How Well do You Understand Different Spanish Accents? A Guide to Understanding Spanish Accents

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2 жыл бұрын

The Spanish speaking world is very diverse. One of the biggest barriers when it comes to understanding Spanish is the difficulty of different Spanish accents. This video aims to help you all understand some of the characteristics of Spanish from a few Spanish speaking countries. The hope here is that these tips help you train your ear to better understand Spanish speakers from all across the Spanish speaking world. If you all have any additional tips that can help us all please feel free to add them below!
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The Spanish speaking world is very diverse. One of the biggest barriers when it comes to understanding Spanish is the difficulty of different Spanish accents. This video aims to help you all understand some of the characteristics of Spanish from a few Spanish speaking countries. The hope here is that these tips help you train your ear to better understand Spanish speakers from all across the Spanish speaking world. If you all have any additional tips that can help us all please feel free to add them below!

Пікірлер: 98

@TheBiblicalDreamInterpreter 2 жыл бұрын

Loved this! I especially loved seeing los bebés negros hablando en español! Tan lindo! Would you consider doing a video that looked at the black Spanish culture and if they, as a community, have their own slang or speak differently from the non-black españoles…similar to us in the U.S.? Thanks for taking the time to educate us!😊

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

I can definitely get that done, believe it or not I notice a lot of similarities with how they’ve spiced up the Spanish language as has happened here with English. I’ll definitely get that done!

@dancingbear142 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for another great video Mike! I’ve been studying Spanish for about 3 months now and your videos have been an inspiration for me. Also, thanks for sharing your tips and advice because they have surely saved me time and frustration. I find Mexican Spanish the easiest to understand. My favorite accent is the Venezuelan accent, and the one I find most difficult to understand is the Dominican accent. I could only understand about 20% of what they were saying, but I’ll be a better listener with time. Thanks again for making these videos and believe me, you are helping people with your content. Keep it coming!

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Wow thanks Vernon and I agree, hopefully you can come back to this video in a few months and understand more than 70%! Sigue adelante!

@kelseyhebert2831 2 жыл бұрын

For me the easiest accent for me to understand is Mexican. The Cuban accent and then second the Argentina accent are most difficult for me to understand. I actually can understand the puerto rican accent and Dominican accent a lot more than the Cuban accent. Probably because I’ve taken lessons with someone who is Dominican.

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

A lot of people share Mexican Spanish as the easiest to understand and I agree that Cuban Spanish is tough! I think my situation is similar, I have an affinity for Colombian Spanish because I was taught initially by Colombians so I can definitely see your point with Dominican Spanish.

@BlackHoleSpain 2 жыл бұрын

I'm from Spain and my accent is original Castillian accent. All acents in Latinamerica come from the southern regions of Spain in XVI century, and speak in a completely different way as we do. For example, not a single country in America use the θ phoneme, and they change Z and CE/CI sounds to S instead. In old days, Peru was the core of viceroyalty along with Mexico, and still nowadays Peru keeps the closest resemblance to original spanish. Obviously, there are *lots* of regional slangs, so the clips of informal speech are sometimes harder to be understood. That "relaxed" way of speaking you were talking about, usually comes from low-educated people. For example the colombian doctor was speaking a extremely correct discourse. Btw, if you ask me for percentage of understanding in your video was 99% for spanish due to some slang in colombian sections, and 100% of your english comments. Greetings.

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for that explanation Francisco, I love learning about history and I didn’t know much of what you described here. It helps out a lot of these Spanish accents in the proper context now. Mil gracias!

@CharliesSpanishJourney 2 жыл бұрын

If you weren’t sure I just want to let you know yes this video did help! As of right now I’m still not sure if I can say that there’s a favorite accent that I prefer but I’m really surprised with how much I could keep up with although only about 40%🤗 but I can definitely see I need to start focusing on the language being spoken in situations like these. Thanks for posting🙌

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Charlie, comments like these keep me motivated to keep uploading videos. Mil gracias como siempre and Im glad this helps hermano!

