What Spanish / English do you learn?
Hello everyone! My name is Andrés. I have been curious about something and I thought this would be a good place to ask as there seems to be many native English speakers as well as native Spanish speakers. I'm a native Spanish speaker who lives in South America. You would think that the English I learn at school is the American one due to the proximity but that's not the case. At school we are taught RP (received pronunciation) which is the standard English accent of the United Kingdom. This makes me wonder, why? Wouldn't it make more sense for us to learn American English? Of course there aren't many differences, and even if we are taught British English we will be able to communicate with people from other English speaking countries, so it's not like it is a problem. However I thought that this may just be the case of MY school, so my question to other Spanish speakers is: what English do you learn? I wonder if people from USA learn mexican Spanish, and people from the UK learn Spanish from Spain. Is that the case? What about people from Australia? And other English speaking countries. Lastly, do you think they put enough emphasis on the importance of learning languages in school? do they teach a good level of them at the schools in your country? I am under the impression that people think it is not that important to learn languages in English speaking countries. Because after all, English is spoken everywhere. So maybe they don't really teach more than the basics? I might be wrong though. What do you think? Where I live kids do not realize it is important to learn other languages. At school they don't really care about the subject, and I don't think it's well taught at schools. But nowadays, parents do realize it's important and many of them are making their kids take classes in institutions that are not related with schools.
9 Answers
I am a native speaker of English. I was born and live in the the USA. Your observations are interesting. You, being American (we all are in this hemisphere), were taught British English. I was taught Castillian Spanish by a non-hispanic teacher (born in the USA). So, it's kind of the opposite of your case. She told us many times that she was teaching Castillian because it was the original language from which Latin America got it's tongue. She also made the point of telling us that many of the first Spaniards to arrive in the New World were from southern Spain (Extremadura, etc.) and that is why the zeta sound is not common in Latin America.
I don't think it really makes a difference. The grammar is the same, although the words and accent might change from one country to another. Sometimes it's comical. Certain words in one place that are perfectly acceptable should never be used in polite conversation in the other.
My formal education, as stated previously, was Castillian. Most of my dealings are with Latin Americans.
When I was young they taught French and Spanish in school, but I decided to study Russian. At that time North American's who could speak Russian were needed badly. Now I wish that I had learned Spanish because it would have been much more useful today as all the Americas are coming closer together, with both business and two way migrations. I have traveled to Central and South America on business and for educational purposes many times, and with these experiences I would highly recomend learning at least 2 or 3 languages when in school. Your future could depend on it in this century.
My belief as an American, native English speaker is that you should simply learn to speak read and write the language to the best of your abilities. Unless you learn to speak Spanish very young you are going to speak with an accent (your own accent). I think you are doing well if you end up with an accent that is not so strong that a native speaker can tell immediately that you're an American. I personally feel that I have achieved that. I will never sound like a native speaker of any dialect though, although my proficiency is fairly high. The most important thing is to SPEAK and to LISTEN. The learning is richest when you just learn the language, such as it is and don't get hung up on dialectical details. Reading is the best way to maintain your proper grammar.
It always interests me when someone who is a beginner says that they want to learn one dialect of Spanish or the other. It isn't worth worrying about for the most part. You can learn to understand many accents and dialects, but you can probably only speak one. if you live in the US, and interact with or live in a Latino community, this will likely end up being the US Spanish dialect, complete with all its spanglish. This is not necessarily bad, in my opinion. There are more speakers of the US dialect of Spanish than there are people in Spain, after all.
My SO is a perfect example. She lived 5 years in Madrid and speaks with a high level of proficiency. She probably could not employ the vosotros form without painful effort now that she's been back in the US twenty years. She's also not able to speak without yeismo, She does not distinguish between s, c and z in the same way as the Spanish do either, even after all her formative language learning years were in Madrid. (yeismo is the lack of any audible distinction between the ll and y, such as is predominant in Latin America, except in parts of South America that have sent few emigrants to the US)
I personally learned Spanish from teachers from all across Latin America and from the US and Spain as well. Chileans probably predominated at the university where I studied. I can now say that I speak US Spanish with an advanced to superior proficiency. This is from years of communicating with primarily Mexicans in the US, as well as Salvadorans and Puerto Ricans. I live in a Central US city and these are the latino ethnic groups which are most present, with Mexicans being the majority. It's hard to resist this influence being a non-native speaker. I have observed this change happen to others as well. vosotros quickly gives way to ustedes and yeismo is dominant. The "theta" sound disappears. Language is alive, even on an individual level.
I am originally from Rota, in Southwest Spain. When my folks brought me to this country (the US) we landed in California. The first thing I noticed was the Spanish that was spoken here was Mexican. (So I was told.) I later on learned that California Spanish although sounding like Mexican, does have many lexical differences, but that was not so hard to deal with.
I started leaning English in the fourth grade. I have a good ear for music and language, and I can imitate most anything that I hear. So getting the Sounds of American English was easy. The vocabulary and the grammar took longer.
I thought that I had learned "American" English. What I found out was that there is not "one" American English, but many. As I headed east and traveled in the southern states I found out that the so-called "southern accent" was divided up into various accents. Texas is different from Louisiana, and Mississippi is different from South Carolina and so on.
California English is similar to what they speak in the "midwest" or central section of the US, as far as accent goes but vocabulary really differs from state to state.
