Good point! I do wonder about the posters (mainly UK based it seems!) who obsess with the "integration" word, and think it's some kind of betrayal if an expat lives with, and gets on with local Spanish people.
If you've been brought up and educated in the UK, you're British and will remain so, even if you locate abroad. Of course you'll probably find life better if you adapt to local surroundings - learn the language, cook using local ingredients etc. But you don't change nationality by moving house!

also a good point Stevie.
I have no problem in extending my mediterranean diet started in the UK with local produce.
and I find the meat tastes better straight from the butcher rather than from a supermarket supply chain.

can't understand why people (mostly living in the UK) should be so scathing about people wanting and trying to "integrate" in the Spanish way of life whilst not making comment on those around them in the UK who have no intention of "integrating" with UK life, worse - imposing their way of life on the UK and demanding change to their imported requirements. Even worse is the UK is giving in to them because of the fluffy bunnies saying it is wrong to discriminate.
Can you see that ever happening in Spain ??

exactly

it's different for my kids - they've both spent more than half their lives here & have been educated here - they're 'Spanglish' if you like, but becoming more Spanish as time goes by

my older daughter is actually struggling to not speak Spanish to the girls this year - the only time she ever speaks English now is with me

I mentioned this to the co-ordinator last night - the 'film crew' was a couple of Spanish girls who speak some English - they said 'oh yes, it's so good for English kids to try to learn Spanish when they live here - she'll be speaking Spanish in no time

you should have seen their faces when my daughters spoke to them in 'native' Spanish they said they would never have known they weren't Spanish if they hadn't heard them speak English first


I don't like the word 'integrate' either .... especially when it is used in a negative way

The great thing about Spain (for expat, native-born and visitors) is that whatever you look for, you will find. The experts call it confirmation bias. So if you want to think that Spanish culture is superior to that from other countries, you will find instances that support your view. If you think that all brits in Spain are drunken ignoramuses then you'll see some and think "A ha!"
If you want to believe that the UK is full of unhappy people all on the rat-race then I'm sure you can find that, too.

The point is, all of these things are true - and none of them are. Spain is just another country. In parts wealthier than others with a strong cultural tradition and technological innovation. In other parts a poor, deserted land with high unemployment scraping an agrarian existence. Within those extremes you can find any combination of the good, the bad and the ugly that supports whatever preconceptions you may have.
The same goes for expats. Some are indistinguishable from Spanish-born who have never left the country, others are living "England in the sun" but most are somewhere in between.

ISTM the key to living a satisfied, optimistic live out here is to just get on with it and enjoy the good while avoiding the bad. I realise that not everyone wants to live a satisfied, optimistic live - but those can continue as they are. The thing to remember is that no matter what you think of the other people in your view of the world, ultimately none of them are better or worse individuals than you are - just different.

Excellent post Pete I know one couple who eat at 6.30 on the dot in Spain, we thought it crazy, infact we never eat until 8pm or later in the UK. However, they are very nice people. I don't think it matters if people integrate or not, they spend their money and take their choice. Who do you think a bar owner prefers...the woman who sits with a coffee for 2 hours boring them with her stuttering Spanish or the 4 ex-pats who have a few G&T's and egg and chips

When these threads start it's like an AA meeting with everyone coming forward to say how loved they are by the Spanish yadda yadda Wouldn't someone who calls themselves integrated be spending time on a Spanish forum, chewing the fat about local issues etc

Oh and Stevie, I may be in the UK now (like you!) but I was spending time in Spain with Spanish relatives before I can even remember.....I know all the inhouse culture

Yes - very well said Pete.

The best post I've read on here for a very long time, Pete.

I had an Aunt...Polish Jew who still cooked Polish food until she died a few years ago.I Still like beetroot soup and semolina

maybe this is going too far though..... on FB this morning....

If you have pubs called O'Neills and the Dubliners in Madrid, why is it so wrong to have a pub called the Red Lion on the CDS? Come to think about it, I know places called La Tasca or even Mumtaz Indian Restaurant in the UK. I may not think McDs serve top class produce, but they're within their right to open up either in the UK or Spain.

Costa Blanca actually - but it hardly matters

well exactly - I think the guy who started the thread is looking for 'real Spain'

you know - where everyone rides donkeys & pumps water from a well

TOGETHER

I think you hit the nail on the head. You aren't like the stereotype and many aren't. But it's just that...a stereotype because there are are a small but significant proportion that are selfish, rude and obnoxious. It's not just British Expats either. There are the type that get their 'people' a bad name in every race in every country they move to. Unfortunately. It's a shame that those who aren't then have to go twice as far to prove that we aren't like the ones who are like the Stereotype.

Strange thread, what does it matter?

Funny thing, when I was growing up in the UK we obviously mixed with some Spanish people, and I don´t ever remember anyone being hung up/peeved about this.

I don´t think the word integration every cropped up, or knew of its exexistence|_
People were getting on with their lives.

Also I often wonder where some posters lived before coming to Spain, because their posts seem to say that they have been welcomed and accepted by the locals, as though it did not happen to them in the UK.

We have always been accepted wherever to such and extent that we have never measured it (like some on here).

Also, we have never felt the need to go out of our way to disprove the stereotype image, why some posters seem to live their life trying to "show" they are different to the rest of the Brits in Spain is beyond me.

They seem to be living their life as though it is an audition, to make up for the what they see as ther shortcomings of their countrymen, how sad is that?

seems like you came from the same UK as i did. it made no difference where you came from, you all mucked in together.

but that has changed - drastically.
we now have communities for one nationality after another. preference is given for donations so they can have "their" social meeting place or club whilst everyone else has to "go to the pub".
we have councils paying fortunes to get a string of leaflets printed in 16 different languages/dialects to "make them feel at home". whilst I sweated over a hot computer to fill in all my Spanish (only) documents.
we have school classes where indiginous Brit children are in the minority and as in the case of my daughter - visited a mosque before visiting a CofE church as a school project. Where Brit kids are learning more of other languages than they are of our own national language.

that isn't being racist, it is just a commentary of our times that we bend over backwards to let them in, and wonder why it is us that isn't integrating with them.
Surely it should be the other way round

Integration takes time, it needs to have a desire by all parties, it cannot come from a Govt law or edict or from DM headlines. To make it happen overnight then it causes rifts, splits and problems