this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] malle_yeno@pawb.social 2 points 2 days ago

I'm not American so I'm speaking out of turn. But could it be resourcing?

Curriculums have to be made, and that sort of thing takes time and money. So I imagine it's easier to take a curriculum for European Spanish that already exists and just keep using it under the assumption that it's "close enough" for students to jump to Mexican Spanish from there, rather than reinvent the curriculum for Mexican Spanish.

So would ASL, yet here we are.

The education system is for schooling, not learning.

So would ASL, yet here we are.

The education system is for schooling, not learning.

[–] UncleJesus@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I took 2 years of Spanish & didn't learn either

[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Why learn the language of a second world country when you can learn the language of a first world country?

Kidding/not kidding

[–] early_riser@lemmy.radio 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Texan here. We learned Mexican Spanish (seseo, yeismo, ustedes for everyone, etc) It's been years since I had to use it for my job but IIRC there's a difference in the subjunctive verbs as well.

There are also distinct varieties of Spanish spoken in the US that differ from Mexican Spanish. As a general rule, if a common word has a similar-sounding English cognate (often false cognate) the cognate will be used. truck = troca instead of camión, concrete (as in cement) = concreto instead of hormigón, carpet = carpeta instead of alfombra, to park (a car) = parquear instead of estacionar, and so on. This is from my years working as a bilingual call center agent.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It's not an autobus, it's la guagua

It's not un banana, it's un gineo

It's not automovil, it's El carro

I can keep going.

Dominican here so my Spanish includes...

Que vaina

Un molote

Un mojonera

Mojiganga

Sana sana colito de rana

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In New Mexico we learned Mexican spanish

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Do you mean New Mexican Spanish?

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world -1 points 3 days ago

If they would only do the same with their "English".

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

It is the same language. In fact some regions of Spain suck at speaking their own language. Spanish has a central authority that collects and organizes Spanish as it is used in the real world and it codifies it into its official rules. Furthermore, because of its grammar and syntax rules, you always know exactly how every word is pronounced just by reading it. There might be accents and regional synonyms, but there is a "standard" Spanish that everyone learns speaks.

[–] DonJefe@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Spaniard living in the US here to clarify how our language works. Spaniards are the best at speaking their own language by definition. We make the language, and we decide how it evolves. When you say many Spaniards suck at speaking their own language, I think you are getting confused with the many dialects that exist within the Spain. Some dialects, while being perfectly and dramatically correct, are very hard for non-native speakers to understand. Pronunciation of letters may change from dialect to dialect, but the grammar is basically the same.

The authority that sets the Spanish language grammar rules (Real Academia Española - RAE) is in Spain, and it's rules only apply to the "standard" Spanish dialect spoken in Spain, which is also known as Castillian. However, there are multiple other dialects of Spanish within Spain (and multiple other languages that are not Spanish - Galego, Catalan, Euskera, etc). Other countries that speak other Spanish dialects choose if they want to follow or not the rules set by the RAE, and many Spanish dialects do not follow those rules. Some Spanish speaking countries have their own organizations to define their Spanish dialects. There are dialects of Spanish that are very different from the original Castillian Spanish. For example, listen to Argentinian Spanish, and compare it to Castillian Spanish. The difference is noticeable even for non-Spanish speakers. They also use a slightly different grammar.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca -1 points 2 days ago

I mean. You're just wrong. Maybe if you'd focused more on the info and less on your nationalism you'd have noticed.

RAE doesn't make the rules "just for Castillan". RAE describes, rather than just 'make up', the rules of the Spanish as used around the world. They observe how Spanish is used and codify that. They are descriptive, not prescriptive.

Also, the whole point of dialects is that they vary in vocabulary and grammar, otherwise they are the base language itself. I don't even know what you're saying?

Did you even visit the RAE's website before answering? Or did you just assume that because you're an spaniard living in the US you have perfect knowledge? Because it checks out.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

Same language but with huge differences world wide, as languages tend to do. Believe a person whom lived in Mexico for over 2 decades, Mexican Spanish is NOT the exact same. It's mostly similar and you'll be able to understand but it will be immediately obvious that it's very different.

I watch Spain Spanish movies and regularly have trouble understanding it all

[–] ArtemisimetrA@lemmy.duck.cafe 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

And then when you actually spend any time in a place where Spanish is the first language, you start to understand that, like any language, there's the academic form (commonly taught to non-native speakers as a second or third etc. language), and then there's the local version, complete with all the colloquialisms and slang and unique pronunciations. In Argentina, the double-L (which school taught me makes a "y" sound, "ella" being pronounced basically "ey-ya") is commonly pronounced as more of a soft "J" sound ("ella" becomes "ey-jha"). As far as my (admittedly limited) knowledge goes, that's really not common outside of Argentina. And then in Bolivia, especially among native descendants (Quechua and Aymara predominantly), the double-r (which school taught me is one of two conditions when you roll the R with a tongue trill) is more commonly pronounced almost like a "zh" ("herramienta" becomes "hezhamienta"). Again, not common outside of Bolivia. Spain has that classic "Barthelona" lisp, and uses the "vosotros" pronoun where most South American Spanish speakers would probably use "ustedes" (basically "y'all" vs. "esteemed plural second persons"). And that's not even getting into which verb tenses are used most widely in different regions. There's like 14 or 15 specific verb tenses in Spanish to English's 7, and in school I was taught to use specific ones to communicate effectively; then I went and spent two months in Bolivia pretty much never using past perfect or predicate, instead using past imperfect for 95% of interactions, only using past perfect with other folks que hablan español como segunda lengua, or in a few very specific interactions where more detail or specificity was required than would be so in common, everyday interactions. [Edit for spelling]

[–] fushuan@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

An addendum to the ll, Elle. It's not like ey-ya, that's wrong pronounciation, it's like a literal vibrating L.

You might be referring to the same phoneme since y sounds like the soft J you are referencing, but yeah.

[–] ArtemisimetrA@lemmy.duck.cafe 2 points 2 days ago

Oh yeah totally! That's a much better explanation of that specific phoneme. I went for the over-simplified version that was being taught to me in middle school, where I think the assumption was mostly "we need to teach them grammatical and structural rules and not worry about natural sounding pronunciation" which probably contributes strongly to the gringo accent where vowels aren't pronounced consistently, but shift more like they do in English, and creates mispronunciations that are so grating and confusing (especially between certain a, i, & e sounds)

[–] JandroDelSol@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Colombians, at least Paisas, also have the double ll = j sound and use vosotros! Spanish dialects can get wild lol

[–] ArtemisimetrA@lemmy.duck.cafe 2 points 3 days ago

Neat! I probably never would have known that if you hadn't told me!

[–] BadmanDan@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Dosen’t Mexico speak Spanish?

[–] homura1650@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago

In the same way that Americans speak English.

Sure, their language is mutual intelligible with English, but if an Englishman comes over here and asks for some chips, they're going to get a bag of crisps. They'll mess up verb conjunction on a bunch of collective nouns.

And bless the souls of my Australian mates who come here and call everyone a cunt.

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