@davidbraun6209 3 ай бұрын

I would have to say I understood most of the Spanish from Spain, a fair amount of that from Mexico, also surprisingly a lot of the speech of the Venezuelan speakers. I didn't understand the Colombian or the Peruvian as much. I was surprised by the amount of the Spanish the Cubans spoke in the video, though I have heard Cubans who might as well have been speaking Arabic. The Spanish from the puertorriqueños had so much English I was not sure they were a real test of "epañol." I found the Argentine Spanish even more challenging than Dominican Spanish, in fact the most challenging of all.

@MikeBen 3 ай бұрын

People often don't believe it but I agree David. The argentine Spanish can be extremely difficult to understand, even harder than Dominican Spanish for me at times.

@fluentguitar13 2 жыл бұрын

Yessir! Siento muy bien ahora que pasado tiempo estudiando horas y practicando mis habilidades de escuchar. Todavía pienso este el uno de los mejores canales alrededor. Hace tres meses no podría entender casi 75% ahora yo sé sabré 75% de las palabras y entender la mayoría. Muchísimas gracias a Ben por su tiempo. Y ahora voy a contestar tu pregunta. I think my favorite accent is Venezuelan. I think the easies for me to understand is Mexican Spanish. And the most difficult is Argentinian. The ll and y get me every time bro! Otra vez, muchas gracias por tu contenido y por tu tiempo!

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Mil gracias and Im glad this helps! The Venezuelan accent is so cool and underrated in my opinion and Spanish from Argentina can be very tough if you’re not used to it. I’m super glad also that you can understand so much and hopefully you’ll be able to understand it all in a few months. Sigue adelante!

@rachelnavarro2897 Жыл бұрын

Cuban accent is very diverse, you have the occidental accent with the explanation that you mentioned with the “R” but we have other accents in the Oriental provinces like Santiago and Guantanamo where we have closer sounds to Puerto Rico and Dominican. It’s not the same as Havanas accent or that occidental accent. I’m from Guantanamo and live here in the USA for 22 years but I’m also mixed and most people due to my looks and accent never expect me to say that I’m Cubana, that’s a huge misconception of Cuba and I think it happens in most Hispanics countries.

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

Very true, we often forget about the diversity in most Hispanic countries. I definitely need to consume more content from Cuba because I’ve only spent time with the Havana accent. As you mentioned it’s much more diverse that that! 🇨🇺

@149am 2 жыл бұрын

¡Excelente video! Muchas gracias por compartirlo. Lo voy a usar en mis clases. Saludos peruanos desde Blackpool, Inglaterra.

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Muchismas gracias Jorge! Me alegro que les pueda servir!

@franceshall7127 2 жыл бұрын

ONCE AGAIN I LOVED IT ... FOR ME COLUMBIA IS MY FAV..... BUT ALL IN ALL THEY ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL ACCENTS... I JUST CANT WAIT TO LEARN ONE LOL BECAUSE I WAS AT A 10% OR LESS BUT IM NOT GIVING UP THANK YOU SO MUCH

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you as well Frances, your comments keep me motivated! I’m glad this helps!

@franceshall7127 2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeBen You are very very welcome im happy i find you on youtube..

@robski6623 2 жыл бұрын

I really enjoyed this video. It has a nice variety of dialects. I would say im most familiar with the Mexican accent and could understand 40 to 50%. I think the Venezuelan accent might be my favorite. In this video, i really liked listening to the Cuban accent, it was really cool. Thanks for putting this video together. 🤙

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Comments like this motivate me to keep making these Rob so thank you as well. Hopefully you can come back to this video in a few months understanding 70% or more. Mexican Spanish is definitely top 3 for me and I agree that understanding Cuban Spanish can be rough at times.

@Jack-uf7ww 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing content

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jack!

