Instead of going off topic on the No Smoking thread, I thought we could try and sort this guiri thing out.

When we lived in the UK we were often known as -that foreign family, we did not take offance as we were a foreign family.

People who did not know us soon worked out that we were not local as soon as we opened our mouths.

As we spent so much time in the UK, on returning to Spain, we are still classed a guiris, and skitted for our guri ways.

That fact that my wife and I have the same surname is a dead give away, is just one example, sometimes the way we phrase thingsin Spanish isanother.
Also I have no accents in my name on any of my official papers from the UK, all clues to my guiriness. As it has been pointed out I dont use accents on this forum, and have bnever had reason to type a letter, all my "problems are sorted out in person or on the phone,
I have a laptop fom the UK, and although it is possible to put accents on, I would not have a clue. Also I dont mind admitting that I might even put them in the wrong place.(GOD HELP ME IF THAT HAPPEND ON THIS FORUM)

But what can you expect from a Guiri


Do we get offended, NO, I dont feel any more insulted being called a guiri (foreigner) than being called foreign in the UK.(because I was)

Of course there are different ways of saying the words, which can change the meaning, and then it can become a bit of an inslult, but mostly it is foreigner, no more, no less.

In fact apart from the first few years of my life I have always been classed and a foreigner.

So no matter how well you learn the language you will alway be a guiri.

So why not be proud, and say I am a guiri and proud, a bit like gay pride day..............

Hey,Ill be a guiri with you.

Weve heard people say it about us even when we havent spoken-I guess its the blond hair blue eyes type thing.

Im not offended.Its a term of phrase.

Spanish people have bent over backwards to help us at times which is more than I can say for some other brits abroad in certain areas!!!!!!

I can also say that the brits we have come across in Valencia have been very nice also.

Hola from another guiri

Just wanted to agree with what you are saying, also that i have no clue where to put the accents either and, also, can i go off topic just quickly and ask you a question....

you say you and your wife have the same surname...is she english? I am married to an English man and i was told i cant take his surname, so i was curious when i read you two have the same surname, and would like to go how you went about it! Unless she is english then i guess that's that?

how long were you in the uk guiri?

I have recently had two experiences of this word.

A few weeks ago I was "talking" with Rosy, one of the spanish moms in the cafe, who has been helping me with my spanish.

Anyway, I called myself a "guiri" in jest and she tried to explain that I am not. A foreigner yes, but a guiri, no.
She says it a person from the pueblo, who wears socks and sandals, and is a uneducated. Now that doesn't describe me !!

Then my spanish teacher laughs at the way I pronounce some words (especially my feeble r's - I just can't hit them strong enough). He said during a lesson that I sounded so guiri. I didn't take offence. I give as good as I get !

What I do think is that "guiri" is a term that is used to mock foreigners, in a jokey way or a nasty way, depending on the tone, etc.

Either way, I prefer foreigner.

We are what we are!! We're not spanish. Whether I like it or not I'm from England and was born and raised there. I didnt like living there and its not where I would have chosen to be from - but hey, I cant do anything about it. I like Spain, I like the Spanish and I'm lucky enough to live here and I'm trying to learn the language, I'm as friendly and as polite as I can be with everyone I meet here and so far I've not had any hostility or rudeness back - far from it.

Am I a guiri - I guess so, I'm also lots of other things.... Blonde/Rubia, Female/Chica, Woman/Mojere, A Mother/madré......., I dont really care what I'm called. Its just a word. I certainly cant take offense if someone calls me a guiri, cos I barely understand whats being said anyway.

So they can call me what they like, I'm happy and ok with it!

Jo xxx

My wifes parents are Spanish, but they lived in the UK. Her brother was born in Spain and she was born in the UK, but as we were married there we both just habve the one Spanish surname. MINE


It was so much easier to drop the second surname to avoid confusion, otherwise you would end up with your second surname becoming you main one and the fisrt surname would just become an initial.
As I have stated before there was no facility to put both surnames on English documents.

I passed my driving test and got my national insurance number in the UK, so I carried on using the name I have always used, here in Spain.

I cannot pinpoint the exact time that I lost half my name because I was only a child, I lived in the UK for over 25 years, so that is how I know a lot about the UK.

