General

·        Foreigners are usually looked upon as friends, and are readily welcomed.   Offer friendship to a Spaniard and you’ll be rewarded ten-fold.  

Spain harkens back to a more wholesome time.   During the isolation of the Franco years, Spain got stuck in time and after Franco, the country worked overtime playing cultural catch-up (witness the El Destape movie phenomenon of the late 70s).   The generation gap between Franco-era parents and post-Franco children is enormous, and yet these Franco-era parents still dominate the picture, with their lead role in the extended family.

The Individual vs the Group

·        The Spanish make great efforts to participate in the outside fiestas (holidays), and gatherings are always very loud and joyful affairs.

Try to find someone eating alone at a restaurant in Spain (tourists don’t count) – it just doesn’t happen.   The Spanish will return from holiday in the UK amazed that the Brits will sit alone on a park bench to eat their lunch.

The British need their space; the Spanish enjoy a crowd.   A big event is the “El Gordo” Christmas lottery draw – a single person never wins because everyone buys fractions of tickets from everyone else!   Why does Spain have such a paltry number of deranged murderers?   Because there are no loners like in Britain.   In the UK, once you’ve lost touch with your family and everyone else, it’s much easier to lose touch with reality.   Since there are (fortunately) so few deranged murderers and (unfortunately) so few immigrants with different cultural backgrounds, everyone becomes a “tio” of everyone else.   That is, everyone tends to look out for each other.   It’s great when someone at the bar notices that your baby has his hand in the door jamb, but not so great when someone stops you in the street in midsummer to tell you that your baby can catch a cold with those bare feet!

The Home & Family

·        The Spanish are far more family-oriented than the Brits.  

The mother is principally a housewife, while the husband is the breadwinner.   That means the mother still knows how to clean and cook.   It also means the father does not know how to clean and cook!   A typical Spanish house is undoubtedly cleaner than a British house, and the Spanish are quick to tell you that they invented the fregona.   You’ll be surprised the first time you see someone mopping the pavement in front of their house or business, but you’ll get used to it!

The family is more important than the individual.   Because of the importance of the family, or because of higher unemployment, or because the mother’s main job is “mother” (and she’d hate to lose that job!) it’s not at all uncommon for the children to stay at home until (and beyond) the age of thirty.   More importantly, it’s not at all frowned upon.   Children in Spain are not thinking, “I can’t take my parents another minute – I gotta get outta here.”   Parent/child friction isn’t there, or it’s there but it’s accepted as part of life.   Husband/wife friction is accepted too – in Spain, a judge in a divorce case can order the couple back to living together if the judge finds insufficient grounds for the divorce.   “Lack of love” or “He’s a plonker” do not qualify as valid reasons in Spain!

As for cooking, British grandmothers knew the art, their daughters lost it, and their yuppie grandchildren tried to recover it (but neglected the basics).   How many British shoppers can look at a slab of meat in the supermarket and tell its quality?   How many can use a pressure cooker?

Food

·        In Spain, children eat out with their parents until the early hours.

·        The Spanish enjoy long meal times and many still take an afternoon siesta.

Since the family gathers at mealtime, food is of great importance here.   Look at the common expressions such as “está como un queso”, “es un chorizo”, “más buena que pan”.   The Spanish are very proud of their gastronomic tradition (and quite rightly so), so for goodness’ sake, don’t tell anyone you prefer Thai.   The British have long lost any notion of the traditions of food and eating.   The chemical food revolution arrived in the UK in the 50s with a vengeance.   Then the pendulum swung madly the other way with organic and fat-free food, leaving most Brits totally confused and still in worse health than the Spanish.   And yes, there is a huge difference between grease/fat and olive oil!

·        Class barriers do not exist here as they do in the UK.     

The British are obsessed with their work (either doing it or avoiding it!) and thus seem to be permanently stressed.   Individual achievement is seen as a measure of self-worth.   During their free time, the British take self-improvement courses.   Perhaps they try to learn a foreign language, or try to psychoanalyse themselves, or learn how to cook.   The Spanish take it easy.   When the mother of the house has finally finished cleaning, she goes with her friends for a walk to the other end of town and back.   Not for exercise, it’s for no real reason!

My peer group and I grew up with the idea that you have to like your job or the work that you do or the people that you work with; that liking your job is a VERY important thing, and should guide virtually every other aspect of your life – where you go to university, what town you live in after university, who you date, etc.   As proof, I’d point out that in most British first encounters, the question of what you do for a living comes up within the first three questions.   In conversations with Spanish friends, it becomes apparent that in Spain, a job is simply something to put up with until it’s over for the day because unless you’re rich, everyone has to work.   So find something you can stand doing and do as little of it as possible and then go home (or more likely, go home, take a shower, and go out with your friends).   Perhaps what we’ve been culturally conditioned to believe is “laziness” is actually a virtue!

The Economy

Spain is a liberal democratic and lively society.   The economy is strong and future development within Europe will continue to strengthen Spain.   There are lots of business opportunities for those seeking them.   There is no need to worry about what the Jones have in Spain – you are accepted for the person you are, not what you have.

Crime

There are three Police Forces at work in Spain –

·        The Local Police deal with minor incidents and can be seen at places like school crossings.

·        The Guardia Civil are most active with Traffic and Crime related incidents.   They regularly have traffic check points, and stop vehicles randomly.

·        The National Police are best compared to the UK's CID, and are the officers with most authority.

Cannabis is now illegal again.   It had been legal for few years, and thus its use now frowned upon rather than treated as a heinous crime.   Many drug hauls are confiscated by the police each year.   Warning - offenders in Spain are jailed!

In Spain, there is approximately half the population of the UK living in twice the land mass, so “space” is not so vital.   Whether this has a bearing on the lower crime figures is anyone's guess but it is a fact that Spain has probably the lowest crime rate in Europe.   Petty crime does exist in the built up areas of cities and, to a lesser degree, in the popular tourist areas, although following the local police clamp down on reducing tourist crime, these figures are now negligible.

One only needs to ask any ex-pat their views on Spanish Crime and they will probably say, “What Crime?”   Most major incidents are usually the work of foreigners dealing drugs or from some extreme political group and aimed at the Government.