Is it normal that I find Chilean Spanish particularly hard to understand? I’m learning Spanish and training myself to understand spoken Spanish by watching telenovelas. I started with an Argentinian show. I find Argentinian the easiest to understand.
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Is it normal that I find Chilean Spanish particularly hard to understand? I’m learning Spanish and training myself to understand spoken Spanish by watching telenovelas. I started with an Argentinian show. I find Argentinian the easiest to understand. See all items with this value
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Samantha Hairfield See all items with this value
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12/14/19 See all items with this value
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I am currently living in Santiago, Chile as my husband was relocated here for work temporarily. As an american I came with our young kids with bright visions of us all being bi-lingual in no time as so many people love to claim that being immersed in a language and culture should produce automatic fluency within several months…. This is completely false, for any language, and even more so for this version of Spanish. Here is my take on Chilean Spanish.
They be fast talkers and can blur together words: Chileans talk very quick and run words together. I don’t hear the ‘aspirated s’ instead they just remove the s from words, ex) mismo (meaning ‘same’) is pronounced ‘Me-Mo’.
Colloquialisms: Everywhere in Chile, granted we have our fair share in english too. To get the context of a conversation often requires knowing 10 inside jokes and references, not just word use.
Word use: speaking of it, Spanish has many different words that have similar meaning (often with verbs) but their use is very geographical and can completely change the context of the word depending on where you are. Even use of emotional tenses is very geographical even within a single country. Position of words also change the meaning or indicate a polite or rude response. (Ya & así are also big culprits)
They like different words completely: In chile: beans = protos, everywhere else = frijoles. Avocado = palta in chile, many many examples…why I have no idea.
In general Chileans like to talk…a lot… and make circular references and reiterate their points. It’s actually seen as respectful to take the time (lots of time) out of the day to reconvey a discussion. In general folks are also less decisive so this repetition can also include devil’s advocate listing of pros & cons and circular logic so for the novice spanish speaker it’s easy to get lost whether a speaker is for or against something. Just making a dinner plan with several friends via whats-ap I can’t tell if we’re going or not half the time.
They drop indicator pro-nouns. Often they drop who they are referring to and only use the verb ending to indicate tense and object pronouns. This is less formal but like all things changes the context of what is being said so it’s hard to know if someone is talking about ‘her’ doing something or asking ‘you’ a question to do something. (also no inflection with questions here to help).
We are transitioning back to the US soon and after 1.5 years we are definitely not anywhere near fluent (though I think we have a stronger version of what that entirely subjective word means). But hey, we have appreciated some baby steps towards communicating with others from a different culture, like all cultures, even related ones, NO SIZE ONE FITS ALL. I will say though, when we travel to Peru or Columbia…man we feel like Spanish All-Stars. So despite feeling like we are swimming upstream in Spanish here in Chile, it is still helpful to train your ear to other speeds/dialogues as it is getting in there…albeit a little slower given the challenges. /// (posted by Mercedes Behzadi) I think Chilean Spanish is harder to understand, agree. Mostly because it is so fast!
I’m a native Spanish speaker from Argentina and I have to pay extra attention if I want to get every word they are saying.
It sounds to me as if they were taking a deep breath and trying to say as many words as possible within that breath.
I would love to visit sometime! See all items with this value
They be fast talkers and can blur together words: Chileans talk very quick and run words together. I don’t hear the ‘aspirated s’ instead they just remove the s from words, ex) mismo (meaning ‘same’) is pronounced ‘Me-Mo’.
Colloquialisms: Everywhere in Chile, granted we have our fair share in english too. To get the context of a conversation often requires knowing 10 inside jokes and references, not just word use.
Word use: speaking of it, Spanish has many different words that have similar meaning (often with verbs) but their use is very geographical and can completely change the context of the word depending on where you are. Even use of emotional tenses is very geographical even within a single country. Position of words also change the meaning or indicate a polite or rude response. (Ya & así are also big culprits)
They like different words completely: In chile: beans = protos, everywhere else = frijoles. Avocado = palta in chile, many many examples…why I have no idea.
In general Chileans like to talk…a lot… and make circular references and reiterate their points. It’s actually seen as respectful to take the time (lots of time) out of the day to reconvey a discussion. In general folks are also less decisive so this repetition can also include devil’s advocate listing of pros & cons and circular logic so for the novice spanish speaker it’s easy to get lost whether a speaker is for or against something. Just making a dinner plan with several friends via whats-ap I can’t tell if we’re going or not half the time.
They drop indicator pro-nouns. Often they drop who they are referring to and only use the verb ending to indicate tense and object pronouns. This is less formal but like all things changes the context of what is being said so it’s hard to know if someone is talking about ‘her’ doing something or asking ‘you’ a question to do something. (also no inflection with questions here to help).
We are transitioning back to the US soon and after 1.5 years we are definitely not anywhere near fluent (though I think we have a stronger version of what that entirely subjective word means). But hey, we have appreciated some baby steps towards communicating with others from a different culture, like all cultures, even related ones, NO SIZE ONE FITS ALL. I will say though, when we travel to Peru or Columbia…man we feel like Spanish All-Stars. So despite feeling like we are swimming upstream in Spanish here in Chile, it is still helpful to train your ear to other speeds/dialogues as it is getting in there…albeit a little slower given the challenges. /// (posted by Mercedes Behzadi) I think Chilean Spanish is harder to understand, agree. Mostly because it is so fast!
I’m a native Spanish speaker from Argentina and I have to pay extra attention if I want to get every word they are saying.
It sounds to me as if they were taking a deep breath and trying to say as many words as possible within that breath.
I would love to visit sometime! See all items with this value