Which Spanish Should I Learn?

What Type of Spanish Should I Learn?

I see this question ALL the time, "What type of Spanish should I learn?"

First off this question is a little weird because more or less the types of Spanish are pretty much the same. Honestly, most of the differences are just cultural slang. There are different words that each country uses so I can see why someone would ask this question. My novia is infatuated with Puerto Rican Spanish. It's mainly the accent and the slang. We also live with a lot of Mexicans so she'll find herself saying "oraleeeee!" in Walmart when she overhears people speaking Spanish. A little "bobita" but we'll allow it. 

Really a lot of beginners just are trying to deal with conjugations, greetings, and how to tell the time, but the more advanced learners, they are trying to hone their language skills. The questions are more like "which accent should I focus on?", "Which country should I travel to?", "What is some [insert country here] slang?"

This is normal so here is a guide to figure out which Spanish-speaking country you should try and emulate. Keep in mind that this is completely up to you. The most important thing to remember is that picking an accent, culture, or country is really up to what you feel the most comfortable with. Let's get started:

What Accent Do You Like:

This one is kind of straightforward. What accent do you like? this really helps if you are an impressionable person like me. I like to copy things that I like. For example, I love to use "VOS" when I am talking sometimes. I also love the paisa accent, the Cali accent, and the Bogota accent. My accent in Spanish is a mixture of all those and of course my American accent. Even if my accent is not perfect I continue to learn all the slang from those areas. I lived in Bogota so that's not really that hard to learn slang. Learning slang from the coast isn't that hard either because there are many resources to do so. 

Honestly, the decision for me was easy. I have family from Colombia so I was kind of already drawn to Colombia. For other people figure out what accent excites you. If you search "Dustin Luke Argentina" on youtube you will find a white guy who talks near-perfect Argentinean Spanish. 

He likes Argentina, he likes the way they talk, and he likes the country. Why else would he adopt their culture, the way they talk, and the food they eat? 

Imitation is the best form of flattery - Someone 

Here are some examples of popular accents:
Colombia
Argentina
Mexico

What Cultural Do You Like?

So this part builds on the last question. What culture do you like? Culture plays heavily into the accent and vice versa. If we are talking "immersion" culture is really what will bring you to a country and make your stay. So this part of the article is a little...slated. Why? Because you can learn a certain dialect or accent but if you never plan on visiting that country or if you're not even interested in that country...who cares? 

BUT!!

If it does interest you then it can play a certain part. To be honest, Colombian culture is probably the same as most of South America in how they go about life and the differences are just the rituals, names, and ceremonies. I am just assuming, but assuming from the history of the surrounding countries in relation to Colombia, I don't imagine much of a difference. Anyways, the feeling of the culture is what is important to me. The American culture is fast-paced. We are hard-working, and we care about money, and I think that is important, but I feel that the Colombian culture is a lot more laid back and family-centered and I think that that is just important and for that reason, I like Colombian culture. That is the goal, to just be more laid back.

This is what works for me, but it may not work for you! Maybe the culture in Spain is more fast-paced and that's what you like? That's ok! The point is to figure out what is comfortable for you and maybe this factors into your accent decision. 

What Country Do You Like?

This is also a weird question too. This is more about the general country, but also the people. Again, I felt a warmth in the people of Colombia that were just different from the United States. But also if you're a backpacker then maybe backpacking through Colombia is your thing. If you like going to the beach or just spending time on the Islands maybe Puerto Rico is your spot.

The country and where it's located can give you a lot of reasons to pick it. If you're from a European country, Spain could be your best option simply because it's right there. There are a lot of factors that could play into this one and it's really up to the individual person. 

Where Do I Fit In?

This one is personal. I feel like the accent I picked should fit. If I were to start talking about "this accent" then people can't be sitting here giving me double takes. If I talked like I was from the Colombian coast then I was going to talk like I was an African from the Colombian coast. My goal was to walk into a store and not have people looking at me weirdly trying to find out where I am from. Other people really don't care, they just want to speak the language and they don't care about their foreign accent. Which is completely fine, just me personally I was tired of people who weren't even from my neighborhood looking at me weirdly when I had my American accent. If you're like me then this is something you might want to think about this a little. 

If you're a white person you might want to adopt an accent where white Latinos come from. If you're black, the same concept applies. a lot of people assume I'm from the Dominican Republic at first sight.

Is It Really Just One Thing?

Is it just one thing that you should decide which accent, dialect, or slang to focus on? No. I would say that you need to take all these things into account. Everyone is different and they find different things more important than others. The only thing I want to demonstrate is the more common "important" things that people think about.

Honestly, in the Spanish Learning community, a lot of people don't even care about adopting an accent. The only thing they care about is speaking the language. I have different opinions about fluency and what that means to me. 

I consider mastering a language includes words, slang, and accent. 

If you have some opinions about accents and what they mean to you. Comment Below! Let me know what you think about accents and what type of Spanish you should learn!