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I can speak Spanish as correctly as anyone else in Latin America, but when it comes to listening to it (at 70mph) I fall on my face, dialects or no dialects.
I once talked to a Mexican vendor at the Swap Meet here, and given the large number of Mexican buyers, she told me that there's so many different dialects, even with the Mexicans, she has had problems understanding a number of them!
Caribbean dialects of Spanish used to be some of the hardest for me, but spending time in Tabasco, Mexico (right on the Gulf Coast) changed that.
Despite spending 18 days in Spain, I still struggle to understand Castillian TV. Argentine and Chilean dialects are also very difficult to understand.
Also, almost everywhere, the poor and uneducated are much harder to understand than the wealthy and highly-educated, who tend to speak in a dialect more similar to the "standard" or "uniforme" one on TV. They also tend to have all their teeth. I think this is true of any language. My Mexican friend understands many of the words that I speak in a comfortable Minnesota dialect of English, but comprehends almost nothing spoken in "Ebonics".
Anybody here ever listened to a native English speaker from South Africa? Just wow.
Living abroad I have met many brands of English, I can generally pick them out now and pretty well guess where they're from. It is amazing how many versions of English there are, but the South Africans (great people!) are all but incomprehensible to me. I need subtitles when listening to them.
For Americans, the big giveaway (among others) is 'ok'. I actually love this word as it is understood by just about everyone worldwide, but really only Americans use it. It really is not that common a speech element in other native English speakers.
In Eastern Europe I used to elicit great laughter, in any awkward language transaction when everybody finally figured out what everybody else was saying and I'd say "ok!" Great gales of giggling.....I never have figured out why it was quite so funny...... But it was.
I am French and have great difficulty wih older people from inland Brittany where the French becomes mangled ( not actually a separate dialect just a very strong accent) and the Dialect of the "Chtis" in Northern France is also incomprehensible to me.
I have lived in the UK and and cannot understand many people from Glasgow , Liverpool and sometimes South-Western or Norfolk broad accents. Not separate dialects again terribly strong accents.
Even as a native English (Scottish) speaker, I find some of the Highlanders hard to understand.
Aberdeen accents can be undecipherable, as can some of the islanders
At the moment I'm learning Norwegian, but finding the Stavanger dialect hard.
It's only subtle differences, but it can catch you out.
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Just wow.
. But it was.
