• Thread starter Prof. Tiberius Mineola
  • Start date

Dominican Spanish: Learning Tools?

P

Prof. Tiberius Mineola

Guest
Spanish as spoken in La Republica Dominicana differs considerably from Spanish spoken in other Hispanic countries, even by upper class, well educated Dominicans. I intend this not as criticism, but simply as a statement of fact. Does anyknow know of books, textbooks, casette tapes, CDs, etc. that are available & designed to teach English speakers how to speak & understand current DOMINICAN Spanish. Thank you for any useful information.
 
T

Tor

Guest
By Spanish, i guess you mean Castellano ? In Spain they have 4 different languages.
 
H

hillbilly

Guest
Ci u'ted e'tah ablandoh conmigo...

a ben?o ai lugai ekibocao!

In reality, if you wish to learn Dominican Spanish, I suggest that you learn Spanish..period. Don't worry about the local variations. The intellectual elite have several language domains, among which there are certainly areas that you would probably take years to understand. However, in formal, public speech, I do feel that "most" of the upper echelon of Dominican Society are well spoken and would be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken.

I am reminded of a story my father told me years ago: A young man had a friend from the DR, Francisco was his name. He wanted to visit Francisco in Santo Domingo, so he went to Berlitz and learned Spanish quite well. He got his ticket and went to Santo Domingo. He got a taxi and found Francisco's house, rang the bell. When the door opened he asked in his pedigree Spanish: ?Esta se?or Francisco aqu?? He was answered the following: ?Paco? No 'ta! Paco e'ta cotao! (Paco? No esta. Paco esta acostado). The poor guy figured he had lost the money he had spent at Berlitz and went home! giggle

Good Luck!
HB.
 
H

hillbilly

Guest
Ci u'ted e'tah jablandoh conmigo...

a ben?o ai lugai ekibocao!

In reality, if you wish to learn Dominican Spanish, I suggest that you learn Spanish..period. Don't worry about the local variations. The intellectual elite have several language domains, among which there are certainly areas that you would probably take years to understand. However, in formal, public speech, I do feel that "most" of the upper echelon of Dominican Society are well spoken and would be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken.

I am reminded of a story my father told me years ago: A young man had a friend from the DR, Francisco was his name. He wanted to visit Francisco in Santo Domingo, so he went to Berlitz and learned Spanish quite well. He got his ticket and went to Santo Domingo. He got a taxi and found Francisco's house, rang the bell. When the door opened he asked in his pedigree Spanish: ?Esta se?or Francisco aqu?? He was answered the following: ?Paco? No 'ta! Paco e'ta cotao! (Paco? No esta. Paco esta acostado). The poor guy figured he had lost the money he had spent at Berlitz and went home! giggle

Good Luck!
HB.
 
N

Natasha

Guest
Ah, el gran lexico dominicano...

Hillbilly wrote: "In reality, if you wish to learn Dominican Spanish, I suggest that you learn Spanish..period. Don't worry about the local variations. The intellectual elite have several language domains, among which there are certainly areas that you would probably take years to understand. However, in formal, public speech, I do feel that "most" of the upper echelon of Dominican Society are well spoken and would be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken."

U'te como que dio en el punto clave compai'.
Thank you!!!

Abur
Natasha
 
C

chiasere

Guest
Re: Ci u'ted e'tah jablandoh conmigo...

i love it. i learned spanish in cuba, where i think they eat even more of their words than the dominicans. i now speak with a thick cuban accent and work in chicago (aqui en lo' 'tao unio)with mostly mexicans. they are constantly asking me to slow down and repeat what i said, even they have trouble undrestanding me at times.
 
H

hillbilly

Guest
Now, THAT's funny!

When I went home after two years of Peace Corps service here, my Dad, from Guatemala and VERY conservative in his speech, picked me up at Kennedy.
I wanted to show off my language skills-then rated 5-5 on the FS scale (But much better now, LOL!). So, I started chatting away in "Dominican Spanish".
Fighting the traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway, he was already pissed off, but he turned to me, and said with the greatest of distain: "Stop talking like a damned Cuban!"
Today Ican laugh at that....
Once I was assisting an ODEPA meeting (Pan Am Games Committee) in Barbados and doing a lot of simultaneous translations back and forth from English to Spanish and visa versa. After a particularly long session, the radio people from "Rrradio Habana, Cuba" approached me to ask if I wanted to go and work as a sports announcer in Cuba! It seems that they liked the way I talked!! My Dad would have been proud!! LOL!!

HB
 
P

Prof. Tiberius Mineola

Guest
Re: Dominican Spanish & HUMOR!

Thanks for all the suggestions & humor. After living in the RD for 4 years & trying to learn Spanish or Dominican, I can appreciate these jokes. Cuba? Better, worse, or just different.
Thank you all, again.
 
C

chiasere

Guest
Re: Dominican Spanish & HUMOR!

hey hilbilly- i'm a little jealous, i've been trying to figure out how i could work in cuba for years.....
that's why i've been visiting this site, i think i'll have to settle on the d.r.
as far as cuban spanish is concerned, i don't know if it's better or worse than the dominican's ( or what exactly that's s'posed to mean). my contact w/ people of d.r. is fairly limited, but from what i've heard, they speak a little clearer than the cubans do. in cuba, the language is riddled with a lot of slang derived from african words, as many people still speak that language, because the tribes from africa that were brought over as slaves were not split up like they were in most other countries- so they were able to maintain a lot of that culture. is it the same in la republica dominicana? i'm curious.
when i first moved to cuba, i used to have to have my friends translate for me. not spanish to english, mind you, but spanish to spanish. if you talk to people from the countryside, or especialy people from the eastern provinces it sounds like they have a wad of tissue in their mouth.
i'd love to hear more stories about dominican spanish. any good slang?
 
H

hillbilly

Guest
Tons! And the Dominicans tease the Cubans!

All the time: "Chico, no hablas tanta mierda!"
When you are immersed in theculture they co seem to come way easier....
If you go with the flow, they do seem to penetrate. I know that i have to listen real hard sometimes. Of course i had to do that with Cantinflas movies too@!
HB
 
B

Beatriz

Guest
Ooooppppsss Spanish is only one

In Spain we call our language Spanish or Castellano, because the actual Spanish language is an evolution from the language that was spoken in Castilla.
So, Spanish=Castellano.
Of course there are other languages in Spain (Gallego, Vasco, Catalan,... and more). But everybody here speaks spanish (if they live in a region with another language, the most common is to learn the two of them, and speak whatever you want...).
 
D

Dee DeMusis

Guest
Dear Prof Tiberias and all--

There IS a great web site that has a huge amount on Dominican Spanish. It is "www.aguaita.com." If you were to print all the entries, you'll have to use a fair amount of paper.
 
C

CES

Guest
Miss. Luis gave her ESL students...

~~~ this assignment. . .

"Please translate this, indicting the blackboard, text to english." She had written the following:

?Entre! ?Entre y tome asiento que viene un aguacero!

When everyone had turned in their papers Miss. Luis then asked one student to come forward and read what he had written. Nathan, a new student, was proud that Miss. Luis had picked him and he eagerly read his translation:

"Between! Between and drink a chair. The watercero is coming there!"

Buen humor,

"una Cibae?a" y . . . CES

ps ... and Nathan was able to do his translation without the services of "AltaVista". . . :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom