So I go into the local latino grocery store the other day for the first time. They understand me just fine, but I am really not getting much out of them. The local latinos here in the Mid-South of the USA are nice, humble and quiet. At least when it comes to the men they seem to speak what I would call the equivalent of the Southern Hick Country version of Spanish. I want to know if I have this all wrong so let me quickly explain: In the rural south here in the USA we don’t speak too fast but we slur words together in a lazy sort of way “I’m goin’ t-store” (I am going to the store.) “Ye won-tu?” (Do you want to go as well?). Unless I am just not good enough at listening, the local latinos seem to be doing this with Spanish - just mumbling through it at low volume and chopping off words. It is frustrating. I don’t want to learn Spanish to watch movies where they are all speaking distinctly, but to talk to the person on the street. Is my experience typical or do I just have it wrong and am a poor listener?
You are correct. It’s not you, it’s them. They are, very often, “just mumbling through it at low volume and chopping off words.” To me, it’s not frustrating in the sense that I can’t understand them. I can, unless they are mumbling and I’m just trying to eavesdrop, rather than participate. However, I am frustrated just in principle as I am when I have ANY mumbler who uses lots of slang, horrendous grammar, and doesn’t communicate clearly. Think of the “Cash Me Outside” Girl from Dr. Phil and or what is euphemistically called, ebonics or “American Black English.”
Moving back to Spanish, I have only encountered this problem with native Spanish speakers in the US, never in Spain and seldom on Spanish language TV, news, and movies, etc. Years ago, I found that I could understand Spaniards who spoke much faster, but clearer, better than I could slower speaking latinos in the US.
All that being said, I have come to assume that the tendency of local latinos to mumble and not speak clearly was less variant of “that’s just how they are in that region” (like southerners), but is more due the fact that they overwhelmingly illegal immigrants who come from the lowest segments of their home country’s populations. To paraphrase the president, “they are not sending us their best.”
it’s probaly that you are not accustomed to their way of speaking spanish ,i’m afraid it’s something you have to get used to spanish people speak differently in different registers not just in the southern usa the dominicans ,cubans puerto ricans ,cut off words and syllables too the chileans have some crazy things going on too when they speak but they understand each other when they speak
.like you said your from the south you speak in a certain fashion that does not make you uneducated i’m sure you couldspeak like they do everywhere else
Well, it is true that most USA Southerners can speak proper english if they want to or you ask them to, but I will be interested to find out if the local latinos will speak proper Spanish if asked politely.
I doubt it.
LOL
on a side note: “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king …In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely;”
Merry Christmas!
Indeed, it is my goal to eventually post much if not all the Bible with the closest corresponding English translation. For Reina-Valera 1960 that seems to be the New King James. Zondervan publishing has a version corresponding to the New Amercian Standard which doesn’t use vosotros form much. I have already posted all of John but I have not gone through it all yet to make sure there are definitions for all the words, Merry Christmas
When you say “post,” do you mean import into LingQ to read?
to LILingquist, yes by “post” I mean to import into Lingq.
Not understanding informal authentic language spoken by natives is totally normal. It happened to me many times with the languages I’ve learned. I find the variety of spoken language amazing, exciting, really interesting. If there was only one way of speaking a language, only the “proper” way, it would not be challenging at all and it would soon become very boring.
By the way I truly believe there’s not a “proper” way of speaking a language. All varieties have legitimacy. Languages evolve and grammar is only a description of how a language is at a precise moment and usually according to a standard and elitist point of view. The Real Academia says what is correct according to standard language, but that doesn’t mean other ways of speaking are wrong. You need to accept all of them. No one speaks like books or documentaries. Real language has its own rules. Sometimes standard grammar books teach us things that nobody says nowadays! Standard grammar can help you write correctly, prepare a conference, pass an exam, but it won’t tell you how to interact with natives.
The art of mastering a language is being able to adapt your speech and to understand all its variety. Have you spoken with Spanish people from Sevilla? That’s certainly not “proper” Spanish at all. To elderly people from Extremadura? I bet you wouldn’t understand a word either. But all of them are natives and they speak Spanish. We need to get used to their way of speaking, not the opposite.
I personally found much easier to understand Spanish in Miami than English, although by then I was 15 and I had a much better level in English than in Spanish. After 2 months in the USA I had lost my standard British accent to speak the way people were speaking around me, which was certainly not “proper” English. That’s the amazing challenge of learning a language!
I’ve met so many students with a high level of proficiency who are still struggling to understand informal conversations between natives just because they’ve only learned the standard language! If you want to understand what latinos say around you, spend a lot of time with them, show authentic interest to their culture and language and don’t give up, you’ll eventually start understanding and speaking their way.
yes, I will gradually start spending more time with them. Don’t get me wrong, the local latino population enjoys a good reputation (hard working, friendly, not given to gangs, etc.) However, I may be wrong, but I think that even THEY have a hard time understanding each other (well, the men, the women don’t seem to mumble as much). I don’t need to tell them “mas despacio”, but find a polite way to tell them to “Speak Up!”.
Totally, understandable and I think you’re on the right track. Katy is right in that there can be a fine line between accept and proper pronunciation. However, it’s quite another thing to say there is no “proper” way to speak. Just ask anyone who has attended school and been corrected–in their own native language. A Bostonian who says “kafee” a New Yorker who says kawfee might pronounce it differently, but they can’t spell it differently or use a different word.
A staggering number of latinos are completely illiterate: they have difficulty reading and often times can’t even write Spanish. They have to refer to their birth certificates to find out how to spell their own names, their parents names, and the names of their home towns when they are applying for say, marriage licenses. They spell ‘voy’ as “boy” or ellos as “ayos.” Add the mumbling and it gets worse.
You wouldn’t learn from them any more than you would do immersion in west Baltimore to learn English.