Wed 21 Feb 2007
[Update: Oops! Boy did I get this wrong. See the comment for this post.]
I tried out a podcast today that I’d never listened to before called Coffee Break Spanish. It seems like a good idea — quick Spanish lessons to help your learn (or brush up on) basic Spanish. I was surprised to when the hosts of the show started speaking with thick Irish accents. Even when speaking in Spanish, their voices were distinctly tinged with Irish. Like the rest of the world I find Irish accents incredibly charming, but I just couldn’t get past the Irish-Spanish mix. I guess I’ll have to go back to learning Spanish by watching Telenovelas on Univision.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Hi there to the Watson family. I’m Mark from Coffee Break Spanish and there are a couple of things I think I should point out. First of all, we’re Scottish, not Irish! Not that I’ve got anything against our Irish neighbours, but I’m equally proud of my Scottish heritage! We do indeed speak in Scottish accents when we speak English (as is normal for Scots, I guess), but, as the teacher, I certainly don’t have a Scottish (or Irish!) accent when I speak Spanish. I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain, and if you have a look at the comments on our blog and website, and reviews on iTunes you’ll see that quite a number of people have commented on my excellent Spanish accent.
I’m not trying to make a big deal of this, but you’ll understand that if people are claiming that learning Spanish from a Scot is pointless because the Scot doesn’t speak Spanish with a proper Spanish accent then this is quite likely to affect our podcast and therefore our business. My Spanish accent is peninsular Spanish, having spent time in Salamanca, Madrid and the Balearics. It is not, perhaps, the Latin American Spanish accent you may be more used to.
I’d encourage you to listen to more of the podcast, and in particular to listen to the early shows where we give lots more information about the podcast and why I’m the teacher and Kara is the learner. As a learner, obviously Kara will be trying her best to develop her accent and she has, in fact, made excellent progress in the past few months. Compare her Spanish accent in lesson 1 to her accent in lesson 17 for example!
I wish you well with your continued study of Spanish.