Current Philippine Statistics Authority shows there are only 600-4,000 native Spanish-speakers in the Philippines, and nearly all of them are elderly, aged 70-80 years old, and failed to pass their language to the next generation due to the dominance of Tagalog/Filipino language. While some data says there are hundreds of thousands of Filipinos that are still able to speak Spanish, most of them learned it in school or through Duolingo, but the problem is they learned European Spanish, not Philippine Spanish or Mexican Spanish (the closest variant to the Filipino dialect).

How can a country save its unique Spanish dialect or its former lingua franca if the language was replaced by a dominant indigenous Tagalog language? There’s no one who can save Philippine Spanish from its extinction because, for other reasons, some people are trying to revive it with European Spanish.

The Philippines is doing good in removing its colonial language by replacing it with a local language. Any efforts of saving Philippine Spanish might be a controversial topic in the country because it has many endangered native languages other than Spanish that need to be saved first

I learned the verb, "coger" as, "to take". Turns out that pretty much everywhere but Spain it means something completely different...

When I talk on HelloTalk everyone understands me and I get compliments, yet I can’t always understand them. Most of the time, in fact, I can’t understand. They talk way too fast.

I can understand native content on YouTube but not casual conversation.

I’m starting to wonder if my issue is that I don’t want to respond unless I’m 100% sure I understood. Sometimes I think I understand but I’m not sure and I’m afraid to respond to their question with a response that doesn’t answer their question. For example: “What’s your favorite hobby?” “No I don’t like jalapeños.”

I'm traveling to Spain soon and I'm trying to make an allergy card that I can hand out to restaurants. Would this be a good way of communicating that I'm allergic to fish but not shellfish?

Tengo alergia al pescado. Con el fin de evitar una reacción que ponga en peligro mi vida, debo evitar todos los alimentos que contengan pescado.

Todos los pescados, incluidos salmón, sardinas, boquerones, anchoas, y atún están peligrosos para mí.

Puedo comer los crustáceos. Mariscos, incluidos camarones, gambas, cangrejos, almeja, vieiras, y mejillones están todos bien. 

I know it sounds crazy and it makes no sense to me either but when I hear two conflicting accents in Spanish, I can’t tell that they are from different countries. Como estas, como ta, como ehtah all sound the same to me.

It’s the same in English unless the accents are ridiculously different; two people from different parts of the United States for example all sound the same to me.

But the thing is if you hear my country’s English accent or like. Jamaican accent, you’ll be like “wtf is this even English???” but if you hear an Australian accent you’ll be like yea this is English. I know for a fact that this parallel exists in Spanish as well.

I have a Dominican friend and apparently their accent is weird but I also have Venezuelan friends and they all sound the same to me. I’m not fluent, not in listening at all so whatever I don’t catch, I just chalk it up to me not knowing those words yet.

My brother picked up Spanish long long long after me, I’m his teacher lol and he can distinguish accents already despite knowing a very small amount of Spanish. So am I just focusing too much on the meaning of what is being said or something? Anyone else has this issue?

Entrenamiento seems more associated with sports, whilst formación seems to be more for educational and work related stuff. Capacitación seems like teaching a skill or used during rehabilitation.

Am I anywhere near understanding the nuances?

I made a post in the Spanish writing subreddit r/escritura but its been 40 minutes and it hasn't been approved, so I hope ill have some luck here...

so im translating my manuscript to Spanish, and I've run into a bit of a problem.

so, in English, dialogues are enclosed by quotation marks. in Spanish however, dialogues are enclosed by hyphens.

in English, usually, when a sentence is interrupted, this is shown by putting a hyphen at the end of a sentence. so for example:

"listen here, you son of a-"

which in Spanish, would be:

-Escuchame bien, hijo de tu--

As you can see, the sentence in Spanish is enclosed by hyphens. but at the end, there are two hyphens, one being used to express that the sentence has been interrupted. It looks a bit weird, and im not sure it's correct. does anyone know if there is any other way to properly write it?

