I'm here in Ft Lauderdale airport on layover and had a chance to listen to a couple speak in Spanish for about a half an hour and the lady had the clearest and prettiest accent I can remember hearing in a long time. I thought she might be from Spain so I went and ask just to confirm my intuition. It turns out they were from Medellin, Colombia. I suppose I could have guessed they were Colombian because they did seem to speak slower than Spaniards but the tendency of the lady to almost use a soft "sh" sound for the "s's" as some Spaniards do threw me off. Now I know how I want to speak in my next life, jeje. BTW, they were super nice as well.
- Thread starter Chip
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Prettiest Spanish accent
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Norma
I do also like some Dominican accents as well but I've been told not to copy the eccentricities. As it is impossible to get rid of all of my accent I've been trying to speak as correctly as possible, ie don't use the "i" and use the "s" where it goes as much as possible. I actually had a well educated Dominican architect tell me he found it so odd that a gringo would have a campo cibae?o accent (mixed in with my obvious gringo one) so I've been trying to clean up my "act" a bit.
Honestly too I find so few Dominicans to emulate. The real rich and educated I can't approach and then you have the ones(privones) you meet in person who like to use big words and phrases but still drop the s and cut words. Same is for many of the politicians and whatnot on tv, they use big words but machucan the rest. Besides none of them smile either and I know when a Dominican talks and don't smile they are almost always full of schit, pardon my French.
Therefore, I am looking for examples to emulate and would appreciate any recommendation because I'm determined not to speak like a damn ugly gringo for the rest of my life.
I posted the videos so some of you (which have never been to Colombia in the first place) could grasp that Spanish is not the same all around each and every LA country. In fact, Colombians from different regions also have some hard times understanding each other due to those same regionalism traits.
"Prettiest Spanish accent" is hardly how 99% of Spanish (generic base from our past colonial times) speakers today would identify the majority of Colombians in their "talk". Simply put, most that today reserve a label as "Prettiest Spanish accent" to Colombians have only come to meet and hear the social sectors from that country, which are from the main cities and most affluent economically. Therefore one can easy see how they are more used to stick that label onto Colombians, rather than having had the opportunity to travel and interact with the majority of Colombians there. Even with advanced Spanish they would have a very hard time trying to make sense of what's said to them from the Colombian regional talkers. I was born to Spanish and can say that my oral skills in that language are excellent. Even with all that, I DO have a hard time understanding most Colombian accents/talk in the regions as shown above in the videos. The same happens in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, etc...
By far foreigners that move to LA countries find the varied accents/talk in the countries they moved to, very hard to master and be able to communicate with certainty around the regions. In contrast, foreigners that move to LA nations like Cuba and DR find it very easy to travel, live and go about their biz in the country with just basic Spanish skills. Nations like Cuba and the DR were for a long time portals to the old world traveling towards the new one to the west, as such they became melting pots and refined the accents/talk to the bare minimum in oral skills.
As for "broader vocabulary": Are you for real!!!!!??????
So that means that people in the UK are masters of English, given how extensive of unused lexicon there is in the USA from their former colonial masters...
Each LA country owns their set language, that's why there's Dominican Spanish, Mexican Spanish and so on, when you select the language options in a computer.
The same happens with English, French, etc...
What you perceive as "bad" Dominican Spanish is the same "bad" English people from the UK hear from regular Americans (or so you think alongside those people that think on that line).
I would pay good to have one of you here talking about "Prettiest Spanish accent" and "broader vocabulary" move to one of Colombia's notorious majority regions, and try to make two and two of what you must deal with as they talk...
That would be priceless!!!
"Prettiest Spanish accent" is hardly how 99% of Spanish (generic base from our past colonial times) speakers today would identify the majority of Colombians in their "talk". Simply put, most that today reserve a label as "Prettiest Spanish accent" to Colombians have only come to meet and hear the social sectors from that country, which are from the main cities and most affluent economically. Therefore one can easy see how they are more used to stick that label onto Colombians, rather than having had the opportunity to travel and interact with the majority of Colombians there. Even with advanced Spanish they would have a very hard time trying to make sense of what's said to them from the Colombian regional talkers. I was born to Spanish and can say that my oral skills in that language are excellent. Even with all that, I DO have a hard time understanding most Colombian accents/talk in the regions as shown above in the videos. The same happens in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, etc...
By far foreigners that move to LA countries find the varied accents/talk in the countries they moved to, very hard to master and be able to communicate with certainty around the regions. In contrast, foreigners that move to LA nations like Cuba and DR find it very easy to travel, live and go about their biz in the country with just basic Spanish skills. Nations like Cuba and the DR were for a long time portals to the old world traveling towards the new one to the west, as such they became melting pots and refined the accents/talk to the bare minimum in oral skills.
