Should one learn American or Castilian Spanish

Userina   Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:49 am GMT
Should one place emphasis on Castilian pronunciation, or should one learn some different Spanish, like the Mexican variant? Which accent is easier to master?
poiu   Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:52 am GMT
Neither! Both languages are ugly and unpleasant
***   Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:13 am GMT
Castilian is a little better than American variants! I'm an Italian, frankly, Spanish is the most beautiful and useful language in the world.
Guest   Fri Sep 18, 2009 8:50 am GMT
In my opinion it is better the Colombian or the European Spanish.

Anyway, if you live in USA, Mexican Spanish is a good choice. If you live in Brazil, the Argentinian Spanish, and finally if you live in Europe, it is better the European Spanish.
Peter   Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:22 am GMT
Why should an American learn Castilian Spanish?? For an American Spain is just a folkloristic and remote European country. In addition, Mexican pronunciation is clearer and easier than the European counterpart
jio   Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:25 am GMT
Spanish is the most beautiful and useful language in the world.

This is funny. As everyone knows English is the most useful language in the world. As for beauty, tastes differ, in my view Portuguese and French are much nicer than Spanish
Guest   Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:28 am GMT
If you live in Spain I don't reommend you American Spanish as you would be taken as an illegal immigrant .
Userine   Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:17 pm GMT
Wow, so complicated.... I think I'd better learn French instead.
Guest   Fri Sep 18, 2009 12:49 pm GMT
It's not that complicated, one should learn American Spanish if he lives in America and Castilian Spanish if he lives in Europe, Africa or Asia.
***   Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:47 pm GMT
<<As everyone knows English is the most useful language in the world.>>


No. Spanish is more spoken than English as mother tongue (450 million). Another 50 million speak it as second language.

There are other 300 million than understand Spanish, but we don't speak it well (Portuguese and Italian speakers).

In 2050, United States will be the first Hispanic country in the World, before Mexico.

Finally, according to an Unesco report, 1/4 of the World population can speak Spanish in the near future.

http://loquenosedice.espacioblog.com/post/2009/06/09/el-espanol-experimenta-auge-mundial

The difference is the pronuntiation. You can study English grammar and you don't understand well English depending on the accent (go to Scotland). I can't understand some songs. The listening and speaking is very difficult.

Spanish is a phonetic language: the pronuntiation is identical to the writing. It is the easiest to understand (with Italian).
clichés never die   Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:53 pm GMT
(Portuguese and Italian speakers).

Most Italians thought of understanding Spanish and the other way round but only those who have learnt the other languages can really understand it. This is a common place. There are lots of false friends, many words are homophone but their meaning are completely different. Syntas is often different and so on.
Anyway English can't even be compared with Spanish as a global language.
clichés never die   Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:54 pm GMT
think* and syntax
stupidity never dies   Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:58 pm GMT
Spanish is a phonetic language: the pronuntiation is identical to the writing. It is the easiest to understand (with Italian).

This is stupid too
A Pole can understand much better Croatian than Italian or Spanish, ça va sans dire. A dutch can understand German quite well, so it all depends on your mother tongue.
DG   Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:43 pm GMT
WTH is American Spanish? that's like saying that you should learn European English... yeah but which one? Irish? Scottish? English?
duh   Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:58 pm GMT
Mexican, obviously. What a tart!