The Canarian Accent
Any foreigner who has lived in the UK, Norway, Denmark or Sweden long enough, will tell you how aware they became, quite early on, of the vast amount of different accents that still exist in each one of these countries. For example, while in the British Isles you could come across the Geordie, Mancunian, Irish, Scottish, Brummie, London East Enders. In Norway just like Sweden, the further north you venture, the more the language changes. Some of my students from Oslo, Fredrikshavn, Gothembourg or Stockholm have admitted their difficulties in understanding their own countrymen in those particular areas. Danish sounds more like German in the south, while in the north their accent is closer to Swedish, and have no problems understanding the Swedes on the other side of the border. Therefore, what they feel they have to do to come to terms with all these different ways of speaking the same language is to improve their skills very quickly. This helps to relax into a conversation with the locals and to bring out your own personality in amore natural manner.
Similarly, the canarian accent sounds very different to the way mainland Spaniards speak and we have different words widely used across the seven islands. To fully integrate in Gran Canaria you have to get to know how the locals express themselves. Do like our Facebook Page to get our ‘Canarian Words Of The Day’ and much more, helping you to improve your Spanish on a daily basis.
While ‘¿qué?’, ‘¡no entiendo!’, ‘habla más despacio por favor’ or ‘solo hablo un poco’ might aid you at first, to let locals know how much you can cope with, it is however, important to remember, that learning a language does not involve memorising a set of phrases, or reminding yourself about the grammatical rules you learned about the other day every time you come across a local you need to speak to. On the other hand, what it does involve is practice on a daily basis, without fear of making mistakes or feeling in anyway awkward, in order that you get to understand the canarian accent better everyday. It doesn’t matter where you come from, language can be quite fluid and change from environment to environment and from person to person. Since almost all the conversations with the locals take place out and about, learning some of the real colloquial phrases that you probably won’t find in any textbook is a fun way to break and some might say, it’s a must. Therefore, learn a little everyday and be yourself while you try to speak the lingo, don’t be afraid to make mistakes but do try not to offend too many people!
Watch the video to see how we teach you Spanish:
If you want to find out more about the history of Gran Canaria or any of its villages do message us through our contact form or through our facebook page . Alternatively, you may join our facebook group The Canary Guide PRLC, where you can find out more about our next Guided Tour of the island.
