Do you speak Castilian?

[True2marie]

Castilian is one form of Spanish spoken around the world. It's much faster than the Spanish I learned in high school. I have yet to master it. 

Do any of you speak Castilian?

YouTube Voice Sample: http://youtu.be/hm4HbI7pZ6g

[SirTenenbaum]

From my experience, the word "Castilian" is just the name given to the predominant Spanish accent in Spain (coming from the name of the region "Castilla"). Castilian is one of the many accents of the Spanish-speaking world. Learning "Castilian" is simply learning "Spanish" I believe. It's important to note that some people prefer one word to another for political reasons.

As far as the speed, I've always thought that Spanish-speakers from Spain generally speak faster than in Latin America. I don't know if this is actually true or not; it could just be my relative unfamiliarity with the Castilian accent. It's also good to remember that there are many individual speaking styles and differences.

Anybody else?

[True2marie]

I heard Castilian for the first time while residing in Puerto Rico.  It's definitely different than what I heard my Mexican friends speak on the main land.  The accent is different and pace much faster.

My only way to describe Castilian is to compare it to English.  The way an English speaker sounds in the west varies from the way an English speaker sounds in the south.  They both speak English, but the pace, accent and slang differ.

[brothainarms]

I don't speak Castillian but I would love to learn soon.  I'm a very intermediate Spanish speaker but would love to visit Spain/Northern spain soon.  The ability to speak both would help immensely in this endeavor. 

[LivetoErr]

No I don't speak Castilian. My understanding of Castilian is, that it is the more formal Spanish which uses vosotros/vosotras. My school text book teaches that variation but I skip over the vostoros/as conjugations because it's not used here in Mexico. The chances of me going to Spain are slim, to none, so I see no, real, need to learn it.

[Kotro]

Living in Portugal, where one is surrounded either by sea or by Spain, one would think the language is quite familiar to us. To some people closer to the border it naturally is, but to me it's almost unintelligible. Apparently they can understand us just fine. Regarding the speed of speaking, I once met a fellow from Uruguay and I had a much easier time understanding him than I did my visiting neighbours.