No, I don't Cacho
Before coming to Chile, no one adequately warned me about the language difference. I obviously knew that they spoke Spanish, and knew that they would have some of their own Chilean slang. What I didn't realize, however, is that Chilean Spanish is crazy.
Chile is a very isolated country; they've got a desert in the north, Patagonia and glaciers to the south, mountains to the east, and the ocean to the west. This isolation has caused a lot of different environmental and cultural phenomena, notably, creating an interesting Spanish dialect. A Chilean accent is to Spanish how an Irish accent is to English. Really fun to try to understand for a non-native speaker!
One of the biggest differences in how Chileans speak is their accent. Now Cony, my host sister, told me that Chileans have a pretty neutral accent and will lose it if they travel out of their country for a week or two, but for me, the accent is very pronounced and strange. I'm used to hearing a Spanish accent, which is spoken with more of a lisp, or a Mexican accent, which seems pretty neutral to me (probably because a lot of the Spanish we hear in the United States originates from Mexico). While I can understand Spanish when spoken by Spaniards or Mexicans, I have spent a little over half of my time being confused as to what the Chileans are saying.
Chileans speak very quickly, and as a result, they drop a lot of final syllables. Words that used to end with -d or -s no longer contain those sounds. Also they change endings in other ways, such as changing "estás" (Like in "cómo estás" or "how are you") to "estai". I often just stare at people in confusion until they pronounce the complete words. This very obviously doesn't always work.
Chileans also use a lot of slang. I don't think I've had a full conversation with anyone other than my professors without Chilean-specific slang being used. They call them "Chilenismos" and they are everywhere. There are words like "Cachai" which they add at the end of most sentences which means "Do you understand?". "Bakan" means "Cool", and "Po" is added on to words to emphasize them. "Si po" or "No po" are just ways of emphasizing yes and no, and Chileans rarely say "Si" or "No" on their own. Police are not known as the "Policía", rather they are the "Carabineros". These are just the tip of the iceberg, and no worries, I won't get into all of the many bad words that are specific to Chile.
I've been told many times by the Chileans that once you learn Chilean Spanish, you can understand Spanish from anywhere else in the world, and I'm inclined to believe them. However, I wish I would have known just how different it was going to be before I came here. I highly recommend that anyone travelling to Chile (or any foreign country, really!) look up some common slang words and watch some YouTube videos of native speakers in order to be better prepared.
Before embarking on my Chilean journey, I thought that I was pretty fluent in Spanish. One time I even had to come up with an argument topic to debate with my Spanish Professor who was from Columbia, and while some kids chose "Which is better, a dog or a cat?" I chose "Should the United States let Syrian refugees in?" So yeah, I thought my Spanish speaking skills were going to be pretty competent. I was very wrong. But I'm learning, and hopefully I'll come back to the USA with the craziest Chilean accent and will be able to confuse all of my Spanish-speaking friends.
Chile is a very isolated country; they've got a desert in the north, Patagonia and glaciers to the south, mountains to the east, and the ocean to the west. This isolation has caused a lot of different environmental and cultural phenomena, notably, creating an interesting Spanish dialect. A Chilean accent is to Spanish how an Irish accent is to English. Really fun to try to understand for a non-native speaker!
One of the biggest differences in how Chileans speak is their accent. Now Cony, my host sister, told me that Chileans have a pretty neutral accent and will lose it if they travel out of their country for a week or two, but for me, the accent is very pronounced and strange. I'm used to hearing a Spanish accent, which is spoken with more of a lisp, or a Mexican accent, which seems pretty neutral to me (probably because a lot of the Spanish we hear in the United States originates from Mexico). While I can understand Spanish when spoken by Spaniards or Mexicans, I have spent a little over half of my time being confused as to what the Chileans are saying.
Chileans speak very quickly, and as a result, they drop a lot of final syllables. Words that used to end with -d or -s no longer contain those sounds. Also they change endings in other ways, such as changing "estás" (Like in "cómo estás" or "how are you") to "estai". I often just stare at people in confusion until they pronounce the complete words. This very obviously doesn't always work.
Chileans also use a lot of slang. I don't think I've had a full conversation with anyone other than my professors without Chilean-specific slang being used. They call them "Chilenismos" and they are everywhere. There are words like "Cachai" which they add at the end of most sentences which means "Do you understand?". "Bakan" means "Cool", and "Po" is added on to words to emphasize them. "Si po" or "No po" are just ways of emphasizing yes and no, and Chileans rarely say "Si" or "No" on their own. Police are not known as the "Policía", rather they are the "Carabineros". These are just the tip of the iceberg, and no worries, I won't get into all of the many bad words that are specific to Chile.
I've been told many times by the Chileans that once you learn Chilean Spanish, you can understand Spanish from anywhere else in the world, and I'm inclined to believe them. However, I wish I would have known just how different it was going to be before I came here. I highly recommend that anyone travelling to Chile (or any foreign country, really!) look up some common slang words and watch some YouTube videos of native speakers in order to be better prepared.
Before embarking on my Chilean journey, I thought that I was pretty fluent in Spanish. One time I even had to come up with an argument topic to debate with my Spanish Professor who was from Columbia, and while some kids chose "Which is better, a dog or a cat?" I chose "Should the United States let Syrian refugees in?" So yeah, I thought my Spanish speaking skills were going to be pretty competent. I was very wrong. But I'm learning, and hopefully I'll come back to the USA with the craziest Chilean accent and will be able to confuse all of my Spanish-speaking friends.
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