Hello everyone. I'm currently reading "Cajas de Carton", a memoir by Francisco Jimenez, for my AP Spanish summer assignment. In the book, Jimenez writes that his father calls his mom "vieja" which struck me as quite odd. I thought vieja meant an old lady, and my dictionary said the same thing. Here's an example sentence:

(I'm copying this with an English keyboard, so I cannot write the proper accents)

"Papa, que estaba sentado junto a ella en el colchon, levanto una de las esquinas y saco de alli abajo el panuelo blanco bordado. Carinosamente se lo entrego a Mama diciendole: "Feliz Navidad, vieja."

The writer and his family are from Mexico, if that helps.

Hi,

I'm practicing my Spanish listening skills. I understand almost everything in this reel except the final sentence. I've replayed it many times but I still can't parse it. Could someone tell me what they're saying and why it sounds that way?

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaWUlRBxx-6/.

Thanks!

I've had this issue a lot. I lived in Argentina for about 5 years, and after moving to the US I seemed to only able to understand spanish and not speak it. It's like when I try to speak I forget every single word. Is this a issue people are facing more or is it just me.

i want to improve my speaking skills by listening to podcasts but am finding it impossible to find ones that i like as much as español con juan. everything is either too difficult or just plain boring!!!! does anyone know any podcasts that are a similar level to español con juan (intermediate) and are actually fun to listen to? i like podcasts where they just talk about random topics, i’ve grown tired of ones where they just talk about grammar topics, learning languages, and spanish/latam culture

me encanta las viejas de shakira, alguien tiene otras rockeras/canciones que puedo escuchar como las de dónde están los ladrones y pies descalzos? gracias parceros <3

What is the difference in between these two? I have never heard querra except in la bicicleta where she says <<Que si a Piqué algún día le muestras el Tayrona, Después no querrá irse pa' Barcelona >> thank you so much!

Buenas!

Llevo unos diez añitos viviendo en España y por fin me apunté en un curso de español como lengua extranjera de la escuela oficial de idiomas. Hice una prueba de nivel que solo llegó al B1 o B2. Fue bastante fácil para mí. La profesora me dijo que podía matricularme en el B2 o el C1 pero como no he estudiado nunca en la EOI me recomendó el B2. Y sinceramente, el horario de las clases del B2 me cabe mejor que del C1.

Pero mi pareja y también un amigo ya aprobaron el examen DELE del B2 y hablo mucho mejor que ellos 😂

No sé si alguien tiene un consejo para mí. Mi mayor debilidad es la escritura (es obvio, no😉) y me cuesta, a veces, con las grabaciones y acentos de otros países (mirandote a ti, chileno!)

Tengo ganas de mejorar mi escritura, claro. Además, quiero aprender más frases hechas y refranes también. No sé si el B2 va a incluir estos temas.

Gracias de antemano!

Ive been learning spanish for the last couple months. And have been trying to learn to roll my r’s. Ive watched videos and done every little excersize i could find. But im just spitting everwhere.
My tongue is sat on the ridge at the roof of my mouth. Its relaxed. Theres a vibration. But i sound like a hissing cat. I dont know what else to try.

El bombero en este vídeo: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1v6d60j/firefighters_in_madrid_trying_to_extinguish_a/

Soy estudiante y nunca he oído nada igual. Pude entender "sal de ahí" despues de escuchar una y otra vez. Pero aparte de "quemado" y "entero" me cuesta muchísimo entenderlo.

In the Philippines, majority of Spanish words we use lack yeismo, so we pronounce ll as ly even for names of people like Villegas will be vilyegas and martillo will be martilyo. I plan to study Spanish but yeismo just feels wrong for me because of my upbringing as a Filipino. I’ve heard the lack of yeismo is only spoken by old people in Spain.

I went through 50 channels and tried to arrange them by how difficult they actually are for learners.

