bil

My mother was once talking to another woman in our village in the UK, and the woman referred correctly to some obscure piece of village history. My mother replied humourously 'Not bad for a foreigner!' to which the woman replied, 'Do you mind, I've lived her for 45 years!'

My Mother answered 'Yes, but your grandmother wasn't born here, was she?'

My great grandmother was born there, so I qualified.......

All this integration stuff is open to interpretation, just as is fluency, and trying to define either term is a bit like nailing blancmange to a wall.

macgirl

Do they teach only in their language at school?
In Catalonia, there are not a single school in spanish. They teach spanish as if it was a foreign language, several hours a week, like English. Of course, many people talk in Spanish in the streets and at home.

Rotor

Ive never seen Chinesee mixing with any other nationality ,if fact quiet the opposite, they keep themselves to themselves, based on that you could argue that the Brits integrate better than most ,I and friends regulary socialise with Spanish and other ex pat nationalities living in Spain,seems like the theory Brits dont intergrate as well as others is nonsense.

I

macgirl

A famous politician in Catalonia said that if you are not at least fifth generation born catalan you are not a catalan.

By integration I just meant mixing with people from the place or from other countries. I know many of you do it, but you are famous for doing it less than others. I just wondered why.

I don't think anyone has more rights in a place for having a great great grandmother from the place. I hate that idea. I think all of us have the same rights anywhere, wherever we come from, and we can say what we want about the place even if we just arrived!

Here in Spain, you find that problem even at work. If you are new, all the "veterans" look at you as if they go first and you have to go at the end of the cue... You can hear often "I have been working here for 30 years", as if that gives them special powers...

The same the school. New children suffer that situation. We should become more "humans"!

macgirl

The link has always been there. I only edited the first one because I wrote several repetitive questions. I would edit all my post to correct my English!

Why was I going to delete the link? It's just a conference about integration. There are hundreds of research papers on British Expats in Costa Blanca! Hundreds!

It was just plain and "healthy" curiosity. I choose that sentence to ilustrate what many people think. But of course all we have similar "problems" or misunderstandings wherever we go.

Sorry if I seemed suspicious... it was not my intention to provoke anyone. I just though we could talk about it in a civilized way.

Dick Dasterdly

Two excellent posts steviedeluxe.

bil

That's fine providing incomers do their best to integrate, learn the language and don't expect the locals to change for them; and also that the locals are pleasant and helpful to the incomers.

Dick Dasterdly

Exactly, it takes two to tango.

There's a major problem up in Sweden where the vast majority of immigrants have failed to integrate, mostly live in their own areas and have even developed a new language based on a mix of their own nationalities.
Without a doubt the fault lies in both directions as the Swedes are not natural mixers and tend to stick very much in their own little cliques even amongst others of their own nationality

pwwm

I dont think it harder to learn when older, I am older 62 next month, but I will have to admit to a few expats here, and we dont have many, but the fact they will tery but not actually go and learn, even diy books. Personally I want to learn and have great fun with Conchi not her real name she hates that

Mitzyboy

I wonder why you think we are famous for doing it less.

Near here I know of an area of predominantly German owned houses, and it's known as Little Germany. There's a town not so far from here called Els Poblets ... I popped in there for a coffee at the weekend, and without exception everyone I heard there was German. The restaurant menus were in German, the owner is German. Theres a street a short distance away on our urb called Hill Street, but the sign is in German.

I don't know of anywhere around here that is similar for Brits ... I'm sure they exist, but so do they for many other nationalities.

macgirl

The Swedes... it's true. Think of IKEA. All of us know what EXPEDIT, PAX, FAKTUM,.... mean! I can't imagine a Spanish shop outside Spain (nor inside!) serving food with little Spanish flags on it. They sell their culture/language around the world! We have a new ad in TV where spanish people sing in swedish!

Dick Dasterdly

Can't entirely agree with that.
No doubt lots of old ppl still have all their faculties and sharp and active minds.
Unfortunately many old ppl do not and can only handle an extremely limited intake of information.
In addition I would mention that ppl in geneneral have varying abilities with regard to learning languages.
For instance I have a daughter who seems to have a virtual photographic memory and rarely has to look at anything twice to remember it, however in a practical sense she is not quite so smart.
I have a son who like myself may have to read something numerous times before memorising it, yet in a practical sense is as sharp as lightning.

JLFS

I think you have misunderstood my post, it was my little joke, but obviously it does not read that way, hence the confusion,

IT MUST BE THE WAY I TELL¨EM.

I was trying to say that as 1/5 of the worlds popluation is Chinese, and as our families number over 100, then at least 20 of us MUST be Chinese, but they are so well intergrated that we dont know which ones are Chinese and which are not.

JLFS

I agree viz you, ze Germans tend to mix less viz other nationalities, zay seem to buy hauses to be near ozer Germans, whereas ze Inglish vill be a bit more open about vere zay live, even zo zay would prefer to live viz ozer English, it is not so important.


Ya voll

jimenato

Stop it - it's starting to hurt