I was in Spain (Casa Del Sol, Madrid, and Barcelona) in the early 80s and I must say those in Barcelona were the easiest to understand of all Spanish speakers I've encountered except they were not Castilian but Catalonian I think. However, I thought that Castilian was the official language of Spain? I must admit my ignorance on this as it has been too many years. Chileans were by far the most difficult to understand (even though Puerto Ricans speak the fastest). When I was attending the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, CA (years ago) I had instructors from Argentina, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile, Spain, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. It was very confusing at times because they all insisted they spoke 'correct Spanish!' However, when I graduated, most admitted that they each at times had difficulty understanding each other :o) The most difficult part was actually learning military, medical, and technological terms. Most of my instructors did not even know the words because they were not in common use. And they say English is difficult! :o)


>You won't believe it but it depends the country. There's "one and only" Spanish language used properly only in Castilla-Leon and Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.
>The rest of Spain speaks several dialects and official languages (catalan, vasco, gallego)
>Therefore… you can imagine what could happen in Latin America.
>
>>Hi Fabian,
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>>When in Latin America, I noticed that street signs, newspaper headlines, etc are always in the infinitive: tener, correr, instead of tengo, etc. Is that standard?
>>