@LordOtis Жыл бұрын

This is a very helpful comparison. Since most of what I've heard on KZfaq is Spanish of Spain, it was easiest for me to understand, followed by the. clarity of Mexican. The soft blurry pronunciations were the hardest: Colombian and Dominican. I will save your video for further listening practice. Thanks a lot.

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

I'm glad this helps and I relate to what you're describing here. That lack of info motivated me to create this.

@tjohnson4517 2 жыл бұрын

Mil gracias por este video. Acabo empezo a usar hello talk. Tuve una conversación con un hombre de Argentina por una hora. No lo puedo creer que me dijiste que podía entenderme, aunque he estado aprendiendo solo once meses. Qué genial tu canal! También, se nota el doble l. The first time he said calle i was like que? Lol

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Mil gracias and I know what you mean, that accent can catch you off guard lol. Sigue adelante con todo tu esfuerzo!

@tjohnson4517 2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeBen claro que sí

@mercedesfigueroa1122 2 жыл бұрын

Hello everyone!! I am Argentine, Spanish-speaking. When I saw this video I had the idea of making video calls with someone who is an English speaker and wants to practice speaking Spanish with me in exchange for also making video calls but to practice speaking English since I would like to practice speaking. If there is anyone interested, do not hesitate to answer the comment 😂😊 Hola a todos!! Yo soy argentina, hispanohablante. Al ver este vídeo se me ocurrió la idea de hacer videollamadas con alguien que sea angloparlante y quiera practicar hablar español conmigo a cambio de también hacer videollamadas pero para practicar hablar inglés ya que me gustaría practicar el speaking. Si hay alguien interesado no dude en responder el comentario 😂😊

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Hola, Im sure there are plenty people here looking for exchange partners. Thanks for posting this!

@KylaGrace 2 жыл бұрын

I'm interested! Estudiaba en Argentina y olvide mucho vocabulario. Practico con una chica de Colombia ahora pero quiero practicar con alguien de Argentina de nuevo!

@Donatellokiller 2 жыл бұрын

veeery interesting video

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Gracias 🙏🏾

@SoyAliciaPalace 2 жыл бұрын

Great video Mike! My favorite accent so far is Mexican. I definitely hear the similarities between Puerto Rican & Cuban but I feel like I understand PR more probably because I listen to so much reggaeton haha. And the most difficult for me would be Chilean, it’s a whole other world between their slang, the speed and innotation. Second hardest would be Dominican/Cuban. Side note: who is the vlogger at 42:43?

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Reggaetón definitely helps haha and I’ve heard a lot of people say that Chilean Spanish can be very tough for them to understand. I do need to spend more time with it tbh. Also the vlogger’s name is “Armandonis”

@carlosespinoza2453 2 жыл бұрын

It is true that for a non-native spanish tongue ( as a US citizen) the easiest to understand is the spanish from Peru and the hardest is spanish from Chile ?

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

It depends but I would say the easiest is Peruvian and the hardest for me personally is Dominican

@laurierend Жыл бұрын

I understood 70% of the video. Easiest to understand in this video were Spanish, Mexican, Peruvian, and Venezuelan. Most difficult were Colombian and Cuban. My favorite? I can't say. They're all beautiful for different reasons -- clarity, interesting slang or Spanglish, and my own experiences with the language.

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

Agreed, the ones you understood most are typically easier to understand in my opinion

@greadore 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting video. I could probably understand about 50 - 60% overall, some much better than others. I like the Mexican Spanish the best but also like the Venezuelan Spanish. I live in Texas so am used to hearing the Mexican Spanish more and I am focusing on that accent more than the others. I listen to a lot of KZfaqrs from and in Venezuela and at first had a difficult time understanding them but now find I can understand them much better or pretty well and like the accent a lot. The accent most difficult for me is the Cuban and Dominican accent.

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

I agree that the Caribbean accents are very tough and being in Texas definitely helps with the Mexican accent. Hopefully you can come back to this video in a couple months and understand close to 90%!

