Clear Spanish Accents?
Hi!
I would like to know which countries people think have the clearest Spanish accents? I have heard Bogotá is quite clear. Is México City and Madrid any good? Madrid seems to be the clearest accent in Spain but I am not completely sure. What is Barcelona like?I know they speak Catalan but people have told me I can speak Spanish there with no big problems.
Regards,
8 Answers
You really need to decide why you are asking the question. I am from the UK and there are a wide variety of accents, so if you find someone with a Morningside accent [rich part of Edinburgh] easy to understand you may get a shock if you stay in some parts of Glasgow - only 40 miles away and a similar size Scottish city.
I first started learning Spanish in the sixth form at school. We were the first group to learn Spanish and our teacher who already taught French was responsible for teaching us. I assume her accent was vaguely from Spain but I do not know where she learned Spanish. She was in fact Welsh. Our first teaching assistant was Teresa from Toledo. The second year we had a male assistant from Montevideo. I cannot remember what his accent was like. I remember he was upset having visited Spain and an American tourist had made himself understood and he hadn't. I was taught to ceceo [c and z as th] and assume he would have been told to speak that way to us. However, it was light years away from the internet and except for 'Spanish' probably Mexican accents on American TV shows I hadn't heard any Spanish.
I started learning Spanish at evening classes having visited Peru and Cuba. I have had teachers from Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. The accent I know best is from Madrid as we have had a number of teachers from there and when I started listening to podcasts I listened to Notes in Spain. However, madrileños speak fast.
We had a lovely teacher from Mexico whose husband a vet, was from Madrid.
I have been to Mexico twice and had no trouble making myself understood but I stayed in large towns with tourists round. Mexico has a thriving indigenous culture whose first languages are often not Spanish. I did attend language classes and our teacher would point out where words were different in Spain. I thought I assimilated to the accent well but one day the son in law of the lady I was staying with visited and talking to him was like sitting in a comfortable familiar chair - he was from Barcelona. I have been to Salamanca which is an area of Spain where there isn't an official second language and found them easy to understand.
As my Spanish and my listening skills improve I find it easier to differentiate between accents. I recently visited Bilbao in the North of Spain and had no problem, though as with many areas if I had stayed somewhere more rural I may have had a problem.
You need to decide if you are more comfortable using ceceo or not and try and seek out people who speak that way. I personally think as you become more confidant you should expose yourself to lots of different accents using music, films, podcasts and TV. Language has a strong cultural bias and idioms and slang vary from area to area.
I remember watching and enjoying 8 apelidos vasco. It is about a girl visiting sevilla in the south of Spain but who lives in the north. She is followed home by a lovesick sevillano and the film is poking gentle fun at the perceived different outlook by Basques and Andalusians. I could tell they had different accents. I had been to Seville, now I have been to the north I will rewatch it.
Here is a great song by two Colombian brothers. I found them very clear.
I have been to Cuba and found the accent tricky but I love listening to Cuban music and find Pablo Milanés easy. I have watched several films from Argentina and the accent can be tricky too but I have listened to some recent TED talks from Argentina without problem and love the phrasing of the late Mercedes Sosa.
Listen to Spanish from different areas. NIS is from Madrid. Spanish Obsessed is run by a Brit and his Colombian wife. I see you are from Australia SBS does regular broadcasts in Spanish.
You need to work out why you want to learn Spanish and if there are strong cultural reasons eg you love Mexican films/Colombian Dance music or the books from a writer from Spain concentrate on that area. I find in Andalucia they tend to drop parts of the word, which can be difficult if you are a learner. rtve the national TV and radio service has loads of material some of which is subtitled. A programme like un pais para comerselo goes all over the country.
http://www.veintemundos.com/magazines/wp-content/themes/vm/print/veintemundos47/print.pdf
In Spain many people from the south (Andalucía etc) could be difficult to understand.because as we say they "swallow the letters" ·(se tragan las letras) In fact there are many sounds they don't pronounce. This doesn't happen with everybody. The more educated, the better to understand.
This is true for England, but not for Spain.
Even though people who have had the privilege of a better education, this has nothing to do with the accent in our country.
People from Andalusia do what they do: they swallow sounds, true story. But that has nothing to do with their education, it is just their accent.
Hello!
This link from 2011 was discussed before. Which countries have the easiest spoken Spanish to understand?
Hope this helps.
Regards!
For me all the accents that are understandable are perfect. What I mean is if they pronounce all the sounds.
In Spain many people from the south (Andalucía etc) could be difficult to understand.because as we say they "swallow the letters" ·(se tragan las letras) In fact there are many sounds they don't pronounce. This doesn't happen with everybody. The more educated, the better to understand.
In Latin America, Mexicans speak pronouncing very well in my opinion. Some of the Caribbean accents and Central American accents also "swallow letters" and sometimes use "L" instead of "R". This makes some people difficult to understand because there are sounds missing. Again, educated people speak much better.
Actually when you hear presidents of any Spanish-speaking country, they can be perfectly understood.
In South America the hardest for me is fhe one from Chile. They have something very special. They are usually considered quite educated so I wonder why it's a little difficult. Maybe someone has the answer.
For me the most important thing is pronunciation because vocabulary can change a little, there could be regional differences but what matters is if you convey your message
Mardle's anwers are spot on, as well as Heidita's comment about Andalucía.
I'll just add that I believe it is all a matter of perspective and what you have become used to hearing.
If you're familiar with Oxford English, Texas English sounds extremely weird, never mind Harlem English. People from the US find Indian English hard to understand.
In the same vein, people in Latin America generally thing that they speak funny in Spain, and some regions are downright hilarious.
But people from one Latin American country will make fun of the way people in other countries speak: Colombians think Puerto Ricans speak badly, Puerto Ricans think Dominicans speak funny, everyone agrees that Argentinians speak a different language, and every Spanish speaker in the world thinks Mexicans are a hoot. So...
Of course we have the clearest accent!!!
De Madrid al cielo 
Having already answered at length, I see you have been asking about areas where Spanish is spoken. I do not know if you have a teacher or are self studying. If you intend to spend most of your time travelling or listening to music or watching films from Latin America or Mexico then do not ceceo. There are some parts of Spain where they do not ceceo. There are many people living in Spain originally from those countries and so you will be understood. A bit like as a Brit I understand people from Oz [unless their slang is really unusual] though we were brought up watching Neighbours, Home and Away etc.
Concentrate on the sound of vowels and consonants. In Spanish they are standard, but more importantly pay attention as to where the stress is in each word. The Spanish pronounce each syllable and if you don't and place the stress elsewhere you may be misunderstood
Eg Como = I eat, if, as, Comó He ate stress on second o.
Hola como estas
