Being fluent in Spanish has its benefits, some of them more obvious than others. From the fact that the language is being spoken by more and more people every day in the United States (and other countries) to making travelling easier in South America, Spanish becomes a door opener in a variety of ways. However, for anyone who’s been to Mexico, it’s hard to deny that it’s not easy to understand your day-to-day conversations if you’ve learned Spanish elsewhere… say, Spain, for instance, or Argentina. The dialect spoken in Mexico uses a vocabulary that could give a Spanish speaker from a different country the feeling of being lost in translation, even within a Spanish language context. A few discrepancies between Argentine and Mexican Spanish:
• Pileta / Piscina (swimming pool)
• Porotos / Frijoles (beans)
• Viejos / Padres (parents)
• Palta / Aguacate (avocado)
• Torta / Pastel (cake)
• Fósforo / Cerillo (match)
• Heladera / Nevera (fridge)
The Mexican variety will also come as a shock to speakers of peninsular Spanish, with differences such as the following:
• Boleto / Billete (ticket)
• Carro / Coche (car)
• Chamba / Trabajo (work)
• Departamento / Piso (apartment)
• Jugo / Zumo (juice)
• Ustedes / Vosotros (2nd person plural “you”)
As can be seen from these examples, Spanish isn’t just Spanish. The place you learn to speak this language has quite a bit to do with the words you’ll use. This shouldn’t be a confidence deterrent, however – just a push to keep on learning!
