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Want To Learn Spanish? What Kind Of Spanish Did You Have In Mind?
The Spanish language is much less homogenous than English. It can be first divided into European Spanish (Castillian or Peninsular Spanish) and American Spanish (Latin American Spanish.) Then within each of these categories it is divided between everyday conversational (street) Spanish and formal (Upper society parlor and intellectual/educated) Spanish. Language teachers Pinsleur and Rosetta Stone are stronger in the Formal, university/educated Spanish. Rocket Spanish, Learn Spanish Like Crazy and Fsi Spanish are stronger in everyday conversational street Spanish. We have those differences in English too. British vs American English and lower class working English vs university/ educated English. The differences between Peninsular Spanish and Latin American Spanish are considerably deeper and more pronounced than are the differences between British and American English. Similarly the differences between Street and Formal Spanish are much more pronounced. For most people it is better to start with conversational street Spanish, which is the right one for daily use. You will find it to be generally more useful and usable. It is also simpler. For example there are entire tenses in formal Spanish that are almost never used in everyday Spanish. Also, all of the subjective tenses are rarely used in everyday Spanish. (Subjective tenses are fairly complex and subtle, difficult to understand by English speakers since there is no direct parallel in English) For an example, in English, consider this: A woman makes a phone call. Voice answers, "Hello". Woman says, "Hi, Martha?" Voice responds, slowly, clearly, enunciating every word, "To whom did you wish to Speak?" Pause. Woman responds, a bit nervously, "I-I must have a wrong number! No one I know says, 'whom'!" (Street English met Formal English!) The difference would be, in English the Woman knew what 'whom' meant, just didn't use it. There are many examples in Spanish where the Woman would not have understood the Voice because the formal Voice would have used a verb conjugation and sentence structure that would have been unfamiliar to the Woman who only spoke in "street" Spanish. Furthermore, speaking in that manner would strongly imply that the Voice belonged to a person of high social class, office and power. Generally speaking, English-speaking countries are many generations removed from feudalism and strict social classes. Class distinctions are less pronounced. Spanish-speaking countries are younger democracies, much closer to the times when aristocracies ruled the common folk. Class distinctions are more pronounced. If your reason for learning Spanish is to use it in Europe, you should learn peninsular castillian Spanish, with its different pronunciations and conjugations. If you want to speak Spanish in Latin America, you want to learn American Spanish. You then only have to choose between conversational street Spanish and formal, parlor, business and diplomatic Spanish. If you just want to be able to talk with people, street or conversational Spanish is what you need to learn. If you are in the diplomatic corps or will be dealing with high society and university-educated people, and speak to people there in conversational street Spanish, you will come across as an uneducated country bumpkin. To avoid this and speak with them at their level, you will need both the conversational and the formal forms of Spanish. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com For a free 6-Day Spanish E-course, ($37 Value), visit: Learn Spanish Free To learn more about learning Spanish, fast and easy, visit: Rocket Spanish |
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