Castellano vs. Español
 

Hola,

I'm currently learning Spanish because a lot of my family members speak the language and I'm eager to learn it as I find it a beautiful language. I started taking online lessons Spanish, but as I live in Europe I've got my doubts whether to continue learning 'Latin American Spanish' or begin to learn Castellano. I've made good progress learning 'Latin American Spanish' and I have to say I have no problems at all regarding the grammar and the vocabulary. So now my question is, since I'm gonna be visiting Spain a lot, would it be better if I stopped taking those 'Latin American Spanish' lessons and began to start learning Castellano? Or should I continue since I think the adaptation won't be really hard? It might seem as if there is no difference between the two languages, but mind you that the vocabulary and the slang can differ very much from each other, as well as the pronunciation, even though the pronunciation isn't gonna be a real problem for me...

Umm, castellano and español are the same thing. The language has two different names. Peninsular Spanish is the name given to the Castilian spoken in Spain. The other forms of Castilian (Spanish) spoken elsewhere are all classified as Latin American Spanish.

There are threads in the forum that talk about the differences. They may just as well talk about the differences between the Spanish spoken in the other twenty-plus countries, because every one of those countries used Spanish in their own little way.

In my opinion, if you can converse in Latin American Spanish, you will probably not have great difficulty learning how to speak Peninsular Spanish.

I am sorry Rusty, but I am Chilean and I speak castellano. What's more, one of the 4 official languages is castellano and not one of those is called Spanish or español.

All this to the best of my knowledge.

From what I have heard among friends, it seems to differ by country: the ones I happen to know from Venezuela say castellano while those from México and Costa Rica say español. This is a very interesting thread, and I look forward to hearing the preferences of other members.

I know castellano is the more precise term. In Latin America the terms are pretty much synonomous. This is different in Spain, as Chileno states, where there are four distinct Spanish languages, and it seems at best ignorant and at worst imperialistic to refer to Castillian as Spanish in regions where Gallego, Catalan and Basque are commonly spoken.

If you study Iberian Spanish you will become more familiar with European pronunciation and verb forms. If you are going to spend more time in Spain, then certainly look at on-line courses that focus on Iberian Spanish.

The Spanish language is known by two names - español and castellano - by those who speak it. This is because both are official names of the language. Which name you choose to use for the language you speak very much depends on the country, and perhaps the region, where you live. :)

This topic has already been discussed in other threads.

Yes and no. :)

Yes, there are some countries/regions of Spain that call indistinctly español/castellano the language they speak.

No, as the following link will clarify :http://www.20minutos.es/carta/8697/0...IAL/COOFICIAL/

The RAE recommends the word "español" although it says both "español" and "castellano" are acceptable. They give some reasons here:
http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltGUIBusDPD?lema=espa%F1ol

In Spain, generally speaking, "castellano" would be mainly used by people politically concerned in the sense Poli pointed out. This will be more usual in regions that have their own language (Catalonia, the Basque Country, maybe Galicia...).

A Google research:

"Cursos de español en Madrid": 203,000 resultados
"Cursos de español en Barcelona": 205,000 resultados
"Cursos de castellano en Madrid": 5 resultados
"Cursos de castellano en Barcelona":5 resultados

Google

"curso de español en Madrid" --> 149 resultados
"curso de español en Barcelona" ---> 156 resultados
"curso de español en Buenos Aires" ---> 56 resultados

En mi país:
"curso de español" vende internacionalmente
"curso de castellano" no vende internacionalmente
"mi idioma se llama español" --> señal de ignorancia (aunque este concepto va retrocediendo por varias razones, buenas y malas)
"mi idioma se llama castellano" ---> respuesta correcta

Concuerdo totalmente.