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Is FSI Spanish European or Latin Spanish
Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Learning Languages
Forum Name: Spanish
Forum Discription: Discussion about studying Spanish using the
FSI course.
URL:
http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=386
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 3:36am
Topic: Is FSI Spanish European or Latin Spanish
Posted By: genome
Subject: Is FSI Spanish European or Latin Spanish
Date Posted: 30 April 2007 at 8:24pm
Hello,
Does the F.S.I Spanish course teach the Latin Spanish, common
around South America, or the
Spanish you would expect to use in Spain? Whilst it seems most
likely that Latin Spanish would be
taught, I have not heard anybody draw a distinction between the
two on this forum.
Now for the introduction: this is my first post, I am interested
in learning French and Spanish, with
some basic knowledge of the former. As I live in the U.K. I hope
to be able to supplement my lessons
by immersing myself in the languages I am learning by visiting
the respective countries during
holidays.
I would like to join the huge list of people, in congratulating
those that contribute to this website. Itreally is a fantastic
resource, and makes a refreshing change from the norm by
actually
demonstrating the true potential of the internet.
Replies:
Posted By: gaffer_greg
Date Posted: 01 May 2007 at 3:32pm
It's Latin American Spanish. Action takes place in the country
of "Surlandia," as I recall.
Posted By: genome
Date Posted: 05 May 2007 at 11:19am
anish: Is FSI Spanish European or Latin Spanish
http://archive.fsi-language-courses.org/printer_friendly_postsf
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Thanks :)
Posted By: Dionysio
Date Posted: 10 June 2007 at 3:13am
It is a generic Latin American accent that is used in this
course. I have been a Spanish interpreter foraround 10 years, and
the differences between Spain's Spanish and Latin American Spanish
are not
nearly as great as people would have you believe. Argentine
Spanish is probably further removed
from generic Latin American Spanish than Spain. My wife is from
Argentina, my professors were
from Spain and I have interpreted mainly for Mexicans. The
differences are commonly voiced by
native speakers quite often, but they are not nearly as great as
the difference between France's
French and Quebecois, for example. Also, the differences in
pronunciation are not nearly as shocking
as British English (In which both vowels and consonants are
different) compared to American
English.
Since Spanish is such a widely spoken language, there is far
more exposure to other accents than
any other language that I can think of. For example, studies
showed that French Canadians have a
heavy bias against watching sitcoms with accents from France.
The same is true in English, wherewe do not watch British sitcoms
except on the BBC. That is why British sitcoms are remade into
American versions. However, telenovelas transfer extremely well
across countries in Spanish, even
countries with difficult accents. In Argentina, it is even
common to see Brazilian telenovelas without
subtitles. This is also true of literature. One cannot discuss
modern Spanish literature from Spain
without understanding the impact of Borges, Garcia Marquez,
Neruda, etc. It is a very global
language, and I think that is one very appealing reason to learn
it.
Structurally, the only crucial difference between the dialects
is the form of you with Spain using T,
Usted, Vosotros/as and Ustedes. Latin American countries do not
use the Vosotros/as forms in
normal speech. Argentina, parts of Venezuela, Honduras and a few
other countries use Vos instead
of T. It has its own form of the verb as well. Instead of T
hablas, you say Vos habls. It has
always seemed odd to me that such a big deal is made out of
using Vosotros in textbooks and Vos isoften not mentioned,
considering the fact that far more actual speakers use Vos.
In terms of pronunciation, most Spaniards pronounce "s" somewhat
like an "sh" sound, especially
when compared to Latin America. They also pronounce "c" and "z"
when it would normally be an "s"
sound in Latin America as "th". Sometimes they still do this in
Latin America to emphasize that a
letter ends with a "z" instead of an "s". My wife says her
maiden name as "Corteth (Cortez)" to
distinguish her from "Corts". What is a very slight "j" sound
for words that contain "y" or "ll", in
Argentina it turns into a "sh" sound. That is why Argentines say
"Sho" for "Yo".
In terms of vocabulary, there are differences as well but all
countries have different vocabularies for
common things. Foods seem to change more than most things, and
some common words, such as
"coger" are profanity in some countries. Mexico has imported
lots of English words, more so than
other countries. Argentina continues to use many Italian words.
I think that only Mexico and
Argentina have large portions of vocabulary which are not
understood by speakers from other
countries who are not familiar with it. Even then, that
vocabulary is mostly colloquial. Most speakers
are familiar with problem areas and adjust their speech to the
occasion. My wife has learned, finally,
to just avoid the "sh" sound when ordering at the local
restaurant, and most Mexicans quickly realize
that their Honduran friends have no idea what a "troque" is. I
still remember a Cortzar story in a
Spanish reader that had the same number of pages dedicated to
explaining the language as the
anish: Is FSI Spanish European or Latin Spanish
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