Introduction

They say Spanish is one of the easiest foreign languages for native English speakers to learn. Many words look similar to English because of shared Latin roots. And, the spelling is fairly consistent unlike English or French. Why again do the "oo" in "food" and "good" sound different? Or, why in French do the "o" in "mot", "ô" in "hôtel", "au" in "aux", "eau" in "pea", "eaux" in "beaux", all sound the same? 

I remember when I was in elementary school our homeroom teacher looked down upon our youthful and innocent faces and proudly shared with us a nugget of wisdom from her vast well of knowledge, "If you don't want to learn a foreign language pick Spanish. It's the easiest language to learn. It's just like English, but you just throw in some extra vowels." 

Still, for many of us our Spanish comes out with a heavy gringo accent. You know what I'm talking about if you've tried to place a simple order in Spanish at a taquería and all you get is a blank stare back at you. Been there. Or, you just about choke on your tongue when you try to say refrigerador.

I had several Spanish teachers before getting a great one that really paid close attention to our pronunciation and explained that there are many letters besides "r" and "extra vowels" which have a distinct Spanish way of pronouncing them. 

In this blog, we'll take a closer look at some of these Spanish letters and sounds that many native English speakers take for granted as sounding like their own. Here is where I believe you can really improve your Spanish accent and begin to sound less like a gringo.  

Keep in mind that the geographical reach of among Spanish speakers is quite broad, so there is definitely some regional variations in pronunciation. However, I'll try to focus on Standard Spanish with a look at some of the more prominent regional accents when the need arises.   

Ok, that's it for an introduction. We'll get started with consonants on our next post. See you then!