Caribbean Spanish is the hardest to understand?

[AntonioR]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?id=...27150550073408

I find it interesting that the places that received a lot of immigration from the Canary Islands and Andalusia regions of Spain (relative to the size of the population that was already there where they migrated to) where Spanish is still spoken, for the most part it’s very hard to understand their dialects as it’s very hard to understand the Canarians and the Andalusians. They do say that the Canarian influence is noticeable in the Spanish spoken in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico (Venezuelans, particularly from Caracas, have a similar dialect to these places too.)

They all have the habit of eating the “S” at the end of words, speaking too fast among other issues that makes it very hard for most Spanish speakers to understand them.

Now lets talk about Chile? What? What? What?

[gentlearts]

My DIL is from Puerto Rico and her mother’s side of the family came from Spain. I’m sure some of the Spain influences their speech.I am trying a Spanish app, and I get all the exercises correct, but the people speak so fast, that I doubt I’ll ever get it.

My 2 little grands, age 3 and 6, both go to bilingual schools, and they switch back and forth easily. Kids are like sponges.

[recycled]

Ha Ha, good thread. I attended my senior year of high school as an exchange student in Chile in 1971. Sure, I spoke Spanish well upon arrival, and was quickly immersed into the Chilean style of the language. To this day I avoid using the pronunciation (or lack or pronunciation) that typifies Chilean style of Spanish. However, there are a number of Chilean slang words that I still like to use.

[EVANGELISTTI]

Cuban Spanish is very difficult to understand, I'm not a native speaker of Spanish, but I speak it very fluently to the point of people don't even know that I'm a native speaker of Portuguese.
I have no problems understanding Chileans, Dominicans and Venezuelans, but when in Miami with Cubans, I preferred to speak in English, being honest. I remember that once, I even got upset by a Cuban/American lady in a bar who insisted on speaking to me in Cuban Spanish that I couldn't understand half of.
For native Portuguese speakers, when I taught Spanish I noticed that Brazilians students understand Argentine/Uruguayan Spanish easier. Probably because they speak slowly and paused like in Italian and Portuguese.

[Suesbal]

I thought Rioplatenese was the most distinct from “regular” Spanish.

[Suesbal]

Who can understand this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SM9FLITPs&t=596s

[elchevere]

I’m not fluent in Spanish by any means but in my experience—which echoes the sentiments of other, fluent Spanish speaking individuals I’m friends with—Cubans and Mexicans mangle the language.

[Lodestar]

I learned my Spanish from a young high school teacher who studied in Mexico City and later from two college professors. One was a medical Doctor to Ecuador and the other who spoke classical Spanish. That was fifty years ago.

It has been rare in Minnesota to have conversations with Spanish speaking people. But I travel to Quintana Roo at least once a year. It's a vacation area and it's common to run into many different varieties of Spanish there. Most of the locals seem to speak a mixture of Mayan, Mexican Spanish and slang.

I was once gobsmacked by asking, ["Que hora es?"][/i] and being met with a blank look.

That man in the video would first have to be asked to take that cigar out of his mouth for me to understand him. When I turned the closed caption on I could understand what he was saying but I see the interpreter for the video also missed some of what he said.

The sound of their exchange reminded me of a dialect I hear sometimes in Georgia that sounds like a mouth full of grits.

And I find it difficult to speak to Cubans. First, because their social comfort zone is too in my face and secondly because they speak too loudly and fast for me. In traveling I learned fast to request slower speech.

I always enjoy your comments on regional language differences, Antonio.

[NW4me]

I was once told (long ago; can't remember by whom)
that Chilean Spanish was the closest New World
dialect to the Spanish spoken in Spain.

Not so?

[elchevere]

Originally Posted by NW4me

I was once told (long ago; can't remember by whom)
that Chilean Spanish was the closest New World
dialect to the Spanish spoken in Spain.

Not so?

I have always thought Colombians speak the best Spanish outside of Spain.