So I would advise you to stick with "The King's English" Americans love to hear it. It really sounds great to them. However I have a hard time with it because the vowel sounds are different. If I were around it long enough, I could probably get used to it.
DonBigote:
We all speak Castilian.
That's the name of the language.
In Chile i was also always exposed to and taught BrE rather than AmE.
Hi Andés! You have started a very interesting discussion 
I am originally from Ukraine and we have studied British English at school (since Grade 1). When I moved to Canada in Grade 9 I noticed that there were some slight differences between the English languages (for example: sofa = couch, trousers = pants, etc.) but similar differences exist between Australian English and even in different parts of US and Canada the language is slightly different. I don't think it's a problem, I think it's actually quite fun!!
In Ukraine a lot of emphasis were put on learning the language, especially English, German and French. I studied all three at school (only really have learned one, though). In Canada many schools offer French (given that we are a bi-lingual country), however, depending on geographical location, I think most of people still only speak English. I think it's because like you said, English is a very common language in the world, once you are able to speak it, you can get-by. However, I am also very proud to say that I have a lot of friends who do speak multiple languages and get themselves and their kids to study other languages! (P.S. I love the image and the quote that you posted).
For me personally, the push to study Spanish (in addition to knowing Ukrainian, Russian and English) came from visiting Spain and interacting with a Hungarian girl, who knew 5 languages perfectly! I thought to myself: I need a new challenge and if she can do it, I probably can too. So far I am loving my adventure!!!
I am learning South American Spanish (trying to focus on Mexican and Argentinian). The podcasts that I listen to differentiate between how things are said in Spanish Spanish and SA Spanish, my teacher explained to us some of the differences too.
Hello, Andres, welcome to our friendly bilingual commuity 
I am a native English speaker because my parents are both English although I was born in Lima, Peru.
(I left my country of birth when I was about 2 years old)
I have been learning Spanish for a number of years and have been taught by native speakers from Spain and South America.
In the past 5 years I have focused mainly on learning the Spanish spoken in Spain simply for practical reasons: that it is easier and cheaper for me to travel to Spain on holiday than to South America. I love the hispanic people wherever they come from! Regrettably, I have not been able to afford the cost of returning to Peru even for a holiday but would love to see my country of birth one day.
In my view from my experience of life, the English spoken in England is not superior to the American English, neither is the Spanish spoken in Spain superior to Spanish spoken in Latin America ...they are just different variations of the same language.
As you rightly said, once you learn either British or American English to a good standard you will be able to communicate with people who speak that anguage. However, there are some regional accents in both USA and England that are much harder to understand than others! For example, the Cornish accent in the extreme south-west of England, or the Geordie accent spoken by people from Northumberland. This skill comes with a lot of practice/experience! These accents are generally not difficult for me to understand as also I am sure that Spaniards living in central Spain eg Madrid, can understand native speakers from Andalucia, with practice!
Finally, whichever form of English or Spanish people prefer to speak will be dependent to a large extent on various factors:1 Which form (varation) is easier for them to understand and speak (pronounce), 2.the opportunities they are likely to have to mix with people who speak their preferred regional variation eg Mexican Spanish or American English and 3 Which variation they have been taught. People living in India are usually taught British English just as Spanish=speaking natives who settle (come to live) in The United States will be taught American English.
I almost forgot to respond to another question you had asked us about whether languages are sufficiently valued in our respective countries. Sadly, I don't think that they are valued as much as they should be in England. Whenever government cuts have to be made, the people in charge reduce the Arts eg social science, music, art, languages and spend more on promoting science.
I think that the teaching of languages in England has improved and that more schools and colleges have decided to employ more native speakers to teach foreign languages. However, I think there still remains an attitude among many British people that says why do we need to learn French or German or Spansh? In my view, one of the most influential factors that can positively affect the views of children and young people as they are growing up is to have the opportunity to go on holiday abroad eg; to stay a week in France or Spain and make friends with local children and learn a little of their language. My first holiday abroad was a week in Blanes, northern Spain when I was only 6 years old, I still have many positive memories of this experience!
I hope this helps you
Hey Andres!
I'm a native American English speaker from the North-Eastern US. I'd recommend that you learn whichever English best matches how you want to be perceived.
There are dozens of English dialects you could pick from. Why not choose Indian English? Or Singlish (Singaporean English)? I'm guessing it's because you're primarily not going to be interacting with Singaporeans or with Indians.
With that in mind, speaking British English in the US will earn you a lot more prestige than speaking American English in the UK. So I'd recommend any English learner that isn't going to be exclusively interacting with one nation (e.g. you're not moving to America or exclusively doing business with Americans) to learn British English (specifically RP).
That's why I chose to learn Mexican Spanish. I was deciding between Spain Spanish and Mexican Spanish when I asked a lot of my Latin American friends and was told that (if I'm going to be interacting primarily with Latin Americans) Spain Spanish "sounds funny". So I crossed it off the list and instead focused on Mexico. It might sound shallow (it's actually very shallow), but I think it's a very important consideration.
Your English is excellent and your writing as well! I have only a few corrections to what you wrote (to help you learn): " I'm a native Spanish speaker that who lives in South America." The only other correction is that both of the words "American" and "British" are always capitalized (If you are learning British spelling that would be capitalised).
I speak American English and I would advise you to continue with the British pronunciation because it is easier to understand than American. However at some point you will need to learn American pronunciation as well.
I wish you much success in your studies.