I am Spanish but lived here until I was about 6 or 7, so apart from a couple of years in Spanish school in Galicia, I went to British schools, so that is how I know such a lot about the UK. (comments have been made about that before on this forum).

But that does not alter the fact that I am Spanish and Spanish born, which has also been questioned on here.

We have lived in Spain for a few years now, this is the only time that we have done so as adults.
We have come to live in Spain as A LOT OF EXPATS DO ie, wanting British tv, papers, food etc. We enjoy the fact that we can get all of that in Spain.


We dont feel the need to slag the UK off, because it has been good to us and we loved living there, and if I am being honest, I much prefer the British ways.

We love living here in Spain, because we are in a position to do so, we are not looking to change our "british" habits because were are mongrels and a mixture of both "cultures."

AS I SAID BEFORE GUIRI AND PROUD..........OI OI OI

Yeah yeah yeah, but what about the burning issue of animal cruelty?

IS your husband Spanish and did you get married is Spain?

We got married in the UK, so we just followed the system there.

Animal cruelty is just that ANIMAL CRUELTY, and should be stamped out everywhere, Spain inculded.

Bullfighting, far from being sport, or as some call it "an art" is animal cruelty on a grand scale, and made for entertainment. Which is totally wrong.

If you started an animal cruelty thread, it would be a good one, I am sure loads would post on it.

cheers

Consider it done, far be it for me to hijack a thread... but be warned you terminal hijackers, I have my eye on you all!

Hi JLFS

I am spanish too (i lived in the uk for 12 years and we came back here one and half years ago), my husband is English and we got married in Spain. I enquired about the surname change but they looked at me as if i was nuts

I read somewhere i could change my name in the uk but here in Spain i'd still have my spanish surname, so basically i'd have 2 passports/dni etc. Hassle!
Oh and when we lived there i did have some confusion with my 2 surnames too...!

Back to the subject, i also miss some english foods, newspapers etc but where we live there are hardly any expats so these things are not available to us!

Precisely. But there are those here that tell us it can only be used in a "mocking the tourist" type way. It can be that, but it can more often than not have no negative connotation at all. Cabrón, can be very strong indeed, but used amongst friends (like bastard), it is used and accepted. A good friend of mine spends most of his time in a wheelchair, and has to be loaded separately onto an aircraft, and he says, I can see them looking a me and thinking, here comes the veg. He'll often push through in his wheelchair, and say Make way, veg coming through. Now I know if I were to call him a veg (which I never would) it would not worry him one iota, but to someone I didn't know, that could be really offensive. As you say, it's entirely how it is said, and to whom it is said. I was reading in a Spanish forum and a Spanish guy, living in UK, was apologising for his lack of accents because he only had a "teclado guiri"
So like you, proud to be a guiri, ¡inglés por los cuatro costados!

Due to circumstances mostly beyond my control, I’ve lived in ‘foreign’ countries for most of my life, but the longest spell was in the UK. I was frequently called names as a child and teenager and soon realised that you can’t fight them all.

I’m also stuck with a Spanish style name, and recently remarried. My wife also has a Spanish style name, and it was her second marriage too. Even a clever gestor gave up when we presented him with a pile of papers to try and legalise it all. It’s impossible.

Because of all the name calling that I have experienced, it doesn’t bother me at all. I maintain that Guiri is not a friendly word, but it depends entirely on the context.

The only time I worry nowadays is when trafico ask for my papers and my wife’s not in the car. It’s in her name because she had her NIE number handy when we bought it. The insurance is in my name. The name on my bank account receipt only has my fist and last name, not the middle one. I’m getting confused just writing down that little lot, can you imagine explaining that to a hard-faced officer from trafico?

‘Mis huevos’ that’s what the impolite ones say, and I have heard guiri spoken quietly to his colleague. I don’t mind, sometimes they get so confused they don’t know what to write on the ticket, and don’t bother.

One and a half years ago Wow that flew by

Nice to meet you featherbum, although I would like to know how a clean living , good catholic Spanish girl, ends up with the name featherbum.

I have my own ideas about that.............
-where are living now?????????????