Post High School, Pre College Teen Moving to SA

[ashbeeigh]

Castillian Spanish was taught at NISD schools as recently as 2003 and I majored in Castillian Spanish at Texas Lutheran University. Vosotros was mentioned but not taught on a high school level, but was necessary in reading and understanding text on a college level.

[getgoing2010]

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

Why don't you ask Trinity University Professor Scott Baird about that?


REFERENCE: Tex-Mex language adds touch of spice to linguistic debate

Spanglish is another non-language which has evolved.

He "believes" and "is evolving" does not make it a language. Castillian, btw, is a dialect.
I'd like to see the day that a kid from New Hampshire majors in Spanglish. Not!!!

[L210]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Castillian Spanish was taught at NISD schools as recently as 2003 and I majored in Castillian Spanish at Texas Lutheran University. Vosotros was mentioned but not taught on a high school level, but was necessary in reading and understanding text on a college level.

If vosotros wasn't taught at NISD high schools, then how did the students know they were learning Castilian Spanish. Was it mentioned by the teacher, the textbook, and/or the catalog? Did they use Castilian pronunciations (what people often describe as a lisp)? Did they teach ordenador instead of computadora, patata instead of papa, or other words mostly used in Spain and not Latin America?

[getgoing2010]

Vosotros is really just an additional conjugation as in I, you, we...etc.... vosotros translates to "us" and the conjugated verb ends differently usually with an "aise" at the end. Now I did not major in Spanish so I may be a little bit off on the ending of the conjugated verb.

We studied Spanish in High School and they always mentioned the extra "vosotros" conjugations, but the course was not called "Castillian" Spanish.

I disagree with the suggestion that you must learn "Castillian" in order to understand college level Spanish. As L210 mentions, the other dissimilarities that I remember were words like patata for papa. Again, the difference is so minor and some pronunciations differ, but it does not make for a different language.

And I am really surprised that Texas Luthern University has an actual major called Castillian Spanish. Did they also have a separate major for just Spanish?

[L210]

My Spanish classes and textbooks made brief mentions of vosotros, but all 3 of the Spanish teachers I had (including honors and pre-AP) said we weren't going to learn it since most Latin American countries don't use it. Currently, all I see is that TLU offers degrees in Spanish Education and Spanish Studies. I can't tell what kind of Spanish they teach now, but they offer courses in both the Spanish classics and Latin American literature.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by L210

If vosotros wasn't taught at NISD high schools, then how did the students know they were learning Castilian Spanish. Was it mentioned by the teacher, the textbook, and/or the catalog? Did they use Castilian pronunciations (what people often describe as a lisp)? Did they teach ordenador instead of computadora, patata instead of papa, or other words mostly used in Spain and not Latin America?

It was taught because I was the one learning it. And accent isn't taught. You don't learn a Texan accent or a Canadian, British, Australian accent when learning English do you?

I really don't understand why this is an issue. If you learned Spanish in the Midwest you will be able to speak Spanish in San Antonio. If you learned Spanish in San Antonio you will be able to speak/understand Spanish in Spain (I know plenty of people who did). I hope the OP got all her questions answered.

[L210]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

It was taught because I was the one learning it. And accent isn't taught. You don't learn a Texan accent or a Canadian, British, Australian accent when learning English do you?

I really don't understand why this is an issue. If you learned Spanish in the Midwest you will be able to speak Spanish in San Antonio. If you learned Spanish in San Antonio you will be able to speak/understand Spanish in Spain (I know plenty of people who did). I hope the OP got all her questions answered.

You actually do kind of learn accents, but in a more general sense. You are usually taught the accent that the teacher uses. When you're taught English in American schools, you are taught American English pronunciations. American schools aren't going to teach "fur tile" instead of "furtle" for fertile like they would in England. They don't teach the British accent because they don't have it. Spanish classes teach pronunciations; this is a separate issue from teaching very specific regional accents. Letters have very specific pronunciations that are mostly uniform in the standard version of the dialect, and some of them are different in parts of Spain. Spanish classes aren't going to tell you to pronounce "c" however you want. They will tell you how to pronounce "c" and expect you to do it. The general Spanish accent is an accent in and of itself that differentiates it from English. You can't pronounce Spanish words with an American or general English accent. That is why one of the first things people are taught in Spanish classes is how to pronounce each letter because they are different. "J" does not have an h-sound in most dialects of English, so you have to be taught how it's pronounced in Spanish.

[sapphire]

I bet the OP is glad she asked.

[getgoing2010]

lol

We want well informed OPs.