ISPEAK COLOMBIA TV

There were others I was already more familiar with – bacán / bacano/a is the same in Brazilian Portuguese (also, “cool” but in a different context), “joder” the verb means to “tease” or “take the piss” like in Peninsular Spanish (but is not used as an exclamation like in Spain for “fuck!”)Īnd especially in Medellín, “pues” would appear at the end of so many sentences when talking informally. and you can find a great list of them on the Wikipedia entry on Colombian Spanish. These are preferred over amigo/fiesta etc. Then “friend” is parce or parcero/a, “party” is rumba (or “to party” is rumbear), “cool” (awesome) is chévere etc. It's kind of an “At your service!” way of getting your attention to lure you into shops, but also a way to conclude business and a kind of “thank you!” that I'd hear after paying taxi men for example. Next, the term “¡A la orden!” is something you'll hear a lot when near shops and the like. For example “¿Qué más?” is how they say “How are you?” – it's confusing when you consider the usual translation of “What else?”Īnd they say “¡Qué pena!” for Sorry! (in most dialects it means “What a pity!”) Hearing these two terms that I was already used to for completely different meanings took some time to get used to!

Because of this I actually found it way more fun talking to them! ¿Qué más parce?Īs expected in any dialect, you'll find words they prefer to use over the standard. “Paisas” (residents of Antioquia, with Medellín as its capital) are easy enough to understand, but colour up their speech quite a lot. I didn't have problems understanding accents of pretty much everyone else though. This means you can expect huge variations within the country! (Pronunciation rather than actual vocabulary was the problem). But leave the capital and formal conversations, and things start to get messy pretty quickly!įor example, I had a friend whose accent I had such trouble understanding that I had to ask him to repeat what he had just said.

ISPEAK COLOMBIA TV

I would still say that the “standard” Colombian dialect seen on TV and spoken by those in the capital, Bogotá, is the easiest to understand and I can confidently say that it's the clearest Spanish I've ever heard. But living in the country itself has changed my mentality about all Spanish in Colombia being so easy to understand. This dialect is generally well known for being probably the clearest Spanish in the world and telenovelas, hearing Shakira, and meeting several Colombians I had met in my travels confirmed this. When most people say “Colombian Spanish” they actually mean the standard dialect usually spoken in Bogotá (ignoring the rest of the country). Like in any language, you can't simplify it to just “Colombian” Spanish, as there are many dialects within the country. I thought nothing could really surprise me any more in the language I have the most experience in, until I came to Colombia! I've also had many friends from various South American countries, so I've picked up many aspects of those dialects over the years. My Spanish has also been highly influenced by two months in the Canary Islands (I'd describe their Spanish as halfway between Peninsular and Latin American it's quite Spain-like, but they pronounce c/z as “s” & use ustedes rather than vosotros for example), and two months in Argentina. My Spanish was already quite good before arrival, (I have a C2 diploma from the Instituto Cervantes, and was even interviewed live on the radio in Spanish several years ago) but of course the dialect I was most familiar with was Peninsular Spanish (mainland Spain). I talked about a few ways I was speaking many languages as part of my mission here, but of course the one I was using the most was Spanish, since the vast majority of my socialising has been with Colombians. I spent a quick weekend in Bogotá, almost two months in Medellín, and my last days were spent in Cali. A few years ago I had an amazing trip to Colombia.

Ispeak colombia