@greadore 2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeBen out of curiosity, how much of the video could you understand Mike? Also, what is the name of the KZfaq channel with the guy from Puerto Rico doing the comedy skits (drive through at the fast food chicken place,…), I would like to check that out some more, seemed pretty funny. Thanks!

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

@@greadore I understood 80 - 90% and his name is Lejuan James lol

@joaquimferreira395 2 жыл бұрын

¡Me gusta!

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Gracias!

@esterhammerfic 6 ай бұрын

This is good. The music/singing in the background makes it harder to understand sometimes but I assume that's how the clips were originally, nothing you can do about that

@MikeBen 6 ай бұрын

I'm glad this was helpful!

@passionaterebellion Жыл бұрын

Hey Mike, do you have recs for Colombian spanish for listening practice? podcasts, series or youtube channels?

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

Claro que si! Check out these, I have even more if you need them: Carlos Jaramillo Jonfer y Valentina Ceron Los montañeros Fausto Murillo Esta es mi historia (Colombia) El Cristian Gonzales Desocupe Masivo Iro Ramirez Tengo más pero creo que estos ya serán muy difíciles de entender jaja, por eso me encanta el español colombino 🇨🇴

@passionaterebellion Жыл бұрын

@@MikeBen gracias por todo esto. i will try man, been feeling pretty discouraged bc after 6 months i still have trouble understanding native speakers completely. i understand 30-40% max. i feel like i’ll never get fluent sometimes

@quicktempa 2 жыл бұрын

90%+, caleño accent (Colombia) but I’m biased because that’s how I learned Spanish 😂 with that being said, everyone thinks I’m weird for saying this but Mexican Spanish is the most difficult for me outside of Dominicans. When they’re neutral they’re very neutral, but when they aren’t it’s tough lol especially with the jerga

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

We’re both biased to Colombia for the same reason lol. I can also see your point with Mexican Spanish, when they get comfortable that slang goes to another level lol

@quicktempa 2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeBen Yeah I cant keep up 😂 my wife is the opposite. She be asking me what Colombians are saying when we watch shows and I’m like uhhh you’re the native speaker here.

@Viclimay 6 ай бұрын

I loved the fact that you chose Peruvians on the street speaking in a very coloquial way. There is a big difference between ERES GUAPA y ESTAS GUAPA. The first one is permanent, the second you will use, for example, after someone has dressed up to go out.

@MikeBen 6 ай бұрын

Thank you and thank you for that clarification as well. We need it!

@carlosblk 6 ай бұрын

los dominicanos de los barrios son los que hablan asi, si nos tragamos muchas y R pero depende de la educacion. aunque si creo que hablamos un poquito rapido

@MikeBen 6 ай бұрын

Tienes toda la razón

@christophermichael5764 2 жыл бұрын

The homie Diego! @25:21

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Yessir, I love their podcast!

@RoxanneJ Жыл бұрын

Gracias!! Este es ayuda para mi. Correction. Lol. Esto es útil para mi.

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

Esoooo! Me alegro mucho que te haya ayudado!

@carlosespinoza2453 2 жыл бұрын

41:25 Venezuelans don't pronounce the "s" during conjugation of verbs ""hola, feliz año. tamo aquí todos reunido ... nos traimo a Carlos ... y bueno vamo a recibir éste año . . . También se comen las "d" como en "Navida" . Some minutes later, other venezuelans pronounces the "s" . Probably it is town vs city pronunciation ?

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Great point, it’s a very faint s for me but I know exactly what you’re describing. Venezuelan Spanish is very diverse and I love it!

@RoxanneJ Жыл бұрын

I think I’ll go with Columbian and Venezuelan, for Italki like you did. All the languages with the slang I am just not interested in because learning this language is very overwhelming as it is. I would even consider Spain Spanish because it is closer to what I have learned in the past. And I’m used to Pablo from dreaming Spanish

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

I understand 100% Roxanne. Although Colombian, Venezuelan, and Spanish from Spain all do include slang, the slang doesn’t inhibit one’s ability to understand them. With many of the other countries it can be very difficult to understand them without the slang so I think that those are great option. Please keep us updated as always!

