Reasons to hate Spanish culture
Last time I talked about a few things that I really make me hate Spanish culture sometimes. Before I continue, remember that, at the end of the day, I do love the Spanish people and I can’t wait to go back! Remember why I said I love the culture, here and here!
Texting style
Spaniards have a certain style of texting. And by that I mean they’ll send several messages to convey one thought. I’ll still panic that there’s an emergency when my phone buzzes 6, 7, or 8 times within 10 seconds, only to find out that the intercambio I had planned has to push the meeting back an hour. This drives me absolutely insane!
Undependable
For a couple months, I was meeting with Spaniards 3 or 4 times a week to practice my Spanish. Well, I was trying to. In reality, we would make plans to meet up, and probably about half the time, they would cancel. Now, I’m not sure if this is related to the passive aggression I made note of in my last post about culture faults, but I know it’s something I don’t like. While I will willingly take the blame for the days when I got sick or busy and had to cancel myself, it seems Spaniards either have really important family emergencies quite regularly and get sick a lot, or, for whatever reason, they’re an undependable culture.
PDA
Wanna make out with your boyfriend really intensely in the middle of everyone? Come to Spain! Public displays of affection are totally acceptable in Spanish culture, and nobody will bat an eye. I’ll never forget the time I was waiting for the metro, and there was a couple on a bench going at it pretty hard. A couple minutes later when the metro came I saw there was a girl sitting on the other side of the bench, completely unchanged by the tonsil-hockey happening next to her. Must’ve been the World Championship game going on in there! I know, I’m the classic afraid-of-affection American, but I’m still afraid to see that as a reason to hate Spanish culture.
Public urination
Yup. Also A-OK. If you’ve got the right tools, of course. I’ve seen public pee-ers range from small children (his mother was there making sure it hit the road, not the cars) to men in uniform. There seems to be absolutely no shame in this culture! If you gotta go, you gotta go! Just thinking of what’s been on the street I’m walking on really turns my taste to hate Spanish culture.
Inefficiency
The American culture is incredibly efficient. No doubt about that. The Spanish culture, on the other hand, really enjoys their relaxation, and doesn’t really care if there’s another way to accomplish some task in half the time. I still haven’t gotten the hang of figuring out certain things that you’re apparently supposed to just know, like if my bus is still at the station or I should have shoved my way to the front of the cola (line) and I’ve already missed it, but I only assume there’s a way. Want to buy a sandwich at the deli? Go pick it up, find out which random crowd of people is the right cola, and get in it. You’ll be served eventually! Maybe.
Jamie
Latest posts by Jamie (see all)
- The Greatest Language Learning Challenges (and how to conquer them) - April 14, 2017
- Spanish Numbers: What You Need to Know - April 8, 2017
- 14 Different Ways to Say Hello in Spanish - March 31, 2017
Very interesting post, I did not know a lot of this.
If it gets up to 104, they need air conditioning!
In England most washing machines are in the kitchen too, it is weird to me, so interesting that is how it is in Spain too.
Yes, I think they need air conditioning as well, but I suppose they’ve gotten used to grinning and bearing it!
I love cultural insights. Being Australian I think we have a lot in common with our expectation of space and airconditioning! In fact, it is the lack of space that really bugs me living in the UK. There are people everywhere and I feel claustrophobic sometimes. Having said that, the focus on family, ‘just enough’ stuff and spending time with each other instead of in our rooms is increasingly important to me now I have my own children. I’m hoping to take ‘the best bits’ of the cultures I experience and make them my own. Thanks for sharing Jamie
Taking my favorite bits of foreign cultures and putting them into my everyday life is one of the most important parts of travel to me, as well. I mention in another post about how living in Europe made me more physically active, even when I’m back home in America. I love it!
Sorry, but as a Spaniard I have to say your impressions about wine and beer make no sense at all to me.
Most mid-budget restaurants upwards, and many cheaper ones definitely have more than just “red wine” or “white wine”. They’ll have at least a few reds, a few whites, and maybe rosés and sparkling wines. In many cases, they’ll be listed in a special section on the menu, in others, mainly in more upmarket restaurants, there’ll be a wine list. I honestly don’t know which restaurants you may have frequented in Spain, where they were and how many different ones to make such baffling generalisations about “restaurants in Spain”.
As for wine being cheap in Spain, sure, if you go for the cheaper ones or order a glass of the “house wine” without asking what is it. Do some research online, though, and see if you find a shortage of more expensive Spanish wines (hint: you won’t).
Never order a “cerveza”? Why not? If you don’t specify, the waiter will ask if you want a “copa”, a “caña”, a “doble” and so on, and you can always order bottled beer if you prefer it. Many cheap regular bars won’t have more than one kind of draught beer, as you say, but even those will probably have one or two other brands of bottled beer for sure. And that’s your more basic neighbourhood bars. Anywhere else, you’re likely to have a much wider choice of both national and imported beers.
I apologize if I come across as a little blunt, but it seems to me you’re making generalisations without having the necessary knowledge and experience to do so.
I understand if you feel I am making generalizations, because I am, quite frankly. These are general trends that I’ve noticed in Spain. That isn’t to say that different restaurants aren’t different, or that someone else might experience something more similar to your experiences! As a foreigner living in Spain, these were things that stood out to me, as they were different from my experiences back home. These were my impressions and nothing else. Maybe I only happened upon the restaurants that did these things, but that is the way of the traveler - it’s hard to truly experience life the way locals do, especially in international cities.
Thank you for your input, it’s important to get a local’s idea of my own experiences as a foreigner!