Which part?  From what little I know, Argentinian and Chilean Spanish is 
heavily Northern-Europeanized, though a lot of Italian words have also wound 
up in Argentinian Spanish.  Bolivian and Paraguayan Spanish has absorbed a 
lot of indigenous words, or so I've read.  And I think the same also applies 
to Peruvian Spanish - at least outside the cities.

I'm not sure that it's ever been regarded as important enough to teach to 
foreigners; though the TY Spanish book I used made comments on different 
accents and words in the various regions of South America, it never really 
specified them.

What I would suggest is buying various South American books and magazines - I 
intend myself getting Jorge Louis Borges' Complete (or Collected) Works, but 
I've been told they come to about NZ$100 or NZ$150 each, and there's more 
than one volume, and under my current financial circumstances that will have 
to wait.  (If I hadn't been introduced to Borges courtesy of Aldiss' comment 
in Billion Year Spree about his acknowledging HG Wells as a major influence, 
I would never have considered Spanish, or Portuguese ... but who can resist 
the Dreamtiger?  Not me! :)

Wesley Parish

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009, <deinx nxtxr> wrote:
> Larry Sulky wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 1:40 PM, <deinx nxtxr> 
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> >> Wesley Parish wrote:
> >>> FWIW, a book I have somewhere on the mechanics of learning second
> >>> languages mentions total immersion (at a language lab, headphones on,
> >>> and no breaks) for about eight hours - on top of listening to
> >>> recordings, working through encounters, etc.  I've thought it would be
> >>> an excellent way to learn it myself - I "immersed" myself in both
> >>> Spanish and Portuguese (TY books with the cassettes) in 1988, and I
> >>> still haven't forgotten either.
> >>
> >> I've been attempting to immerse in Spanish, but it's difficult where I
> >> am. First of all there's work where it's not going to get me anywhere
> >> (though Portuguese may be of some use).  I have done little things that
> >> help like switching all my electronic devices to Spanish where possible.
> >>  My phone, GPS, and Facebook page are all on Spanish now.
> >>
> >> BTW: I'm trying to find a Latin American package for my Garmin.  It only
> >> does European Spanish for some reason.
> >
> > In general, I find the Hugo "XXXXX in Three Months" series to be
> > effective. They have lots of exercises with answers, usually. They're not
> > for the "once over lightly" approach, though.
> >
> > Dana, you might even find Brazilian Portuguese a bit easier than Spanish,
> > surprisingly (especially the Sao Paulo accent). Portuguese has fewer
> > irregular verbs, and the phonology/orthography is a slightly closer match
> > to that of English.
>
> I'm not learning it for its own sake.  I'm learning in because I'm
> considering a move to S. America.  Brazil isn't one of the places
> under consideration.



-- 
Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish
-----
George Kelischek - "To impress those high-tech computer types, 
tell them what an Ocarina really is: 
an animal-activated-solid-state-multi-frequency-sound-synthesizer." 
-----
Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui?
You ask, what is the most important thing?
Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.