Easiest Spanish accent to understand?

MiloDublin

What is the easiest Spanish accent to understand for a learner? Somebody told me Mexican because they speak slowly (Benecio del Toro in 'Traffic') When I watch Spanish TV they speak so fast I struggle to keep up. Any thoughts?

I am pie

Colombian for me is much cleaner than Mexican, easier to pick up for me.

iusedtoknow

I think for new learners, mexican is the way to go. They speak slower and their accent is very clear.
My personal favourite is argentine.

However after years of living in spain (married to a catalan) I am pretty comfortable with the speed of castellano.

pandoraj09

Hiya, I'm a Spanish teacher and the easiest way to improve your listening skills would be to buy one of the Junior Cert textbooks. They all come with CDS and the Spanish is spoken much more slowly than on Spanish tv. It is impossible to follow Spanish tv unless you are fairly fluent. Also you could buy a set of Junior/Leaving Cert exam papers. They cost about 7 Euro and come with CDs of past exams. The scripts can be accessed online. The Spanish is very clear and easy to learn from. The Leaving Cert is obviously the more challenging one so I'd recommend you start with Junior Cert. Buena suerte!!!

ResidentHill

Colombian for sure. Argentinan is one of the most difficult I've found.

playedalive

For me, it has to be the accent from Madrid (el acento madrileño). It is very clear.

The easiest Latin American for me is definitely colombian.

niallcon4re

pandoraj09 wrote: »

Hiya, I'm a Spanish teacher and the easiest way to improve your listening skills would be to buy one of the Junior Cert textbooks. They all come with CDS and the Spanish is spoken much more slowly than on Spanish tv. It is impossible to follow Spanish tv unless you are fairly fluent. Also you could buy a set of Junior/Leaving Cert exam papers. They cost about 7 Euro and come with CDs of past exams. The scripts can be accessed online. The Spanish is very clear and easy to learn from. The Leaving Cert is obviously the more challenging one so I'd recommend you start with Junior Cert. Buena suerte!!!

I agree with this. I think it idiotic that beginners think that listening to Spanish t.v will improve their comprehension. You need to start with something slow, designed for students and then gradually step up over a couple of years to Spanish t.v. I'm about a C2 level of Spanish and only now can I enjoy Spanish t.v (although at times I miss a few words). I'd recommend "newsinslowspanish" for beginners, I used this a few years ago and they speak slowly so a student can each word separately. "Student designed" listening is the only way to go when you are a beginner/intermediate.

Greenmachine

Colombian spanish was recommended to me years ago when I tried to learn the language.
From personal experience, the worse accent would be the malagean. Even my friend living there would say, It is spoken quite lazily and has been corrupted by the influx of so many ex-pats I would imagine.

MiloDublin

niallcon4re wrote: »

I agree with this. I think it idiotic that beginners think that listening to Spanish t.v will improve their comprehension. You need to start with something slow, designed for students and then gradually step up over a couple of years to Spanish t.v. I'm about a C2 level of Spanish and only now can I enjoy Spanish t.v (although at times I miss a few words). I'd recommend "newsinslowspanish" for beginners, I used this a few years ago and they speak slowly so a student can each word separately. "Student designed" listening is the only way to go when you are a beginner/intermediate.

I'm not a beginner I'm B2-1 so moving on. I just find texts from course book dry and need to be interested in the information to be curious enough to motivate so I concentrate on stories that grab me. El Pais has great Latin America coverage which hardly gets a look in in the Englisg speaking media.
Everybody has a different learning style. Even though I don't understand Spanish TV I can get the gist. I learned German to fluency level and know that the process involves more than just understanding every word, it's about intuiting what could be meant from context as well.

MiloDublin

niallcon4re wrote: »

I agree with this. I think it idiotic that beginners think that listening to Spanish t.v will improve their comprehension. You need to start with something slow, designed for students and then gradually step up over a couple of years to Spanish t.v. I'm about a C2 level of Spanish and only now can I enjoy Spanish t.v (although at times I miss a few words). I'd recommend "newsinslowspanish" for beginners, I used this a few years ago and they speak slowly so a student can each word separately. "Student designed" listening is the only way to go when you are a beginner/intermediate.

I'm not a beginner I'm B2-1 so moving on. I just find texts from course book dry and need to be interested in the information to be curious enough to motivate so I concentrate on stories that grab me. El Pais has great Latin America coverage which hardly gets a look in in the English speaking media.
Everybody has a different learning style. Even though I don't understand Spanish TV I can get the gist. I learned German to fluency level and know that the process involves more than just understanding every word, it's about intuiting what could be meant from context as well.

HalloweenJack

I'd also say Colombian. Mexicans can have a high-pitched accent at times which makes it sound a bit silly. Colombians generally speak very smoothly but have a nice flow.

Within Spain, the Spanish from Salamanca is supposed to be best but the accent isn't as easy as the Colombian one.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Having began learning after my arrival in Colombia, I've some Spanish movies recently and the accents now sound bizarre as I've grown used to the Colombian accent. The lisp is very noticeable to me.

Magico Gonzalez

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Having began learning after my arrival in Colombia, I've some Spanish movies recently and the accents now sound bizarre as I've grown used to the Colombian accent. The lisp is very noticeable to me.

Thankfully not one country in Latin America decided the lisp thing was pretty cool.