jeanc

being in their country. As another race row kicks off in Big Brother and someone is booted off for a racist remark, I am wondering how we are recieved in Spain, when we are living there and not just holidaying. Do the Spanish just tolerate the other nationalities that are living there, or do they genuinely accept us?

Rosemary

We definitely feel that we have been accepted by the vast majority of the people in our street. They always pass the time of day with us and try to talk about different things. Some even point things out and tell us the names for them and look pleased when we say the word back to them. Within the town we also find that most people speak, there are a few who do not speak but we are not sure whether that is because we are English, they know that we may not understand what they are saying or that they do not speak to anyone.

Saying all of that we are not sure whether this means that they accept us as a couple or the English in general or whether we are the novelty factor. We are included in celebrations and are told (yes told not asked) when we are expected to join one particular group for dinner. So surely if we were the hated interlopers we would never have been included in events.

There are always going to be people who absolutely hate the English for buying in Spain and others who are glad that they do.

Rosemary

heath1974

We moved to a small village in Granada province and are one of only two British families here out of a population of 200. We get on well with the locals and we're a permanent party of the "community" here now.

I think alot has to do with how prepared you are to integrate. Although my Spanish is by no means fluent, I'm able to converse well enough with everyone after having lived here for two years. Because I do work on properties howerver, I find that I'm regularly getting locals knocking on the door for help with this problem or that, in their home.

jackytoo

I have lived here for 10 years and during this time I have noticed a change in attitudes to Brits. I don't think we are as welcome as before. I speak fluent spanish and I have also heard one or two comments against the Brits. I do think that most Brits would not recognise it if they just walk around stuttering a few spanish words and the majority of spanish they mix with are only the ones who they are buying something off or having work done. Of course the bar owners etc will be fine with them.

lynnxa

I think it's very complex

I have spanish friends who accept me & my family as part of the community, although they aren't necessarily happy about the numbers of foreigners (not just brits) who are taking over their town - in fact I had quite a chat with a spanish mum about this just the other day!


she thought it hilarious..although she agreed..when I said that there are just too many foreigners here now.......and we're considering moving to somewhere more spanish!


but then she reckons I am spanish now, anyway

poollounger

I think your question is too broad. No one can like or dislike a particular group of people en masse. I think some of the attitudes I have seen and heard must alienate some of the Spanish..comments like 'well they better be nice to us because they need our money'. It would be foolish to expect them to like the Brits as a whole, just as it would be in Britain for us to like, for example, all the Poles or the Americans or the Italians. We have lots of Spanish friends and are never made less than very welcome, but I notice that they are intrigued on first meeting at our interest in Spanish culture, my attempts to speak Spanish. Although they insist that they want to speak English to improve their English, I sense that they are genuinely pleased at my serious attempts to learn their language.
I was born and raised until I was 15 in India within a colonial family. Our grasp of speaking minimal Hindi was limited to speaking to, dare I say it, servants and shopkeepers who didn't. Grandparents etc joined the mass exodus to Britain and elsewhere after independence, feeling they would no longer be welcome. The spoke even less than I did. We stayed until the end of the sixties. In 1992 I went back on a working trip, and managed to meet up with an elderly relative still living in a remote hill station. He had learned to speak the language very well while employed by the foreign office, while his colleagues had treated the offer of lessons with disdain.
He took me for a walk down into the town, and around the bazaar. I was amazed at the deference and respect with which he was greeted and treated.
The great mass in parts of Spain may, possibly, deep down, be resented, but you as an individual can try to be otherwise.

gallerie9

I think that we are now treated as part of the community. We are helped rather than hindered. I introduced my OH sister and her husband to one of our friends, her reply was that "we were part of there family so they were also part of the family" the saying "my house is your house"
I do know that my attempt at understanding the language has made a very big difference as you say Poollounger the wanting to be part of there community is the largest hurdle and intergrating is the only way to access the society.

