Last time I talked about a few things that irk me about Spanish culture. Have a few more, why don’t ya?
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!
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 is absolutely no shame in this culture! If you gotta go, you gotta go!
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.
I agree with the original post more than this one! I think the Americans do SO MANY THINGS backwards compared to people in Europe (can’t speak for spaniards maybe they do things diff?) And I also feel like not caring for the PDA thing comes from growing up in American culture where we are weirded out by boobies and Kissing etc. the second I landed in Italy last year people were having Makeout sessions everywhere infusing legit in front of the Vatican, on fountains etc. I personally found it refreshing! And I hate peeing on the streets but it’s kind of Europe’a fault because they charge for a basic public necessity!