But I’m giving myself a pass. It used to bother me that I wasn’t getting as good as I want to be but I’ve decided not to be so hard on myself. I decided this because Spanish accents and manners of speaking are very different throughout Spain and Spanish people don’t even understand each other!
I have several examples of this. First one is Irene and Maria. Irene is from Madrid and pronounces everything but speaks very quickly. Maria is from a town outside Cordoba and has an Andalusian accent meaning that she does not pronounce anything. People with Andalusian accents swallow the ends of words and pretty much drop the letter “s” out of words. Example: a common saying in Spanish is “mas o menos” meaning “more or less”. Andalusians say “ma o meno”. Sometimes Irene doesn’t understand Maria.
My art professor is from Cordoba and has a very think Andalusian accent. She makes sure to speak slowly for us in class. One day she told us that she has a lot of trouble understanding Eva, one of the women who work in our program’s office. Eva is from Madrid and speaks rapidly. Apparently, this is not only difficult for the Americans but the Andalusians as well.
Cecilia is our Saturday housekeeper. She is from Latin American and she is also difficult to understand. Angela, who as far as I know is from Andalusia, brings our food on Saturdays. Angela is really difficult to understand. Not only does she have an Andalusian accent but she speaks very rapidly. I never know what she is says. Cecilia and Irene have trouble understanding her.
So basically no one understands each other.
Once I came to this realization, I decided to stop being hard on myself. How can expect myself to understand everyone when native speakers have trouble understanding each other?
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