Comments on: Should you work on your pronunciation?

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:42:06 +0000

Pronunciation should definitely be a priority. It’s sooo important, especially in Spanish. I can’t speak for Spain, but I know that when I’ve traveled in Latin America (Costa Rica and Ecuador), the level of respect you get increasing exponentially once you begin to get serious about fixing your pronunciation (and even more so if you can get rid of some of the little flaws in your accent that immediately tag you as an inhabitant of whatever country you happen to be from).

Looking back at the three years of high school Spanish that I took, I thing what helped me most was the fact that I smoked so much weed and consequently sat in the back class giggling at the funny sounds of Spanish when the teacher talked. I think that if I had started trying to speak right from the get-go, it would have seriously enforced my bad pronunciation. At that stage, I couldn’t even hear the errors in my voice when I talked. It wasn’t until much later that I could recognize them and that’s when I was able to really change how I spoke.

By: Ramses

Ramses — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:29:12 +0000

Hi Janna,
Welcome to the blog. In your comment you talk about a video. What video?

By: Janna

Janna — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:20:54 +0000

Oh, and I also do not like the Texan accent…I find it annoying. Or maybe Texans are just the annoying ones :p

By: Janna

Janna — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:20:04 +0000

I found that video fun! I was surprised that I actually understood most of what that guy was saying…I guess that’s what living in Spain will do to you. Even though I lived in Madrid, not Andalucía, I found that it was difficult to understand what most Spaniards said, since I live in California and was used to the Mexican accent. Now I appreciate the Spanish accent, I love the “c’s” and “z’s” and I love vosotros (even though that’s grammar, not accent). Andalucían is difficult though!

By: Ramses

Ramses — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:45:40 +0000

Hm, it’s a dialect. Personally, I don’t like the Texas accent, does that mean I can bash people just because they speak different? By the way: I also have an Andalucian accent, so…

By: Zuzuarregui

Zuzuarregui — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:10:35 +0000

Curso dandalu? Those jackassed andaluHs? Well, I find their dialect repulsive, their accent laughable. Good lord, I could barely understand what that fatso and his co’pañeroH were saying. Castillian FTW

By: Misha

Misha — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:34:15 +0000

I’ve heard many “guiris” get the “rr” pronounciation quite good!
but I have to say that you can have Spanish as a mother tongue… and have no one understand you (and viceversa). I’m from Argentina, and I came to Andalucía and god… impossible for me to understand some people. I had a hard time making myself understood in many ocassions as well. Vocabulary and entonation is so different!
So I agree that you need to work on pronunciation but pay attention to entonation, make yourself familiar with it. Still, try to learn a good amount of grammar before taking a deep plunge in pronunciation task
PS: want to listen to real hard Spanish? search “curso dandalu” in youtube and you’ll see how hard it can be to get what a Spaniard says XD

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:59:14 +0000

Reading that post, I see that you are Dutch. As I said, I think it´s impossible for English-speakers. Dutch "r", as far as I know, it´s quite different to English one. So maybe that´s why you could do some Spanish "rr" pronunciation. My opinion didn´t come from listening the "rr" on "guiris", since I speak English to them. It came from listening USA ambassador on TV, or talking to some English teachers I had in Spain (they had been living in Spain for years, and still couldn´t pronounce "rr" properly). Still, all of them where native English speakers, not Dutch. Alan’s last blog post..Diario del internauta neófito: 6. El Blog

By: Ramses

Ramses — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:31:39 +0000

Sorry to say, but I think you’re wrong. It absolutely possible for ANYONE to learn to pronounce the rr. Just check out this post: http://www.spanish-only.com/2008/03/how-to-roll-your-r/

I learned it, and many others with me. With enough practice over 90% of the people can learn the rr. That you know a lot guiris that can’t pronounce the rr is probably because they never tried or didn’t try hard enough. It doesn’t say others can’t prove them wrong.

Although it can be hard to get completely rid of your accent, many achieved it. Again, you may be biased because you may know many with an accent that sucks. And even if you have a slight accent: slight is always better than heavy!

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:20:34 +0000

Hi, I hope I´m not being a big pain in the ass because of my many comments here today, but once again I think you are wrong. It´s absolutelly impossible for an English-speaker to ever pronounce Spanish "rr" properly, really, so I wouldn´t even bother trying. Working on a good pronunciation is fine, but forget about the accent. If you don´t believe me, try to say in front of a Spanish-speaker this rhyme: Erre con erre guitarra / erre con erre barril / que rápido ruedan las ruedas del ferrocarril If he doesn´t laugh, maybe you still got a chance. Alan’s last blog post..Diario del internauta neófito: 6. El Blog