Language tips - Bolivia Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
Bolivian Spanish is probably the easiest Spanish to learn, only because they speak very slow. They don't roll their r's, which is like awesome for people who can't roll their r's, and it kind of goes back and forth depending on the region. Some say but some say like Zubin, if your name is Rubin. It just depends on some of the people I met, lots of people who said Zubin instead of Rubin. So anyway, it makes it easier for Americans to speak the language and to be understood and to understand people, because they do speak very slowly. Some areas they speak kind of like it's a song, and it's kind of sweet and melodious, and it's pretty simple.
Video 2 Transcript
Bolivia as a country, well it speaks Spanish and it also speaks a good amount of Quechua, but that is only found in the outside cities. So usually you're fine if you just memorize, if you learn Spanish and you memorize a couple phrases in Quechua, that really helps. The Spanish of Bolivia is fairly easier than other accents, I'd say. It's a little bit slower. The only differences that I mostly saw were with the double R instead of being a hard something like that. It's more like a measure, that sound. So if you can get that, then you're probably fine learning that, learning the language. Just study your book and always listen to what they are saying and kind of look for different grammatical things that you're studying in your book as you listen and talk.
Video 3 Transcript
I would just recommend that you be patient with yourself. I had taken a lot of Spanish classes in school and in college, but even still, when I got to Bolivia, even though I felt like I could express myself, I couldn't understand what they were saying, and that was crazy to me. And it really took a good three months before the cloud really lifted. The language will come, it will. There's different dialects in different places, so you'll just have to get used to the changes.
Video 4 Transcript
So Bolivians speak Spanish a little bit slower than, say, someone that's from Peru, so that makes it a lot easier to understand and to learn. One of the main differences that I remember is how they pronounce their R's. So, like, if the double R is pronounced, you go rrrr, right? You trill your R's. So practice that, but don't be too concerned with it if you're still practicing and you're not all the way there, because when they do that rrrr, that double R sound, it's more like a jj. So, for example, if you say perro, they say pejo. Or if you say arriba, they say ajiba.