poollounger

Re-reading my previous post, I realise that I seem to have put most of the emphasis on accessing the language. While this is undoubtedly important, I think what I was actually trying to say is that we need to try and avoid creating ghettos. I have expat friends who have lived in an older urbanisation for the last 20 years, and have no Spanish friends. They acknowledge that living in an urbanisation has possibly contributed to the situation. I know it needs a lot of bravery to plunge into an authentic bar rather than an expat bar when you are new in Spain, but go for it. I used to think the Spanish were aloof, unlike the Greeks who are almost immediately friendly. However they are respectful, and courteous of your space. The friendliness is always there below the surface, it just takes longer to emerge. Of course I have no real experience of the Costa del Sol and it's ghettos, where people have been there for years and have never attempted to learn Spanish.

jackytoo

I don't know how people can have spanish friends if they don't speak spanish well as most spanish I know do not speak much English. Must be difficult to sit down to dinner for a few hours and have a real conversation. There are 2 phrases in spanish:
Un amigo mío - an aquaintance
un amigo personal - a (real) friend

Have to remember that many families on the CDS are bi-lingual, some are second, even third generation spanish/English.

People are the same all over the world, if you lived in a small village in the UK would you think it great if the majority of people moving in were foreigners?

gallerie9

Well I dont agree
My best friend in spain in spanish I didnt speak any spanish when we arrived here I can hold a conversation now. We have good times together we have spent many evenings days together in a group with our OH´.s over dinner and the beach and shopping. We spent the whole of Christmas together and the new year and Regis.
Language is only a barrier if you make it one.
I know that if i am in trouble I only need to shout and they will come running.

poollounger

I'm with Gallerie on this. though I do take your point about villages/incomers in Britain. However this applies to Brits as well. In most villages they talk about the 'incomers' regardless of their nationality. My sister has moved to the Isle of Skye and she says she is astonished by the number of English who have moved there, with a sprinkling of Eastern Europeans too. I think the clue is in the 'taking over'. Try and employ Spanish if you can.. or at least an expat who sub contracts to Spaniish people. Try and work within, not by imposing yourself on..
As to language.. we went to our neighbours for dinner shortly after buying our house.. we are not permament residents. Their daughter scoffed at what we would talk about with their lack of English and our rudimentary Spanish. Well we took our dictionary, chatted in broken Spanish and French and were never bored. We shared our tastes in music and food, travel etc etc. We now chat about gardening, and now we also talk about our families and relationships. They told us that it was not usual for Spanish to fraternise with their neighbours, but this is now changing.I admit we are fortunate in that all our other Spanish friends do speak superb English, and are kind enough to talk English to each other in our presence, which I hate myself for, hence my determination to learn the lingo. To anyone following this thread...don't be deterrred...yes there are generalisations.. try living in Frankfurt.....but in the end it's down to you!!

gallerie9

That is how it is with us to, My OH loves football and that is an international language and we learn spanish from them and they learn english from us, we have some of the most fantastic laughs.
We used the local people to do our restoration and I shop in the local shops, it all makes a difference to the way we are treated.
A gehtto is a place where people live who do not want to intergrate, We wanted to experience a different culture and thank fully we have been welcomed.

Lis48

Just come off the phone to my OH´s elderly Mum. She lives in Wrexham and was moaning for an hour about the number of Polish in her town now. They´ve even opened a Polish shop and a Polish bar she said and she can hear more Polish being spoken in the supermarket than English. Individually she doesn´t really mind them, but she´s scared of them en masse taking over and changing her world so regards them with suspicion while saying good morning at the same time to be polite. She thinks they might push prices up, prevent the grandchildren from getting a decent education at school, stretch the medical waiting list, etc. etc. etc. Sound familiar?

Carol&John

[QUOTE=gallerie9;4889612]That is how it is with us to, My OH loves football and that is an international language and we learn spanish from them and they learn english from us...[QUOTE]

Hola! I agree with the football quote. Funny, how I can switch off whether it be in english or spanish!
Regards,
Carol

jeanc

[QUOTE=poollounger;4888594]I think your question is too broad. No one can like or dislike a particular group of people en masse. It would be foolish to expect them to like the Brits as a whole,
If you read my question I did not just say Brits.