How different is Spain Spanish from, say, Mexican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Colombian Spanish, etc.? Is Catalan/Castilian that different from the Spanish we hear in the States?

Answer 1

Hi, Spain Spanish is very different from the rest of latin American Spanish, Latin countries can understand it of course but you can tell. It's as different as American english is to England. I'm from Puerto rico and the Spanish there is also pretty different than Mexican Spanish in speed and different use of words. Columbians seem to have a more similar dialect to Puerto rico compared to Mexico in my experience.

Some examples of differences between Mexico and Puerto Rico can be like chango for PR is a kind of bird but for Mexico it's a monkey.

Every country has a very different way of saying things because of their native roots and influence from Spain and the U.S. on the language.

The Spanish that you hear in the states is also a bit different compared to the other countries because of the mixture of generations of latinos that have been living there plus it sometimes gets mixed up in spanglish. It all depends on who your'e talking to, first gen, second gen, etc...

Even though it's all Spanish and we all mostly learn each other's Spanish dialects to a point in school, we still have to ask what some words mean if talking to another Spanish speaking country.