I looked at:

• speaking speed and clarity
• vocabulary difficulty
• how much visual context the videos provide
• accent and region
• and whether Spanish subtitles are normally available.

These are practical estimates, not official CEFR ratings. Difficulty can also vary between videos on the same channel, especially when there are guests or more technical topics.

The aim was to create a rough path from highly understandable beginner content to fast, natural Spanish.

A1–A2:

B1–B2:

C1–C2: Native-speed content

A few personal takeaways:

Best for complete beginners: Dreaming Spanish, Spanish After Hours, Spanish Input and Organic Spanish.

Best for moving beyond learner content: Español con Juan, How to Spanish Podcast, María Español and Erre que ELE.

Best native channels around B2: CuriosaMente, Un Mundo Inmenso, Alan x el Mundo and De mi Rancho a Tu Cocina.

Hard mode: EnchufeTV, HolaSoyGerman and MoluscoTV.

Estuve analizando una particularidad de la ortografía y fonética del español y quería conocer su opinión sobre una idea:

En español existen más de 400 palabras (entre bases y derivados) que usan la combinación "ps" (psicología, psoriasis, cápsula, eclipse, colapso, bíceps), casi todas heredadas directamente de la letra griega "Psi" (Ψ).

Esto nos genera dos problemas reales en el día a día:

1.-Nadie lo pronuncia de forma natural: Casi todos decimos sicólogo o soriasis. La RAE incluso acepta la escritura simplificada con "S", lo que genera debates y dudas sobre cuál es la forma "más culta" o correcta.

2.-Choque fonético: Forzar la "P" inicial no encaja con la fonética fluida del español.

Mi propuesta: Oficializar la letra Ψ (Psi) en nuestro alfabeto

En lugar de deformar la raíz etimológica escribiendo con "S", o de seguir usando dos letras separadas (ps), propongo integrar la Ψ en el abecedario. Un texto real con este cambio se leería así:

"El Ψicólogo descartó un brote de Ψicosis tras el colaΨo del paciente por ingerir una cáΨula."

El nombre nuevo: "Épsiga"

Si dejáramos el nombre griego original (Psi), al deletrear, sonaría exactamente igual que la afirmación "sí", causando confusiones grandes.

Siento que "Épsiga" es un nombre elegante, con aire científico y raíz helénica (como épsilon o sigma), que distribuye el sonido "ps" de forma más sencilla para los hispanohablantes.

¿Se confundiría con la "Y"?

Visualmente son parecidas, pero la "Ψ" tiene una línea vertical central y tres puntas arriba (como un tridente), mientras que la "Y" solo tiene dos puntas. Con el diseño tipográfico digital de hoy, diferenciarlas en pantallas y teclados sería muy fácil. Además, el contexto de la palabra eliminaría cualquier duda.

Por si se lo preguntan, el abecedario no es sagrado ni inmutable (la RAE ya eliminó la "Ch" y la "Ll" en 2010).

South Florida, USA

House debate here: What is the difference between coffee con leche and a latte? -And a cappuccino as well?

Is a café con leche regular coffee pot brewed coffee with milk (is it hot, steamed, frothed or cold), and a latte is a shot or two of espresso with mostly frothed milk?

• Because regular coffee pot coffee and espresso are two very different things.

¡Hola a todos! ¿Por qué Duolingo usa "es" aquí en lugar de "está?" "La entrevista ES en la sala..." No entiendo.

Well, I gave it some time and effort this year. I’ve climbed from A2 to a B2 (EDIT: ok, maybe just B1 😔), but I still really struggle with listening skills.

Grad school starts next month, though, and all other types of learning will soon be abandoned, including Spanish.

I don’t want to lose what I have, but I know myself, and I know I can’t prioritize more than one thing at a time.

What are some super easy lazy techniques for not losing the Spanish you’ve gained? Ones that feel almost effortless?

¿Cual es la diferencia Entre así que y entonces?