The Words Which Can’t Be Learned (Part II)

Bolivia

I have lived here for more than 3 years but I still avoid saying the name of the place. The big problem here, I think, is the presence of “b”, “v” and “i” close together. “I” sounds more like the English letter “e” but when two of them are close together it can be more difficult to get them out right. In my Spanish classes I learned that “b” and “v” really sound pretty much the same in this language but I still can’t help saying them the way I would in English. They both should sound like the English “b” and I think that I confuse people by giving the “v” its English equivalent sound at times.

Guerrero

A lot of gringos can’t roll their r’s at all and the English and French seem to have this particularly tough from what I have heard. However, if we go back to my Scots accent, I actually have the opposite problem. A good Scot will turn any English “r” in English into “rrrr”. In Spanish there are so many opportunities for rolling r’s and once I get started I can’t seem to apply the brakes to my tongue. This is only really a problem when the word has an “rr” followed by a single “r”. The first part will be rapped out reasonably well but then the second part of the word will contain an “rr” instead of an “r”.