Observations of Spain

Fiesta and siesta

The two Spanish words generally known apart from ´hola´ and ´adiós´ are ´siesta´ and ´fiesta´. And they are definitely two important words in Spanish life.

Life here is more laid back and people seem to enjoy life more. There are more fiestas (holidays/partys), many happy celebrations and people seem to work shorter hours. This to me really seems to make sense, people seem less stressed here and happier.

Spanish time

There is clearly a different perspective of time here in Spain, which I experienced the other day when invited to a lunch at 2pm. I arrived at 2.20pm feeling guilty at my lateness, only to find that I was indeed the first to arrive and the rest dropped in 15min or later, in fact being up to an hour late! I still also half run when leaving the house late for work, on arriving, sweaty and stressed, I am still rarely the last.

In Sweden we are very punctual, when we arrange to meet at a specific time people expect you to show up on the dot, if arriving more than 10mins late, you are in trouble.

Socializing

People have told me that being in the north of Spain people here are quite reserved and not so open to talking and meeting new people. But for me, being from the most northern parts of Europe, this may as well be social heaven!

And wherever you are it´s always a question of attitude too. When coming to a new place you have to be open and interested in meeting people, often not knowing anyone when arriving. It´s a rather strange feeling to arrive somewhere and conclude that you have no friends, no activities and a lot of free time. Though somewhat daunting it´s also a sense of great freedom and liberation. It´s like starting something new, discovering and creating a different life. With new friends, a new place…

Learning Spanish

I have experienced many things in my learning process of Spanish. Everything from people raising their voice when I do not understand (but still saying it in the exact same way thus not helping me in the slightest but maybe giving me a light headache), to using sign language and a handful of misunderstandings.

In general Spanish people speak very fast and many times it can be difficult to understand. I have attempted various times to ask people to speak slower, what usually happens is that they manage two sentences at a slowish pace and then rapidly accelerate to their normal speed.

Now after 6 months in Spain, instead of just having an awkward grin and nodding in agreement (when in reality not understanding a word of what is said) I can honestly say that now a great deal of my nods are actually used in understanding. So persistence does benefit.