Reading between the lines

I knew that coming to Seville, the Andalusian accent would be tricky. My FS 201 class for the Spanish major focused on the Spanish language, its origins, different dialects and languages and how it spread over time. I remember specifically learning about this accent and thinking to myself "this is the weirdest thing." I already had trouble for the first week understanding my professor who spoke Castellano which in case you're wondering is Spanish...how would I survive understanding the Andalusian accent for 4 months!?!?!? They drop consonantes out of the middle and end of words and slur words together. I assumed that the Spanish in Spain would be similar to the Spanish that I learned at Allegheny ,but boy was I wrong.

Spain uses a form known as the vosotros form which is the second person plural. In America, we learn about its existence and how to conjugate it ,but after that it is forgotten. Hearing and using that verb tense was such a struggle. Also, there are words that they use here that are inappropriate words in South American Spanish. Getting accustomed to the accent was rough because they drop "d's" out of words so for example the word mojado means wet...in Andalusia they say mojao. Now I am accustomed to the accent so when I went to Madrid I had a hard time understanding Castellano.

Like many people, I read up on the Spanish culture ,but I did not overly read up on it. I knew I had the language skills to excel here and I knew that I understood the culture. I expected the late eating and the vosotros form. I expected the accent to be hard to understand, but with time everything gets easier! I get told all the time that I speak Spanish very well...many Spaniards cannot be that an American can speak Spanish and hold a conversation.