Learning spanish questions

[Mama Geek]

I know there are many different dialects (I don't know if that is the right word or not) of spanish.  Dd and I will be around a friend from Columbia South America a fair amount over the next several months and I intend for us both to pick up as much conversational Spanish as possible.  Dd is 3 1/2 and I recognize that it is a great time for her to pick it up.  

 

How does this work when we begin formally studying Spanish, with a college prep course of study in mind?  I wouldn't mind continuing to learn this particular dialect, but I am not sure how realistic that is.  How difficult is is to switch over to a different dialect.  I know there are some major difference between what our friend speaks and what I learned in high school and even what the majority of Mexicans speak.  

 

I guess my question is if dd gets to where she is fairly fluent in speaking spanish with a Columbian dialect what do we do after that.

[bakpak]

I personally think it's easy to pick up/use/understand different dialects, so it's good to be exposed to multiple ones. It's fun to think and laugh about and celebrate the differences. Much of the sentence structure and words will be the same, which is what you'll mostly be learning. I think Columbian Spanish is one of the easiest to understand, so it's perfect for learning. Have fun!

[Miss Tick]

Yes. As you get more fluent it is not hard to adjust to different accents or slightly different vocabulary.

 

An American can generally get by in England without much trouble (insert funny anecdote).

[Wilma]

Colombian Spanish is lovely, and generally one of the "more proper" versions. There are sayings and slang and whatnot, but the basics will serve y'all well wherever you go. Also, y'all, Colombia (and its adjective, Colombian) has an /o/ in it, unlike the city in the states.

 

And good on you for getting your little girl started early!

[mom2bee]

I took Spanish in college, my teacher was a Spaniard but we did 'textbook' Spanish. Despite the class, I learned the bulk of my Spanish in the lounge of the International Student Organization by hanging around and practicing Spanish with the myriad of Spanish speakers in the club. I never had any problem conversing with with the students whether they were Hondurans, Mexicans, Chileans, Argentinians, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Costa Ricans, Columbians and even the occasional Spaniard. My Spanish tutor was Bolivian and I could understand and be understood by him also.

 

Learn what you can with whomever you can and still study from any course you can find later on. I'm sure that you will be fine.

[Guest IQ_boy]

There's not a huge difference. However there are some expressions that differs... Words like "chévere"(great!), and "bacano"(cool) are mostly used in Colombia.. Though I would say the greatest difference is the way to conjugate the verbs.. I put this example:

 

Take the word 'trabajar'(which means to work) for example:

 

In the spanish spoken in Spain 'trabajan' means 'they work' and 'trabajais' means that you(plural) are working.

 

In the spanish spoken in latin america you simply say 'trabajan' in both cases!

 

In this sentence the latin american spanish is much more simple.. Even though there are no such thing as 'Latin american spanish' some things are common denominators like this way of conjugating the verbs for instance..