Have a native accent? Good!

Because of the constant exposure to Andalusian Spanish (yes, there’s not one Andalusian Spanish, so don’t start!) because of Spanish rap (often from Sevilla) Canal Sur radio, Canal Fiesta radio, etc., etc., my Spanish really began to “suffer” (words of a friend of mine). You can already imagine me speaking: jota’s are no /x/’s anymore but simply /h/’s. Many esses don’t exist anymore. And the somethimes annoying intonation (again, not my words).

Still, I really like my accent. It isn’t an accent I forged or gave special attention to, somehow it was there at a moment in history. In fact, I now have an accent I never wanted. No, I wanted to speak “pure” Castellano, like all the people in the television shows speak. Although I get most input from these shows with “pure” Spanish, the Andalusian accent seems the most natural to me. Still, there are people that say teaching with this accent or even speaking with this accent to hispanohablantes is plain weird. Why would an extranjero speak like this while he has the opportunity to learn the real Spanish, the Spanish everyone should speak? Granted, I don’t like to teach my students this accent, as it could hinder them in their future jobs. But still; why wouldn’t people speak like this? Heck, it would be great if every Spanish learner could at least understand the Andalusian dialect (again, there’s no uniform dialect but there are some general characteristics).

But I digress, the thing I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter what accent you have. Okay, personally I don’t like non-native accents in Spanish, nor do many natives. But as soon as you have a native accent (or something that looks like one), you should be happy! Got a Mexican accent? Good? A “pure” Castillian accent? Great! A Domonican accent that many learners can’t even understand most of the time? No problem, karma to you! Really, as soon you nail a native accent (and stick to it; nothing is more annoying (for yourself) than switching accents all the time), you are the man (or woman, if you’re a woman). Let people talk trash about you, just ignore it.

Real life example: I have a classmate from Peru. She’s nice and all, and really helped me with my Spanish. Still, as soon as my Spanish began to advance rapidly and I began speaking like an Andalusian, she started to get negative. “Dude, you talk like a Cuban or something. Who are you trying to fool anyway?“. Yeah, it was harsh, it even hurt my feelings. People accuse me of faking an accent, acting like someone I’m not. The truth is that I just aqcuired an accent, and stuck to it. This proves how strong input from real, native, source is. But that’s not the point.

The point is (I already said it, but I’m saying it again): don’t let people talk trash about your (native) accent!