trixie

How do you find it being the natural language of Panama? For me it is interesting to learn such other language as it enhances your knowledge. Philippines had been a spanish country too and there are still some who knows about how to speak the language until now.

Lalaguayaba

Spanish in the Phillipines vs. Spanish in the New World strikes me like Portugese does in Macau compared with the Portugese spoken in Brazil or Portugal--close but no cigar. You are probably more comfortable speaking Tagalog, and English, obviously, but the accent, slang and general use of Spanish is far removed from that spoken in South and Central America. I mean, its already pretty different from the Spanish spoken in Spain, rather like the way English is spoken in the U.K vs. the U.S.A vs. Australia/New Zealand.

¿Claró?

craigguy

I wonder if all these different variations will disappear over time, because now the world is connected through telecommunications, namely TV and the internet. Eventually, I think there will be one global language with barely any variation in accent between different places.

pan

Considering how many languages originate from Latin, which was one language, it makes sense that languages change quickly. I too believe that in a few centuries there will be only one language left. Maybe that language will be Esperanto.

melmel

Yes that's true. Many languages do originate from Latin. Even English is about 60% Latin, I think. And, English is considered a "Greek" language.

cognitive

Actually , English is a Germanic language along with German , of course , Norwegian , Danish, Swedish and Icelanding.You probably wanted to say that sixty percent of the English vocabulary has its roots in Latin,however it remains primarly a Germanic language .
Spanish is a Latin one ,also are Italian , Romanian, French , Portuguese .

kyle

one thing that makes spanish interesting is the "slang" of each of the Latin countries. if you can master the slang of about 3-4 latin countries, you're good. i have not been to panama yet but i can tell you that the DR, CR, and PR all have their slang.....

zog

Well, I watched the horrible Eurovision song contest tonight. Many of the non-english speaking countries sang in english. The results were presented predominantly in english. If there is going to be a world language the chances are it will be english.

But to be born an english speaker is a bit of a curse. I do believe it has inhibited my desire to speak another language. i hope to rectify that when i make the move to panama :-)

zog

The hardest part of spanish in panama is how quickly they speak. They speak like machine guns. It can be very hard to follow. At least I find it so. I will be many months in classes I think and many months out and about before I can have a conversation in spanish.

soltero

I think that's a city vs. rural thing, mostly. I found the same in Mexico, Colombia, and Uruguay. People in urban areas just seem to be in more of a rush about everything; in the interior, it's more laid-back, even the speech patterns.

Latortura

I am lucky to be bi lingual and so learning Spanish won't be a problem for me. My parents are seriously thinking of Moving to Panama to retire and we are thinking of going with them. I am learning to sing in Spanish which is a great way to learn a new language. I highly recommend it. Make learning a new language fun for yourselves, not an arduous chore, that's just my two cents lol.

dsc

One interesting thing I read recently about Spanish in Panama is that the 'ch' sounds are pronounced more like 'sh'.

For example, "ocho de la noche" sounds more like "osho de la noshe"

Any other little Panamanian differences you're aware of?

soltero

http://panamafaq.com/faqs/000625.html

and

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transw...manian_Spanish

crisella74

Ok, I can't say I am at a level where I can realize the differences in accent or dialects yet but I can tell you one thing about how I find the Spanish language... sexy! I mean seriously, that accent of the Spanish language it's just the sexiest thing I ever heard. Well, for me at least lol

ford007

Oh my god!! I am finding Spanish extremely difficult. Earlier I have tried to learn Afrikaans and Russian with varying amounts of success.... but Spanish.... It is just too difficult to learn... I think Americans will find it easier compared to myself.

__________________
Queensland Bulls

JustWow

I don't the Panamanian Spanish is too far off from the other major Spanish speaking countries. But I'm sure there's some significant differences in the accent. Argentinians for instance say certain words like "pollo" which regularly sounds like "poh yo" more like "posho" similar to what someone previously mentioned. Well at least the ones I met, not sure if it was just a small group or what. But for the most part, speaking core Spanish will at least help you understand and be understood even if you don't get the accent 100% right all of the time.