Job Discussion Forums

[wildnfree]

I am about to leave Hong Kong for some Spanish learning and English teaching in Latin America...

A coworker who speaks fluent spanish suggested Mexican Spanish was very nasal and one of the easiest varieties for a learner to pick up. However, he mentioned that different places have different accents.

So where you say the "best" and "worst" Spanish spoken in Mexico is? How does it differ from north to south, east- west?

Can one learn Spanish while teaching English at the same time? Seems like a contradiction. In HK, you are seriously discouraged from learning chinese and intergrating.

Thanks

[ls650]

[Guy Courchesne]

I'd say it's quite hard to not learn Spanish while teching English. Outside the classroom anyway. Inside the class, your students will bombard you with 'Teacher, what is (insert Spanish word here) in English?'.

Spanish accents vary quite a bit around diverse and vast Mexico. I find Mexico City Spanish to be the easiest, though this is where I first learned it. Some coastal Mexicans have an accent like Cubans, where they 'eat' certain consonants, like 's' and 'r'. Northern Mexicans hve a different stress and intonation pattern, which sounds like singing to people from Mexico City. I find the Michoacan accent to be sharp...less flow between words.

In the south and east, a lot of people speak Spanish as a second language, so accents vary. There you have Mayan and Nahuatl, as well as other pre-Colombian languages.

[MELEE]

[delacosta]

Chill out M, the bestest English is obviously spoken in Canada.

[MELEE]

Sorry, its just that some variation on this topic comes up every four months or so, usually over on the General Latin America Forum, usually asking which country the poster should go to because they don't want to learn inferior Spanish. I just don't understand how people who are supposed to be language professionals could ask such a question.

[lozwich]

Hear hear, M!

[cwc]

It is not correct to say that all English is the same. Do you really want to speak and therefore teach Black English, Southern English or Scottish English? Do you want to learn to speak like a fisherman in Veracruz or the Dominican Republic? This is another case of pretending that we are all alike. One is not better than the other, but for educational purposes, it is better to go with the most standard.

[MELEE]

I would LOVE, LOVE LOVE LOVE!, to be able to speak Scottish English!


Instead, I have developed such a non descript way of speaking, that people have to ask me where I'm from.

[Samantha]

I always wanted to learn how to speak "Newfie". Isn't that sort of like Scottish...hehehe. After living in Mexico for nearly 6 years I have now learned how to NOT say "eh?". It sounds silly to me now I have also given up saying "ya" because it means something else here. Melee is right...the local way of speaking in each area is quite different. And locals can pick out someone from another area of Mexico, Central or South America right away. One thing most Mexicans seem to agree on is that the accent from DF is the easiest to pinpoint, since those folks speak in a very precise manner. (Hard to describe but distinctive to the point of someone commenting "he's a Chilango".)

[Guy Courchesne]

Just finish every sentence with 'guey' and you have Chilango.

[delacosta]

[MELEE]

Yes,
But isn't social class just as big a factor? You don't have to watch more than one episode of any telenovela to hear at least two "Mexico City" accents. The fresa friends of the female lead, and her lower class boyfriend.

[wildnfree]

Actually, you will notice I put the words "best" and "worst" in commas to put on emphasis on the lack of a better choice of words.

Actually, I too wish to learn a unique and different form of spanish, hence this post. I actually wanted to know where abouts the most "musical" or "sing-song" liek Spanish in Mexico is spoken - and whether jobs are plentiful there.

[Guy Courchesne]