language

[Lauren Komarow]

I'm going to delurk here for a moment.  What is or is not a language is also political.  For example, Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible.  Speakers of one, do not easily understand the other.  However, they share the same writing system and the Chinese government says it is all the same language.  Croatian, Bosnian, and Slovenian are all understandable to each other.  However, one uses the roman alphabet and another uses cyrillic.  And due to politics, suggesting they are all the same language is not a good idea.  Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are also similar.  Danes, in the smallest country, can usually understand both Swedish and Norwegian, but it doesn't always work the other way.

In short, the "standard" Spanish taught in any class you take in the United States should serve you well in either Spain or Latin/South America.  If you stay in one place for a long time, you will pick up their slang, just as an American who moved to Australia would find some different words slipping into their everyday conversation.

Lauren Komarow




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