Espana

[Neophyte]

Has anyone been to Spain? I'm thinking of going to spain to study spanish, but It would be neat to hear someone's storys of going there and if it helped learning Spanish. Thanks.

[Zach]

I would like to go to Spain aswell. I believe that there they teach Spanish with a lisp of C, and everything with a C in the middle of a sentence like hacerlo is pronounced hatherlo. I don't know if it is actually spelt TH or not, though.

[Tomisimo]

Yes, in Spain they pronouce the c (when it sounds like an s) and the z almost like a th in English. In Spanish this is know as "ceceo". The spelling doesn't change, it's only the pronunciation, so:

word => pronunciation
casa => casa (house)
caza => catha (hunt)
corazón => corathón (heart)

I'm sure there's a more technical explaination, but that about sums it up.

[EnglishStudent]

Hello everyone

I´m a Spanish speaker from Mexico, and I would recommend you my country instead of Spain to learn Spanish. What you know about the pronunciation is correct, sometimes it is hard to understand even for me. Mexican Spanish is more neutral. There are good schools (Colleges) here, in Puebla and Queretaro; and I think they are cheaper than Spain.

If I can help you let me know at stdnt_english@yahoo.com

[shruti]

I went to Spain over spring break and I absolutely loved it. The architecture and scenery are amazing, and were you to go there, I'm sure you'd be able to understand people easily enough after some time.

Also, they don't do the lisp thing in all of Spain, just certain parts. I don't know which, exactly.

I was only there for ten days, so I didn't really pick up too much spanish or anything, but I hope to study abroad there in college.

[Tomisimo]

>> Also, they don't do the lisp thing in all of Spain, just certain parts. I don't know which, exactly.

Absolutely right. As far as I know, it's maily in Andalucía. But then again, they also speak Basque, Gallego & Catalán which probably wouldn't be too easy to understand. I've spoken with many Spainiards and have had no problems at all understanding them, and I'm not a native Spanish speaker.

[pogo]

i've heard the lisp thing is mainly in Catalonia or at least they use it far more than the rest of Spain.

[Neophyte]

Originally Posted by pogo

i've heard the lisp thing is mainly in Catalonia or at least they use it far more than the rest of Spain.

I'm with Tomisimo. I heard it was mainly in Andalucia, but then again, I might be wrong lol.

[atnbueno]

Actually, I'm from Andalucia and now I live in Catalonia so I know for a fact that in Catalonia almost nobody "cecea". That's typical from the south (mostly Andalucia) but also mainly in rural areas. As almost everywhere, each region has its own accent.

In Catalonia is more frequent the "seseo" (using "s" instead of "z") due to the influence of Catalan.