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Cat, I'm a native Spanish speaker and from Latin America and even I sometimes have problems understanding the peninsulares north of Andalucía. The only people I can most easily understand are from the Canaries. Of course, Canary Spanish and Puerto Rico/Caribbean Spanish are almost identical . Spaniards north of Andalucía, to my ears, speak a combination of fast Spanish and mumbling too much. WhenIlistentoSpanishTVit'slikereadingsentencesthat havenospacesinbetweenwords.
The most difficult Spanish in the Peninsula are several Andalusian dialects, such as el gaitano, even Andalusians have problems understanding them.
Regarding Brits that see Spanish people in a bad way. There are a lot of them (mostly young) that still have the impression they rule the world, and treat Spanish coast as their colony. They go there to get pissed cheaply and have a "fiesta". For them, it's just a cheap backward colony with nice weather and corrupt people, 2h flight from UK.
It kind of reminds me of the Indian Restaurant sketch by Rowan Atkinson.
Also there are the old Brits that retire there. These I think do appreciate the fact that people in Spain are generally very open minded and do not look down on immigrants.
Regarding Brits that see Spanish people in a bad way. There are a lot of them (mostly young) that still have the impression they rule the world, and treat Spanish coast as their colony. They go there to get pissed cheaply and have a "fiesta". For them, it's just a cheap backward colony with nice weather and corrupt people, 2h flight from UK.
It kind of reminds me of the Indian Restaurant sketch by Rowan Atkinson.
Also there are the old Brits that retire there. These I think do appreciate the fact that people in Spain are generally very open minded and do not look down on immigrants.
'They' are on their holiday - Going there to get pissed cheaply and have a 'fiesta' sounds to me like what a (mostly young) holiday should be like.
Location: SF Bay Area, aka, Liberal Mecca/wherever DoD sends me to
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Originally Posted by theunbrainwashed
Yet, the Spanish every American learns is academic Mexican Spanish. Also considering the plethora of Mexican TV programming in the US, Mexican Spanish should be the easiest to learn for Americans just by exposure alone
Have you even made a compare and contrast of Mexican news articles to those of elpais (spanish news outlet). and no, the Spanish that's taught in the US isn't academic Spanish. the Spanish that is taught is international spanish. and how do I know this; I have taken classes in the US.
'They' are on their holiday - Going there to get pissed cheaply and have a 'fiesta' sounds to me like what a (mostly young) holiday should be like.
Those type of tourists are just a type of product processed in facilities, they just come, get drunk, scream, make out with drunk and fat girls and puke in delimited areas (Spain is big and they don't bother normal tourists). I don't think they have an opinion about Spain or any other country because I don't think they know were they are.
Have you even made a compare and contrast of Mexican news articles to those of elpais (spanish news outlet). and no, the Spanish that's taught in the US isn't academic Spanish. the Spanish that is taught is international spanish. and how do I know this; I have taken classes in the US.
No such thing as International Spanish. Mexican papers in Mexico are in nice Spanish, not the Spanish media in the US.
I like the Iberian countries, better than the rest of Europe in my book (before the crisis a lot of Britons expatriated in Spain of Portugal : it's a sign of the attractiveness of these countries):
- sunny, mediterranean/temperate climates
- not too densely populated
- attracting cities with lot of ancient buildings, churches, works of art ("casco antiguo")
- relatively clean
- languages (Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Basque, Portuguese) pleasant to the ear
- good food
- 20% cheaper than north of the Pyrenees
- nature still pristine in the mountains
- (before the crisis) good standard of living
- good infrastructures : good roads, ATMs everywhere, etc
- Western nations with the same Christian cultural background
More positives than negatives in my book. Maybe I'll retire there in a few years.
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. Spaniards north of Andalucía, to my ears, speak a combination of fast Spanish and mumbling too much. WhenIlistentoSpanishTVit'slikereadingsentencesthat havenospacesinbetweenwords.
