





The people of Belize speak the same English as we do in North America. If English is not the person’s first language, he or she will have an accent when they speak English. Some of our Spanish neighbors and their descendants may have a bit of a Latin accent to the English they speak, but you will still understand them.
The Spanish that is spoken here, from my understanding (because I'm not a Spanish speaker), is not the Spanish from Spain by any means. We get a few Spanish speakers coming through from Spain and some of my team do not want to speak Spanish to them because the Spanish from Spain is so different from the Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran, and the overall Central American Spanish. However, they can of course, communicate. We have two families combined who are guests here from Guatemala. My team and the families were exclusively speaking Spanish yesterday when they checked in.
English is easy here in Belize. Their English is North American English, but do not expect it without an accent. The Belizeans have either a Spanish accent or a Creole accent, which is just a little more colorful. The accents that you will hear people speak here in Belize are very manageable. I guess for some people who have never traveled before, when they come to a different country and they experience speaking to someone with an accent, they feel like it is some kind of impediment from enjoying the area, when it is not. The accent is just a little bit different, so you just have to adapt.
If you go from region to region in the US, there is often a considerable difference in the way they speak English, too. Likewise, I find it very difficult to understand southerners because my ears aren’t tuned to the way they speak English. I think those comments from people who first get here and say that the English here in Belize is difficult to understand are those who do not hear the exact same accent that they are used to, so they find it difficult. It is really just a matter of getting out of your comfort zone. You are trying to understand and interpret another person. They are speaking the same language as you, but they just have a different intonation.