Spain vs. Mexico

I have just purchased Rocket Language Spanish. I am surprised to see in lesson one the journey through Spain. Is this course for European Spanish? I thought it was Latin American Spanish. I'm taking this course in preparation for trips into Mexico. Have I made a mistake????

Thanks so much, Mauricio, for your response. I was referring to the following statement on the welcome page:

"Stage 1 of Rocket Spanish Premium will not only equip you with basic survival phrases but your hosts, Mauricio and Amy, will take you on a journey through the streets of Spain. Soon you'll be able to navigate your way through ordering a caffeinated beverage, confirming dinner plans, sampling the local vino, even small talk!"

Is there much difference between a conversation you would have in a cafe in Spain versus a cafe in Mexico?

I took 2 years of Spanish in high school - 37 years ago! Some of the basic is coming back to me. I hope this old dog can still learn! My husband and I take missionary trips to a children's home in Mexico, and we hope to get to a point where we can have some meaningful conversations with them. We look forward to working our way through the course.

Gracias!
Catalina

Hola Abbie. Don't worry. If you learn what Rocket Spanish is teaching you, you'll be well equipped for a trip to Spain. There are some differences in vocabulary, just as there are between the English spoken in England and that spoken in the US. And the accent in Spain is somewhat different from the accent(s) you'll hear in Central and South America, just as a British accent is different from an American accent (and, of course, the accent of a native Alabaman is quite different from the accent of a Bostonian or a New Yorker. But we all understand each other. That's also true of people from Spain and Spanish speakers from the Western hemisphere.

As the Wikipedia article indicates, the term "Castilian Spanish" is used in lots of different ways. In the US, the way I've heard it used most often is to distinguish the Spanish spoken in most of Spain from that in Central and South America. However, there's also much variation among the varieties of Spanish spoken in Central and South America. People from one Central American country may have a different word for any number of different items than people from another Central American country. Even within a country, there is sometimes variation. The same thing is true of accent, the use of tú, and lots of other differences. I could have written an article very similar to the one in Wikipedia that focused only on differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar in Spanish speaking countries in the Americas.

The differences that the Wikipedia article mentioned are similar to those I referred to in my earlier response. The important thing is that people manage to understand each other even when they have different accents, use some different words, etc. When I was starting to learn Spanish, I was somewhat intimidated by the accent from Spain, that is, their pronouncing a soft c and a z as "th." But I now realize that it's no big deal. I listen to podcasts from Spain as well as from Latin America, and I find them equally challenging. I often find it harder to understand someone from Cuba or Puerto Rico than someone from Madrid.

All this is a longwinded way of saying that I do not think it depends on where you go in Spain. I think if you learn Spanish well, you'll be fine wherever you go in the Spanish-speaking world. The hard part is to learn Spanish well!