For those that are interested in the Spanish language I thought I would post a quick entry on my experience of Argentinian Spanish. As I mentioned before it is really important to have Spanish in this part of the world if you want to have an easier time of things and to understand what is going on here. I have to say it is a very worthwhile investment and while it is always possible to travel with English in the larger tourist haunts it is much nicer to be able to breach the language barrier and not have to rely on sign language off the beaten track.
I'm not a total mug when it comes to languages having had strong French in school and having studied German in university. Sadly evidence of such is lacking these days but the process of learning a language remains the same; it hurts your head, it requires effort and it is exhausting mentally when you are exposed to it for large chunks of time. Naturally, immersion is the way to go if you want to develop fluency but you really have to put yourself out there to do this.
In terms of Argentinian Spanish I really struggled. While there are some slight variations in the grammar in Argentina the real hardship is the pronunciation. They use a great deal of lip and they use a lot of tongue between and behind their teeth. This puts a lot of the phonetics in the front of the mouth whereas a lot of English comes from the back of the mouth or the throat. Thus, replicating the sounds was very difficult as they are not common with English, German or French. The further north one goes in South America the closer one gets to Spanish that is spoken in Spain and this is proving to be the case in Bolivia where the sounds seem more common with the ones I use naturally. It would often happen that I would say something in Argentina and they just could not grasp it at all. This again comes down to phonetics. Likewise they would say something and I would not understand a word of it. Thus, it was very frustrating. It did not help that they were largely unsympathetic in terms of dealing with people with novice Spanish. They made no effort at all to grasp what you were saying and would immediately revert to English worse than my Spanish. Most of the time they just gave up without trying at all. Thus, I found Argentina a very discouraging place to learn the language as the people just didn't seem too open to me trying.
Not being able to pronounce 'r' or 'rr' made life very difficult. Whenever I said I was from 'Irlanda' they thought I was from 'Aulanda'. As they couldn't grasp my 'r's at all I would have to hit it really hard by saying 'Eeerrlanda' to have any chance of not being Dutch. I don't mind being Dutch, it makes a change from being English or American. Even the hard sounds such as 't's and 'd's were difficult as they pronounce these differently. Indeed, in Argentina it is not as simple as assuming that 'v' and 'b' are the same. While they are similar in Argentina the pronunciation is different to the 'b' we would use in English. On top of all this vowels are closed and while we might use the same number of vowels, vowel sounds occur more often in Spanish due to word endings. Closing one's vowels is not a problem but for the fact that when you are trying to string a sentence together you slow down your speech. This leaves sounds, be they consonants or vowels, at the end of words open as a quasi-interjection.
While the grammar is not difficult having learnt French, it is annoying to have to think about gender and agreement. It is just one more thing in the sentence to worry about, which is difficult when you are thinking so hard about trying to pronounce things such that they will be understood. The big problem for me was due to the fact that I was moving around so much. Not only are there regional variations in terms of pronunciation but each person has their own individual accent and so there is little opportunity to tune in and become accustomed to the single accent that makes learning so much easier.
In terms of progressing it is difficult as moving around eats up so much time and if I'm on the bike I'm too tired to make the effort. Naturally the kinds of conversations I have are the same everyday as I'm mostly dealing in terms of practicalities; not useful for advancing one's Spanish. The other thing that I found difficult is that they tend to make their sentences sing. I can't sing at all so it's very funny hearing yourself trying to sing words like an Argentinian. What's more intonation is very important in Spanish. Not only in the case of what syllable to stress but just in terms of asking questions and making statements. I handicap myself on this front as I have a very bad habit in English of raising my voice in the middle of a sentence. This is not a formal question rather I'm informally asking if the person is following what I am saying. I don't know where this bad habit comes from as it's totally unnecessary. In addition we tend to use interrogatives as opposed to intonation for questions. Thus, when I am saying something in Spanish I can sound like I'm asking a question when I'm not and when I'm asking a question it sounds like I'm making a statement. Obviously awareness of these things promotes change so hopefully I'll improve the longer I'm here.
Thus, it has become evident that the only way to progress is to stay in the one spot where you can be around the same people such that familiarity breaks down inhibitions and provides support to your learning. It is easier also due to the fact that you can gain greater fluency and comprehension by being around the same accents. A school is a good starting place but ultimately it's about having a group of friends or ideally a Colombian girlfriend.
Of course, the only other way to make progress uninhibited is to get drunk but I tried that trick during a year abroad in Germany and the problem with it is that you are only fluent when you are tipsy. Indeed, I had a great conversation with a guy from Stuttgart in Buenos Aires auf Deutsch but that was the drink talking as opposed to me. Good to know that my German is in there somewhere but not much use if I can't tap into it sober. Indeed life on the bike is a pretty sober affair so progressing in Spanish seems to hinge on chilling out in Medellin with a Colombian girlfriend.
Marco