countries has within itself countless slangs/variations, specially about pronounciation of things, but also in case of the use of specific words which are not usual in other regions, or even not existent in a neighboured spanish speaking country.

Mike
 

franco1111

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May 29, 2013
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can you name me one country which talks "regular latin american spanish"??
such does not exist.
each single spanish speaking /Latin American Country has it's own way of specific vocabularies, differeing one country from the other. and even the same vocabularies differ Waaaay a lots on the pronounciation from country to country in America Latina. have you ever talked in spanish with a person, let's say, from Argentine?
and then each single one of those Latin American countries has within itself countless slangs/variations, specially about pronounciation of things, but also in case of the use of specific words which are not usual in other regions, or even not existent in a neighboured spanish speaking country.

Mike

Of course you're right - the way Spanish is spoken in each Latin American country has its own idiosyncrasies.

I simply used the word 'regular' to refer to what I have been exposed to most. California. Arguably, colonized by Spain as part of a larger empire. Lived in Mexico. Have taken five levels of Rosetta Stone Latin America Spanish - which is identical to that spoken on the west coast of Mexico. And, speak regularly with Mexican immigrants in west coast of the U.S. It could be described as homogenized Spanish : )

Came to be like this: New Spain (Nueva Espa?a) was the Spanish colony that came into existence following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1521). It was administered as a viceroyalty (virreinato), and comprised Mexico, Central America, Spain's Caribbean colonies, parts of the Gulf Coast of North America (primarily La Florida), Texas, New Mexico, the Californias and the Philippines.

I, however, am not the expert. There are others here.

At least I did not use the word 'normal' :)
 

mexi

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Dec 9, 2014
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LTSteve

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Jul 9, 2010
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Can anyone recommend some good sources for learning Dominican Spanish? I'm not looking to learn slang, but rather to study Spanish in general. Wherever they are differences in vocabulary, I'd like to learn the Dominican words (and not the Mexican, Peruvian, etc.). I saw that Rosetta Stone offers Spanish (Latin America), which is good in that ignores European Spanish, but I was wondering if there was anything out there that teaches specifically "proper" Dominican Spanish.

I wouldn't worry about learning Dominican terms as you learn proper Spanish. If you live in the DR and start to use your Spanish in conversations or just simple instructions or questions you will start to hear it and absorb it. Don't start off with bad habits. Learn Spanish period and you will pick up local terms as you go.
 

Derfish

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Jan 7, 2016
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It escapes me why someone would like to learn Dominican Spanish... :tired:
Apart from a few dozen vernacular words which may be useful to know I would not recommend to emulate how Dominicans speak.
The reputation which comes with it, is not desirable.

donP

Maybe he is hoping to live in the DR. And the idea of understand what is being said around one is a good idea
Der Fish
 

Derfish

Gold
Jan 7, 2016
4,441
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can you name me one country which talks "regular latin american spanish"??
such does not exist.
each single spanish speaking /Latin American Country has it's own way of specific vocabularies, differeing one country from the other. and even the same vocabularies differ Waaaay a lots on the pronounciation from country to country in America Latina. have you ever talked in spanish with a person, let's say, from Argentine?
and then each single one of those Latin American countries has within itself countless slangs/variations, specially about pronounciation of things, but also in case of the use of specific words which are not usual in other regions, or even not existent in a neighboured spanish speaking country.

Mike

In Miami I served as informal translater between Cubans and others. One lady from Argentina was saying Ushtedes tienen peshcado and the Cuban butcher said Si Hay pecao. SHe didn't understand I stepped in and helped.