Which country's Spanish is most understood by Spanish speaking people in the world?

Question

If you have to learn Spanish in order to be able to speak to both people in Spain and N/S American people, which country's Spanish is best to learn?

Answer 1

Spanish from Mexico but stay away from the slang, Guadalajara is a good city to learn,

Answer 2

I would say the Spanish of the Mexico of Spain would be the best to learn. I would stay away from the Spanish of Puerto Rico or Argentina (even though the Argentinian accent happens to be my favorite) due to the dropping of the 's' sound that can frequently lead to confusion amongst speakers that are not accustomed to it.

The Spanish of Mexico is widely seen as a conservative Spanish (and therefore a very good candidate), but as one person already pointed out, it is filled with slang. If you speak a basic, relatively slang-free Mexican Spanish, you will be easily understood everywhere. The Spanish of Spain is very similar in the fact that it will be understood everywhere, however it is completely different from that of Spain.

To be honest though, there is almost no Spanish you can learn that if learned well, will confuse native speakers. Learn whatever you learn well, and you will be fine.

Answer 3

The most neutral Spanish is the one used by the CNN en español people. I speak with a Venezuelan accent so I don't understand a thing when people speak with an accent from Spain or Argentina (they also speak very fast). I understand Mexicans ( but they use to much slang). Once you can speak spanish you can speak with anybody from a spanish speaking contry.
In spain there are also other languages like catalan that are not spanish.

Answer 4

In each country they speak it different, the Spanish from Spain is the proper one though, but youll eventually learn slangs and so on from each country, the spanish they teach is basically neutral or basic spanish that everywhere and everyone would understand

Answer 5

In my humble knwolegde of Spanish, i would be Spains. See, because the indigenous people of South America incorprated some of their words into their dialect of Spanish, they are slightly different. Por ejemplo, When Carlos from Bolivia says,"buceta", and when Juan from Argentina says "Labios de la vagina", they both mean the same thing, but Juan wouldn't understand Carlos at first. (Buceta has a Portugese/Indigenous origin). Spain Spanish is the father language, since it has no loan words, so it would be understood. Like citizens of Germany might not understand German speaking Romainians, but Romainians would understand the "school" German of the native Germans.
Hope I haven't confused anyone.

Answer 6

All countries where Spanish is spoken have different regional differences and I have been able to communicate with people with the Spanish I learned as child in South Texas which is closest to Mexican Spanish.

Answer 7

Castilian Spanish, which is spoken in Spain, is the one to learn. It is the mother Spanish tongue. Should you travel to other Spanish-speaking countries, you will run into dialect issues, but Castilian Spanish will pretty much get you everywhere you need to go.

Answer 8

Castilian Spanish in Spain. spanish came from there so i'd go to Spain.

Answer 9

I'm guessing the Mexican accented Spanish because that's the one I was taught to use in HS Spanish classes....but don't quote me on that.

Answer 10

There's NO thing as standard Spanish. Just learn one dialect, and learn it well. I recommend Puerto Rican dialect because i'ts my dialect (Who said S's were there to be pronounced?) If you want to understand really well Univisión and Telemundo, learn the Mexican one.