Spanish is Spanish is Spanish
I have been told that if you speak Spanish you will be understood in any Spanish speaking country. I have also been told that there are distictive differences. We spend most of our time in Yucatan, Mexico but hope to visit Costa Rico, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru. My question, if I am using the SpanDict translator or flash cards what country are they designed for?
4 Answers
The flashcards are mostly generated by various users some of whom design them for a specific regional variation, and some not. Most of the content of the site is designed be fairly neutral.
The grammar generally will be similar, although in cases one region prefers things one way, and another another. Basics are generally universal. Slang is the most variable- but there is English regional slang that I don’t understand as well- still I can understand most English speakers in general. Food words always have seemed the most variable to me- do you call a "berejena" (which seems universal in Spanish) an eggplant or an aubergine (and do you know they are both English words for the same thing).
Most of this does not impede communication and other than one thing I read about other Spanish speakers having a little difficulty with the variation found in the Rio de la Plata region (Argentina and Uruguay), I have never seen an issue.
Most speakers are going to be somewhat familiar with the variation due to a sharing of media- just as most English know how Americans speak from watching our movies and shows and vice versa.
I can remember asking for “agua gaseosa” in Spanish in Mexico for my wife- the waitress just laughed and said “agua mineral”. You will get your point across most of the time- and whatever you do with the language from trying to think in English will be far harder for them than a regional variation.
It's general spanish, it's like the spanish from the dubbed films/series(they are designed to make all the latino countries understand. It's like picking up a country, put out all the slang of it, put out the accent(if it is strong) and that's what you get.
But of course every country has different slang
https://youtu.be/VlK-neOypDM
Specially with bad words. One inocent word in one country means something dirty in another or even in the same country haha.
English is English is English.
ain't it?
:D
Hello Donmac,
Welcome to the SpanishDict forum 
You asked:
I have been told that if you speak Spanish you will be understood in any Spanish speaking country. I have also been told that there are distictive differences. We spend most of our time in Yucatan, Mexico but hope to visit Costa Rico, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru. My question, if I am using the SpanDict translator or flash cards what country are they designed for?
Spanish, unlike some languages, is fairly universally well understood in almost all Spanish-speaking countries of the world! 
The flashcard sets have all been created by many different people with varying degrees of ability to speak Spanish and while SpanishDict does not guarante the accuracy of the vocabulary used or the translations, the Spanish would, with some notable exceptions, be understood in most, if not all, Spanish speaking countries of the world.
There are regional differences of course and idioms that are used in some countries that are not used in others! There are some differences in grammar, too. For example, in Spain they frequently use the verb coger to catch/take a train or a bus but in Mexico and some othe Latin American countries the word has negative sexual connotations so they use the verb tomar, to take instead.. In addition, the Spaniards often use the perfect indicative tense, ( eg: He hablado = I have spoken) whereas the Spanish-speaking natives in Latin America prefer to use the preterite (simple past) eg: hablé = I spoke.
Generally speaking, if you had learnt European Spanish and you could speak it reasonably well, with good pronounciation, you would also be able to make yourself understood when speaking to natives in Colombia, Mexico or Peru.
My native Spanish teacher from Spain explained to me some time ago, in response to a question of mine about the differences between European Spanish spoken in Spain and Latin American Spanish, that in respect to grammar there is little difference between the Spanish in Spain and Latin America, it is only the spoken form that is different because of the idioms and colloquial expressions used!
I hope this helps you
