Dominican Spanish: Learning Tools?

Spanish as spoken in La Republica Dominicana differs considerably from Spanish spoken in other Hispanic countries, even by upper class, well educated Dominicans. I intend this not as criticism, but simply as a statement of fact. Does anyknow know of books, textbooks, casette tapes, CDs, etc. that are available & designed to teach English speakers how to speak & understand current DOMINICAN Spanish. Thank you for any useful information.

By Spanish, i guess you mean Castellano ? In Spain they have 4 different languages.

the question was Dominican Spanish

a benío ai lugai ekibocao!

In reality, if you wish to learn Dominican Spanish, I suggest that you learn Spanish..period. Don't worry about the local variations. The intellectual elite have several language domains, among which there are certainly areas that you would probably take years to understand. However, in formal, public speech, I do feel that "most" of the upper echelon of Dominican Society are well spoken and would be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken.

I am reminded of a story my father told me years ago: A young man had a friend from the DR, Francisco was his name. He wanted to visit Francisco in Santo Domingo, so he went to Berlitz and learned Spanish quite well. He got his ticket and went to Santo Domingo. He got a taxi and found Francisco's house, rang the bell. When the door opened he asked in his pedigree Spanish: ¿Esta señor Francisco aquí? He was answered the following: ¿Paco? No 'ta! Paco e'ta cotao! (Paco? No esta. Paco esta acostado). The poor guy figured he had lost the money he had spent at Berlitz and went home! giggle

Good Luck!
HB.

a benío ai lugai ekibocao!

In reality, if you wish to learn Dominican Spanish, I suggest that you learn Spanish..period. Don't worry about the local variations. The intellectual elite have several language domains, among which there are certainly areas that you would probably take years to understand. However, in formal, public speech, I do feel that "most" of the upper echelon of Dominican Society are well spoken and would be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken.

I am reminded of a story my father told me years ago: A young man had a friend from the DR, Francisco was his name. He wanted to visit Francisco in Santo Domingo, so he went to Berlitz and learned Spanish quite well. He got his ticket and went to Santo Domingo. He got a taxi and found Francisco's house, rang the bell. When the door opened he asked in his pedigree Spanish: ¿Esta señor Francisco aquí? He was answered the following: ¿Paco? No 'ta! Paco e'ta cotao! (Paco? No esta. Paco esta acostado). The poor guy figured he had lost the money he had spent at Berlitz and went home! giggle

Good Luck!
HB.

Hillbilly wrote: "In reality, if you wish to learn Dominican Spanish, I suggest that you learn Spanish..period. Don't worry about the local variations. The intellectual elite have several language domains, among which there are certainly areas that you would probably take years to understand. However, in formal, public speech, I do feel that "most" of the upper echelon of Dominican Society are well spoken and would be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken."

U'te como que dio en el punto clave compai'.
Thank you!!!

Abur
Natasha

i love it. i learned spanish in cuba, where i think they eat even more of their words than the dominicans. i now speak with a thick cuban accent and work in chicago (aqui en lo' 'tao unio)with mostly mexicans. they are constantly asking me to slow down and repeat what i said, even they have trouble undrestanding me at times.

When I went home after two years of Peace Corps service here, my Dad, from Guatemala and VERY conservative in his speech, picked me up at Kennedy.
I wanted to show off my language skills-then rated 5-5 on the FS scale (But much better now, LOL!). So, I started chatting away in "Dominican Spanish".
Fighting the traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway, he was already ****ed off, but he turned to me, and said with the greatest of distain: "Stop talking like a damned Cuban!"
Today Ican laugh at that....
Once I was assisting an ODEPA meeting (Pan Am Games Committee) in Barbados and doing a lot of simultaneous translations back and forth from English to Spanish and visa versa. After a particularly long session, the radio people from "Rrradio Habana, Cuba" approached me to ask if I wanted to go and work as a sports announcer in Cuba! It seems that they liked the way I talked!! My Dad would have been proud!! LOL!!

HB

Thanks for all the suggestions & humor. After living in the RD for 4 years & trying to learn Spanish or Dominican, I can appreciate these jokes. Cuba? Better, worse, or just different.
Thank you all, again.

hey hilbilly- i'm a little jealous, i've been trying to figure out how i could work in cuba for years.....
that's why i've been visiting this site, i think i'll have to settle on the d.r.
as far as cuban spanish is concerned, i don't know if it's better or worse than the dominican's ( or what exactly that's s'posed to mean). my contact w/ people of d.r. is fairly limited, but from what i've heard, they speak a little clearer than the cubans do. in cuba, the language is riddled with a lot of slang derived from african words, as many people still speak that language, because the tribes from africa that were brought over as slaves were not split up like they were in most other countries- so they were able to maintain a lot of that culture. is it the same in la republica dominicana? i'm curious.
when i first moved to cuba, i used to have to have my friends translate for me. not spanish to english, mind you, but spanish to spanish. if you talk to people from the countryside, or especialy people from the eastern provinces it sounds like they have a wad of tissue in their mouth.
i'd love to hear more stories about dominican spanish. any good slang?