Accents

When I first arrived here my family told me I spoke Spanish with partially an American accent and partially with a Mexican accent. Which is very amusing to me :) Since, I have been working on my Castilian lisp. It is not on every "s" sound. Only the "c" and the "z". "Gracias" is pronounced  GRAH-thee-ahs. I have the tendency to lisp every "s" sound anyways. The Spanish are fairly arrogant about their accent as well. When I pronounce c's and z's the way I was taught in school, I am told I am speaking incorrectly. Which always suprises me a little bit. I do not consider different accents wrong. No one would ever tell someone they pronouced something wrong in English just because they used a British accent.

A favorite dinner game with the family and all aunts and uncles is called Kate says something really fast in English and everyone else guesses what it is. If no one can get it, the game turns into Kate says something really fast with a British accent and everyone else guesses what it is. Just as I have learned Spanish from the Americas they have learned European English. It is sometimes easier for them to understand me with an English accent. Fortunately, my Spanish family can't tell how bad my accent is, but in restaurants and other public places I always look around first to make sure there are no English speakers because I know I sound ridiculous. One time we tried to play Everybody say something really fast in Spanish and Kate guesses what it is, but it was not really that fun.