Pronunciation Question

Pronunciation Question
 

Right now I am trying to learn through various means and one of which is audio to get my pronunciation right. I am really baffled though my most recent audio as multiple words are being chained together. Two examples would be "Donde esta" sounds like "Donde-sta" and "Esta aqui" sounds like "Esta-qui". Is this right in which you connect like vowels when speaking or is there something I am misunderstanding?

My second question is how to say hotel correctly. Unfortunately I cannot tell from speaker so from the spanish language perspective the "h" would be silent and be "Otel". Maybe I'm just over thinking things but that has also bugging me.

Hi welcome to Tomisimo.
Correct written way: Dónde está
Esta aquí
When I speak those, I don't connect the vowels.

The h isn't silent for el hotel.

Waiting for people who are better in Spansh than me :)
Don't listen to me...:lol: I might be very wrong!!

Matching vowels are definitely blended to make one syllable. Many words are blended together, just like we do when we speak English. The pronunciation you heard on the tape is correct.

The 'h' in Spanish is NEVER pronounced.
The correct pronunciation for hotel: /oh tel/ (the bolded part is stressed)

see I told you. I was wrong. :P

When two identical vowels are next to each other-- even if they are part of separate words-- they are almost always pronounced as one vowel/syllable. When vowels that can form a diphthong or triphthong, are next to each other-- even if they are part of separate words-- they are joined to form the diphthong or triphthong.

can you give some examples?

I'm not sure whether it is sad or ironic but after 3 years of spanish during my mandatory education (1-12) and a semester in college that was never taught nor hinted. Thanks a lot for the replies as I can now continue through the tapes without being so confused.

PS: 2 hours of audio have given me almost as much understanding than xxx hours at a public school.

Listening to native speakers is the only way to learn how to pronounce the language correctly! I hope you have access to native speakers. If so, befriend them (that's as easy as trying to speak to them in their native tongue, by the way) and try your best to mimic their pronunciation.