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Dialects / Accents - better to pick one?

I am learning Spanish.
I know there are a ton of different dialects/accents based on country and then even more based on regions. I have been chatting with people from various latin american countries and I can see where there can be a different words for the same thing depending on the country, different idioms, etc.
What I wonder is if it better to talk to different countries or just focus on one dialect/accent/idiom more than the others so that at least I will have consistent corrections and one day sound fluent/native in ONE dialect instead of being a mixture of various ones.
Right now,I get corrected for saying one word, which is then corrected by a person from another country - not because the word(s) is wrong, but because they don't use it or they use a different word in their region.

I hope that makes sense....

For learning: Spanish
Base language: English
Category: Language

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    I think this something that every student asks themselves. If you concentrate on learning Spanish from one country, Spanish from another will seem different to you. Let me share my experience with you. I am from England so Spain is nearer to me than for example Mexico, however I used to travel to South America so I started to learn Spanish using a South America accent, for example pronouncing words with an ''s'' like ''vez as ves'' and ''paz as pas'' After studying for a few years I started talking with Spaniards and watching TV from Spain, the difference is huge, and it was very hard to get used to how they spoke in Spain. Now I am used to both accents and when I speak with Spaniards I pronounce words as they do, for example ''cerveza as thervetha'' For having starting to learn Spanish with an accent from South America I still find this accent the easiest for me to understand.
    Also when I first started to learn Spanish I did not learn the verbs in the form of vosotros, I started years after and it is now something that I struggle with, I wish I had started to learn it from day one when I started.

    A friend of who speaks Spanish very well, has trouble understanding the accents of South America, she learned Spanish whilst living in Spain and struggles with other accents.

    Although it may not be possible try to learn the difference lets say how Spanish is spoken in Spain and in Mexico, concentrating on one as I did you may struggle with the other. It is only when you study both and you begin to see the differences in the other accent, that they both become clearer.

    Good luck.
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    What is most important to you, just learning Spanish or what you plan on doing with the language? Adapt to your goals. If you want to just meet and talk to people from various cultures, then learn their particular idioms (there aren't that many) and use them. If you plan on moving to a particular country, then focus on the dialects of that country. But then again, would you correct a British person for saying "trousers" instead of "pants"? Or "telly" instead of "TV"?

    I don't think it's really necessary to learn a specific accent. As a Spanish-as-a-second-language speaker, unless you were very young when you started learning it, people will always detect your American accent and expect you to have one, even as an advanced speaker. And you won't find a Mexican in Mexico telling you, "Oh, your accent sounds like a mix of American English and Colombian Spanish. That's not how we speak here."

    As long as people can understand you (and respect you enough to make that effort), that's what matters the most. Everything else is just nitpicking, IMHO.
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    Learn spanish and don´t think in all the variations because believe there are a lot of diffrences for saying things in spanish, and in some cases people in differents country use differents forms of ways to call a situacion. Here in Perú when you are out of money we say "Estoy misio", "estoy aguja" and in countries like chile they call it "estoy pato" i recommend you to learn spanish and when you hace some practice you will notice the differences by yourself!!
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    I am a Chinese living in Madrid, so naturally I learnt Castilian accent of Spain, but when I took the Spanish test Dele especially the part of listening comprehension, I noticed that there are so many different spanish accents that I am not familiar with at all.
    Since you are northamerican, I guess it is better to learn Mexican Spanish or other Southamerican Spanish, because it is more practical, and there are only a few Spaniards in your country. The accents and dialects are not very important, the comunication is essential. I see many Spanish kids learnt British English in school, but if they go to USA, they can understand American English.
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