Topic of the month (TOTM) - Cultural Stereotypes

Hello again everyone!

I have a lot of things to say this month, so what I am doing is splitting my blog post into several smaller entries. One will be for the Topic of the Month, where I answer the questions I was asked in class, and I will also use this post for answering questions from the comments on my previous post. The other will be more like a diary of what I have been doing in the last month.

I noticed on my previous post that I was getting a lot of people commenting several times. At first I thought this was a computer glitch, but then I saw that sometimes the comments were ever-so-slightly different. I think this might be people trying to comment and the comment not appearing straight away, so they rewrite and try to post it again. If this is the case, can I please ask that you do not do this!

The reason the post does not appear immediately is because I get sent a notification saying someone wants to post a comment. I get to read and approve this comment before it appears. So the comment will appear once I have had the chance to read it and make sure it is acceptable. This also means that I have to read every comment that appears on the blog, so I know I have read all of your questions, which will hopefully mean I answer them! If you have waited a couple of days and still cannot see your post, then it might be worth trying again, but otherwise, just give it a bit of time and check back later to see if it has appeared.

Spanish perceptions of the British and vice versa - Cultural Stereotypes

Do Spanish people wear a lot of red?

The answer to this question would be quite simple: no more than the British do.

However, I have extended the scope of this question somewhat to talk about something that I have noted since my arrival. The people who I see out on a daily basis do tend to dress really well. This is not something I had expected to notice, but in general, women and men walking around the city or on campus have a style which appeals to me.

The only trend I have seen that I do not like so much is a tendency for double denim, as the weather steadily gets colder. However, this is just a personal preference, and some people make it work well. It also means that the denim jacket that I bought before I arrived will now get a lot of use as I won't feel like I stand out when I wear it!

As a result of shops stocking clothes which I find attractive, (something that does not happen very often in England) as well as lower prices than at home, I have been shopping and bought quite a few items of clothing. Some were definitely needed, as I have been getting through all my short-sleeved tops very quickly, and other things were more of an impulse buy.

Now seems an appropriate time to write some Spanish which will have some very familiar words in it I hope! 

Desde mi llegada aquí, he comprado un bolso para llevar mis cuadernos a la universidad cada día; unas camisetas de varios colores, un par de zapatos apropiados para el laboratorio y unos calcetines tobilleros para estos zapatos; un cárdigan verde oscuro; tres faldas estampadas, una muy larga y una corta con un diseño geométrico y la otra de longitud media con rayas blancas y negras; unas polainas negras, y una chaqueta elegante de color gris.

What do Spanish people think of British people?

I think the most common thing I have heard since I started talking to people here is, "You speak Spanish very well!" This is not meant to be a boastful statment. In fact, it has quite the opposite effect on me, and makes me rather self-conscious. This is because they say this after I have only managed to utter about three words. It has been something which frustrates me because then I have to explain that I was privileged enough to start learning Spanish at the start of Year 5 and that I had the benefit of several brilliant native speakers as teachers. I can therefore only suppose that when they say I speak Spanish well or that my Spanish is good, what they really mean is, "Oh my goodness, you're English and you can say some words in another language without sounding ridiculously English!"

This has triggered a lot of discussions about the quality of the English teaching in Spain. It seems that the vast majority of students start learning English when they start school. They are taught by Spanish teachers, and appear to find our spelling very difficult. This leads to them finding pronounciation very difficult. A few times I have been listening to my friends speak English, and they are saying words that make no sense to me.

The first example was my supervisor in the lab, he was talking about the "pree-est" and I had no idea what he meant until he clarified: "cura", and I realised he was saying "priest".

Another friend at dinner was talking about "fru-idges", and it was not until I heard her say "fresa" that I realised she was saying "fruits" and not "fridges".

I explained that they should not worry so much about bad pronunciation as we do it in Britain too. I told them how when I was eleven, and I kept on reading the word "sub-tle" on food packaging without knowing what it meant. It was not until I was reading it out loud to my mother that she told me it is pronounced "suttle" that I made the connection between a word I had only ever heard spoken aloud and the unknown, printed word in front of me.

As well as thinking that generally we do not speak Spanish, it seems that the Spanish think that those of us who are Caucasian British are very pale, and turn very red when we come to Spain because of the sun, which never shines in Britain. Unfortunately I am unable to break this stereotype as I have inherited the chalky skin of my Cornish and Polish ancestors and thus am the palest in the department.

The final few stereotypes that the Spanish have about the British are to do with our personalities: they think we are very apologetic and very polite. I have to say it is something I have noticed since being here, that I say "lo siento" a lot, whereas the more common thing to say is "perdón", and nowhere near as frequently as I say sorry. I am resolving to try to say "perdón" instead, because I think it sounds odd to a Spanish ear when I say "I am sorry for it" all the time!

I also find myself saying "gracias" a lot more than my peers. This is definitely in part due to the fact that I have a lot to be thankful for, with people helping me out or doing me a favour or treating me. However, I think that Spanish is just a language where they do not use euphemism or delicate language very often, so sometimes if I translate directly in my head, things can sound very direct, and sometimes harsh.

A good example of this is when I said, "no quiero decir cosas equivocadas" and my supervisor told me that while what I had said was technically correct, it sounded weird. It was probably the equivalent of saying, "I don't want to say anything erroneous" in English, which while correct would sound odd in an everyday conversation. Instead, they use the word "mal". To say "you've done it wrongly", they would say "lo has hecho mal". To me, this sounds like a horrible thing to say, because I can't help but translate word for word and the result is "you have done it badly". There is a subtle (there that word is again!) difference between the two in English which does not exist in the same way in Spanish. A final example is using the work "querer". We might have been told by our parents when we were learning to speak (and some of us when we were older...) that "I want, doesn't get!" But it appears in Spanish, that is exactly what "quiero" gets, and in a shop, it is common to hear "quiero uno de..." instead of "I would like...please" or "please may I have...". This is another case of direct translation, and I will have to work to adjust this in my head. I think it will be easier as time goes by, and I am more used to being surrounded by the language.

Questions about the weather:

When I posted my last entry, I had many responses asking about the weather. This seems like another good time to write some Spanish.

Después de mi primera entrada al blog, hacía mucho más frío que la semana anterior. Varias veces hubo lluvias y tormentas con truenos y relámpagos. Ahora, mientras estoy escribiendo esto, está lloviendo, y pondré una foto de la vista desde mi laboratorio como prueba de que está lloviendo en España. Sin embargo, la mayor parte del tiempo, las temperaturas están alrededor de los 25-30 grados y sólo en los últimos días han empezado a bajar.

What looks like it might be a pool is usually dry, and if you look carefully, you can see someone with an umbrella by the hedge in the centre.

The British perception of the Spanish:

I think one of the most common stereotypes about Spanish people is that they are all about "fiesta and siesta". In my month here, I have to say that I have found this to be a rather unfair judgement of everyone. In my lab, the average working day is 09:00/09:30 - 18:30/19:00. On the timetable for classes, there is a definite chance of having a class that finishes at 20:00 and in the next month, I will start another course. This is an applied analysis course, and I will have to be in the lab from 08:30 till 12:30. I will speak more about an average working day in a later post, but I can tell you there is no siesta in the middle of the day for most students!

The second aspect is definitely true, however. The Spanish love to party, but they do it in a very different way from us, with a very different time-frame. For more information on this, see my other post.