Should I learn Spain Spanish or Latin American Spanish?
I live in Florida and want to learn Spanish. I am wondering what dialect I should learn. I was thinking Latin American Spanish, as there a lot of Latin Americans in Florida. But I know a lot of literary works use Spain Spanish. Any advice on what I should learn? Thanks!
2 Answers
There aren't major differences. As you live in Florida you should have no problem finding people to talk to and I assume most of them will have learned Spanish from native Cuban or Mexican speakers.
I started learning Spanish at school in the UK. One of our learning assistants was from Spain but the second was from Uruguay. I have visited Peru, Cuba and Mexico and made myself understood. I tend to listen to more Spanish from Spain because that is the nearest Spanish speaking country to me.
Get a reasonable grounding in how the language is structured.
Spend time on pronunciation.
If you choose Spanish spoken in your locality you will be able to ignore vosotros and pronounce c and z like s.
If you want to spend time reading books written in Spain before you read something read how vosotros is conjugated. If you are planning to visit Spain listen to some TV on rtve and some music from Spain.
Each area where Spanish is spoken will have its own slang and some words will mean something different. You will pick up appropriate local slang if needed otherwise you can just ask if you don't understand.
Here is a song by two Colombians which will explain different ways Spanish is spoken. Sign up for the free magazine which will let you listen to different accent.
Enjoy learning
Hi Caleb,
Welcome to our Spanishdict community forum 
You asked:
I live in Florida and want to learn Spanish. I am wondering what dialect I should learn. I was thinking Latin American Spanish, as there a lot of Latin Americans in Florida. But I know a lot of literary works use Spain Spanish. Any advice on what I should learn? Thanks!
The choice is entirely yours at the end of the day, but you should consider (take into account) the following points when making your informed decision!:
1.The Spanish grammar is more or less the same throughout the Spanish-speaking world but you will be learning different idioms and regional colloquial Spanish expressions depending on whether you learn Spanish from Spain, (Peninsular Spanish) Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina or any other Spanish-speaking country!
Some verbs/verb constructions are used in an idiomatic way in one hispanic country but not in others! For example: in Spain they use the verb llevar in an idiomatic way to talk about length of time you have been doing something:
Llevo viviendo siete años en Barcelona = I have been living in Barcelona for seven years
Another important point to understand is that some verbs take on a different meaning when used by natives in different Spanish speaking countries:
The verb coger is commonly used and perfectly acceptable in Spain and can mean among other things to catch a bus /train or to understand something, but in some hispanic countries like Mexico, it regrettably has a different meaning that is vulgar and disrespctful to women, so please be warned!
2.The opportunities to practise your particular style of Spanish with native Spanish speakers from a particular country. In your own case, since you live in Florida where I think that Mexican Spanish predominates, it may be more practicable for you to choose that style of Spanish! 
3.Your previous experience of speaking Spanish. If you have already lived, or worked a lot in a particular Spanish-speaking country such as Spain or Argentina you may have already developed a natural feel for that style and can already converse fairly confortably with the natives so you could build on those skills.
Whatever style (flavour) of Spanish you learn - and they all have something good to offer - you can always learn (from) other styles later once you have already built up a good foundation in your first choice. For example, some native speakers having been born in Colombia may go to live in Spain or Peru. In the same way English speaking natives sometimes emigrate to Australia where I understand they also speak some kind of English! (Lol Just joking Ray...we love and understand you really!)
I hope this helps
