¡Hola amigos!
Bienvenidos.
Yo soy Jim de Spanish and Go.
Wait a minute something about that didn’t sound right.
That's why today we're going to talk about the importance
of developing an accent in Spanish.
La importancía de desarollar un accento en Español.
But before we get started don't forget that we’re
your resource for learning a real world travel Spanish.
So hit that subscribe button for more travel
and Spanish tips.
Empecemos.
Every native Spanish speaker has heard it before.
The distinct sound of a gringo speaking Spanish.
And you can ask May,
it's not always very flattering.
México tiene muchos problemas.
Now my accent is far from perfect,
but today I wanted to talk about three things:
One,
why you should develop your accent.
Two,
which country you should model your accent after.
And three,
how you can start improving your accent today.
Okay first off,
why are we even talking about this?
Why would you work to develop your accent?
After all,
it can seem a little disingenuous to just totally
copy the way another person talks,
right?
Well,
think about it this way.
Have you ever been hanging out with a group
of friends and somebody brings a new word to the table?
And at first you're thinking,
“what's your word I've never heard it before.”
Seriously.
Name a squad with more clout.
But before you know it you're using it too.
It's totally natural.
Everybody wants to fit in and that should be your
goal with learning a language.
At least if you're serious about learning a language.
A big goal for me is when I'm speaking Spanish I
don't want anyone to be able to guess where I'm from.
Usually it's pretty easy to guess if somebody
is from the United States when they're speaking Spanish.
For some reason we just have this reputation
of maybe not being so great at learning languages.
So,
a good goal for me is to just try to convince people
that I'm from some other place hopefully a country
that is better known for learning languages.
And often when I ask people where they think I might be
from when I'm speaking to them in Spanish
they often guess Germany,
which is kind of cool for me because that's
where my dad's from and where half of my family is from.
So that's a that's a plus for me.
I'm heading down the right road.
But a bigger goal would be to try to get people to think
that I'm from Mexico.
Ambitious goal.
I'm definitely not there yet,
but aim for the stars hopefully you’ll
land on the moon,
right?
Also think of any immigrants you've met before
who you thought,
oh wow.
Their English is really good.
It's probably because they sound a lot
like you or close to the way you sound as a native
English speaker.
The point is you just really want to try to blend
in as much as possible.
Where should you blend in?
Well,
that brings me to point number two.
Which country should you model your accent after?
All I'm a little biased on this one.
I think everybody should learn Mexican Spanish
for the most part.
But it really depends on your situation.
Maybe you really want to live in Spain someday maybe you're
just fascinated by the architecture
and the culture there.
In that case you should learn the Spanish accent.
But for most people learning Spanish who maybe don't know
where they want to travel to learning Mexican Spanish
is a great option for a few reasons.
A third of the world's Spanish speaking
population is from Mexico.
So right there you're going to be widely understood
throughout the Spanish speaking world when you speak
Mexican Spanish or you're familiar with the Mexican
accent.
If you're new to our channel you may not know that my wife,
May,
the other half of Spanish Shingo is from Mexico
so it makes a lot of sense for me to try to copy
the accent of Mexico.
Another reason is Mexican Spanish is usually
spoken fairly clearly.
There's not a lot of merging of words together
and yet it can be really fast Spanish is one
of the fastest languages in the world.
But in Mexico it's fairly clearly spoken.
And I can't say that for all Spanish speaking countries.
Mexico and Colombia are known to speak
Spanish in a very literal sense;
in very phonetic sense.
So they're not cutting off letters at the end
of words or beginning of words like they do
and certain Spanish speaking countries.
Especially the Caribbean.
I really noticed in Puerto Rico for example,
sorry to pick on you Puerto Rico,
but it's a little difficult to understand the Spanish
there until you get used to it.
That cut off kind of the ends of words sometimes.
Look girl,
you need to throw that out because it’s rotten.
And once you get used to it,
sure it's just it's just the way they speak
and the Caribbean in that region,
but it can be a little bit difficult to understand
the accent of other Spanish speaking countries if you start
by trying to copy that accent.
But what it really comes down to is if you are dead
set on living in or exploring deeply another
country where they speak Spanish,
you should try to copy that region's accent
as much as possible.
That way you fit in as much as you possibly
can once you get there.
There are certainly some differences in Mexican
Spanish throughout the country.
But for the most part it's easily
understood throughout.
One thing that I thought sounded kind of funny to me,
since I'm used to the accent is Colima Mexico
where May is from,
is in the north of Mexico they pronounced
the c h a little differently.
It's more like a “sh” instead of a “ch.”
For example,
they'll say “Buenas noSHes,”
instead of “buenas noches.”
You'll notice the differences like that in many different
Spanish speaking countries.
And really what we ultimately want
to do on this channel is to show you the variety
in the way that Spanish is spoken in different
countries.
But you're really going to be able to be widely
understood if you try to develop the accent of Mexico.
But we've traveled through a lot of Mexico,
and for the most part nobody gives me any
trouble about my accent.
Number three.
What are some of the ways you can start working to improve
your accent today?
My first tip here is don't worry about overexaggerating.
It might seem like when you're starting
to copy the accent or the sound of the way
somebody else speaks that you're overdoing it.
In my experience you're not.
You don't want to get too carried away with the “rr.”
You can over-drag that but most of the time
you're probably under doing it.
In my case,
my mother in law sometimes says,
“Jim here not enunciating the ‘rr’ enough.”
I thought I was rolling my R's enough,
but no I need to really give it a little extra,
and I think a lot of other people could benefit
from this tip too.
My second tip here is to really listen
carefully to the way other people are talking.
The people that you're trying to copy.
You need to listen like you would a song where
you're going to basically sing it back exactly the way
the artist you're listening to sang it.
As a musician that's the way I like to think about it.
Another tip.
Don't worry too much about how a word is written or looks
like you would say it on paper.
You just need to listen extremely carefully.
Think of it this way,
when you are just learning your first language
you didn't read the words off a page and started
talking that way.
No.
You heard your parents talking and little by little
you started repeating what they were saying.
You learn the language from listening very
carefully to it and repeating and what happened?
Your accent in your first language is perfect.
Same thing with Spanish.
Listen very carefully to the way people speak
and repeat what they say.
Copy that.
Maybe not out loud at 100 percent volume.
They might think you're a little weird.
But that's okay.
Under your breath a little bit is going to give
you the practice you need to say the words
the way you need to say them.
Another tip,
listen to music in Spanish especially bands
that are from the country that you're
interested in visiting.
Like I mentioned earlier,
singing along with a song can really help you get
used to saying how the artist sings the words.
So you're listening extra carefully when you're
listening to a song,
and when you're singing it back you're trying
to get as close to the way that the song is being sang.
So you're not even worrying too much about
the accent so much as sounding like the way the song sounds.
Another tip,
and I love this one personally,
is to practice “trabalenguas.”
Practice tongue twisters in Spanish.
We're going to have a video about this.
But would I like to do is memorize the tongue twister
and practice it when I'm on a road trip or I'm
on my motorcycle.
I'll say the thing over and over and over again
until it feels natural.
Tongue twisters in Spanish are especially
difficult as you might think.
At least they are for me.
But as you practice them over and over and over
again it will be second nature.
And it'll also help get your tongue used to moving to make
the sounds that you need to make when speaking Spanish correctly.
Thanks for watching guys,
and don't forget to Like and Subscribe for more
travel and Spanish tips.
I hope this video helped you,
and let me know in the comments what accent
you're practicing or what accent are you going to practice.
I'll chat with you there.
And don't forget “El camino es el destino.
The journey is the destination.”
So keep practicing guys y nos vemos pronto.