@hiphopson 2 жыл бұрын

Who is that guy @34:22 that was hilarious😂

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

His name is actually Lejuan James haha

@JWinch 9 ай бұрын

Dropping the s at the end of words in Colombia is primarily a thing in the Caribbean regional dialect. Your video treats Colombian as a single language while there are much more distinct dialects in different regions of Colombia. I would bet the softening of d's is also a costeño (Caribbean) or maybe a paisa (Medellín) dialect thing. The example you give of the show Los Montañeros... that is a paisa dialect. The family is from Medellín. If you had talked about the Bogota accent which is also the accent used most commonly in national news tv shows, you would not hear dropped s's or very soft d's. Bogota accent pronounces all syllables and sounds. It is very clear. So your attempt to call Colombian a single accent/dialect: you might as well say the USA has only one accent of English and mix Boston speakers with those living in the Bayou of Louisiana. It is misleading.

@MikeBen 9 ай бұрын

Check out my other videos, I clarify. Gracias por ver y comentar!

@MUZIKSPOT 2 жыл бұрын

Columbia es mi favorito

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Estoy de acuerdo!

@mohamuudomar9492 2 жыл бұрын

Can you send me visa to travel here from africa

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

No se cómo hacer eso 🤷🏾‍♂️

@larsattack 2 жыл бұрын

What is your Spanish accent ?

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

I’d say neutral

@moyon369-ec9 6 ай бұрын

Hola

@MikeBen 6 ай бұрын

Hola

@manofjesuschrist7351 Жыл бұрын

el español de españa es el mejor y más fácil de entender

@MikeBen Жыл бұрын

Para algunas personas si

@lissandrafreljord7913 Жыл бұрын

Los españoles hablan como el Pato Lucas.

@knowledgeisablessing8767 2 жыл бұрын

Argentinians do sound more Italian than anything. I thought it was just me thinking that. I understand and like Columbian and Caribbean Spanish best.

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Agreed, their accent is very unique. I also love Cololmbian Spanish!

@LautaroEspinoza-qf6gy 10 ай бұрын

Well 60% of our population has italian blood that's why, also we use italian words and all the italian gestures too

@VJhoed09 2 жыл бұрын

AJAJJAJA los gringos preguntándose que es bobi de Christian Martin

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Si jaja, estamos tratando de aprender todo

@VJhoed09 2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeBen cuanto llevas aprendiendo español?🧐

@DiegoMills4 2 жыл бұрын

I’m Venezuelan and I think Mexican Spanish is by far the hardest to understand. They make up so many words and they all talk with the same singing accent. “Weyyyyy”

@MikeBen 2 жыл бұрын

Agreed! That Mexican slang is tough, you have to know the slang to understand them lol

@SuperErickelrojo 11 ай бұрын

There is NO Argentinian accent, Messi talks with a Rioplatense accent (River Plate Spanish), It is spoken in the east of Argentina and in Uruguay.

@MikeBen 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the insight

@elkhrist 8 ай бұрын

You are being pedantic.

@Capibaracapibara1992 4 ай бұрын

for us non argentinans, all argentinean accents sounds the same, is like for you all mexicans sounds the same (Mexico City, Televisa show)

@enmanuelsantos2459 5 ай бұрын

El acento dominicano hablado correctamente es de los mas neutros que existe en toda Hispanoamérica, ese acento mal hablado lo hablan la gente con carente educación o de barrios, y agregar que últimamente ha surgido una “moda” de que gran parte de la juventud a adaptado esta manera de hablar lamentablemente.

@MikeBen 5 ай бұрын

Muchas gracias por la clarificación. He notado lo mismo de hecho.