As for "broader vocabulary": Are you for real!!!!!??????
So that means that people in the UK are masters of English, given how extensive of unused lexicon there is in the USA from their former colonial masters...
Each LA country owns their set language, that's why there's Dominican Spanish, Mexican Spanish and so on, when you select the language options in a computer.
The same happens with English, French, etc...
What you perceive as "bad" Dominican Spanish is the same "bad" English people from the UK hear from regular Americans (or so you think alongside those people that think on that line).
I would pay good to have one of you here talking about "Prettiest Spanish accent" and "broader vocabulary" move to one of Colombia's notorious majority regions, and try to make two and two of what you must deal with as they talk...
That would be priceless!!!
Norma
I do also like some Dominican accents as well but I've been told not to copy the eccentricities. As it is impossible to get rid of all of my accent I've been trying to speak as correctly as possible, ie don't use the "i" and use the "s" where it goes as much as possible. I actually had a well educated Dominican architect tell me he found it so odd that a gringo would have a campo cibae?o accent (mixed in with my obvious gringo one) so I've been trying to clean up my "act" a bit.
Honestly too I find so few Dominicans to emulate. The real rich and educated I can't approach and then you have the ones(privones) you meet in person who like to use big words and phrases but still drop the s and cut words. Same is for many of the politicians and whatnot on tv, they use big words but machucan the rest. Besides none of them smile either and I know when a Dominican talks and don't smile they are almost always full of schit, pardon my French.
Therefore, I am looking for examples to emulate and would appreciate any recommendation because I'm determined not to speak like a damn ugly gringo for the rest of my life.
I will be the first one to say that one should emulate the best. Look for that "best" where you are at, for there are many Dominicans around you that do express themselves very well. Read to yourself out loud a lot and in no time you will be among such a group. By "best" I mean speaking grammatically correct. However, let's keep in mind two things: 1) One does not have to get rid of an accent in order to speak correctly. 2)The use of regionalisms in a person's lexicon, in not an indicator of lack of correctness in the language.
(BTW, you can also be a correctly speaking damn ugly gringo.)
Ok Pichardo you got me. I should state the Medellin area accent is the prettiest. Truth be told, I have met other Colombians with different accents too.
As far as Dominicans go, I do like the way certain people talk that I have met here. I have a friend (family really) who studied in the university and I really like the way he talks. I have met other professionals too that speak Spanish well but it just seems there aren't that many here for me to emulate. Then again, I don't know how I'm supposed to emulate the Colombian accent I like as I never go there, oh well.
As far as Dominicans go, I do like the way certain people talk that I have met here. I have a friend (family really) who studied in the university and I really like the way he talks. I have met other professionals too that speak Spanish well but it just seems there aren't that many here for me to emulate. Then again, I don't know how I'm supposed to emulate the Colombian accent I like as I never go there, oh well.
Thanks Norma. I do believe that I speak grammatically correct mainly because I typically only use expressions and forms with which I'm familiar. I just absolutely hate my accent at times. And yes, there are Dominicans here in Santiago who know how to speak Spanish well; Ing. Edmundo Diaz of Mera, Munoz y Fondeur is one. In fact it was at their office that one of the professionals seemed astonished at my campo accent (and no doubt gringo) and thus since then I have been trying to improve.
Maybe I'll die before I get it right but Spanish spoken with a strong gringo accent grates on my ears, ie it hurts.
I live in the DR. Therefore I strive to learn Dominican spanish. Buen dia although not correct, it is what is said here. I once moved from the northern US to the southern US. I was told that I needed to speak American, not English. Living here I need to speak Dominican not Spanish.
Actually I believe that Buen Dia is now considered correct by the international Spanish authorities. Correct me if you can prove me wrong.
RAE is going to have to amend this entry since there are other countries that do say buen d?a, not just Chile y Argentina.
It translates as good day.
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The best accent for me is dominican accent. Colombian accent is way too whinny they prolong words way too much and I do not find it cute lmao. Dominican accent when spoken correctly and nice is the best. I still like it even with slangs, it is the coolest with the slangs. To be honest I don't like perfect grammar lol I like the dominican slang, even tho the perfect grammar dominican accent sounds greater than the slang accent it is boring
Sometimes the thing with dominicans is that they know how to speak gramatically correct but they won't do it like me. Why speak gramatically correct without the need to I'm not going for a spanish job interview or anything. And trust me when I speak correct I speak perfect grammar, sounds like spain spanish without the accent and the z. Like mexicans colombians ecuadorias puertoricans cubans argentinans chileans venezuelans ect all got their accents even when speaking grammatically correct, I got no accent when speaking gramatically correct.
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