Rosemary

On 11 June we met a fellow Brit, think the last time was 18 months previously, we were put in the same room in one of the wards. He seemed pleasant enough and we talked to him a reasonable amount. Him and his wife have lived in Spain for 10 years, initially in Oliva but he said that it had too many Brits and he wanted to live with the Spanish so they moved to Sueca where there are less Brits.

After only two days our experience with him made us ashamed of being Brits.

He only spoke English to the nurses and expected them to understand him.

When one doctor came to speak with him he was dismissive and when the doctor was leaving the room he shouted to him to make sure that he brought an interpreter with him next time.

He was telling a nurse at the nurses station about his test results and she called me over to interpret, I told her there was no problem and he was content so she walked away.

One nurse (who we were very friendly with) was speaking stunted English to him, I remarked to Graham that she never had with us and he said that it was because we did not have that expectation of her. Our Spanish is appauling but at least we used it.

When he left there was a full cardboard urine pot left on the side locker.

Accumulated rubbish left for the cleaner.

His wife came from 11.30 a.m. to 2.00 p.m., talked to him but did nothing else.

My point really is that this is the type of person who gives all of us a very bad name.

Graham laughed at me when I got angry with the man and said "I bet this will go on BE", well it has taken a long time for me to do it but felt that I must.

Rosemary

Pocaloca

He sounds like the type of person who gives the human race a bad name, not just the Brits!

Lionda

Sadly he is not alone luckily though there are many of us who behave differently and do our best not to upset anyone. When we lived in Spain we spoke Spanish as often as we could and our neighbours appreciated it and actually helped .. they also laughed a little So what, if we made them laugh it was good You will feel better for getting this off your chest Rosemary

jackytoo

This sort of behaviour is not exclusive to Brits. My Husband shared a hospital room with a Spaniard who left the bathroom in a disgusting state for the 4 days he was there. Not to mention all the winging, moaning and groaning and he was only under investigation...he was no better than a pig! Good and bad in all nationalities don't just blame the Brit!

bxpuser24710519

My spanish is dire too, but I do try to use as much as I have all the time, so much so I do in Uk too hahaha get some weird looks there. I know it is difficult for many of us but I really do think we should at least try and keep trying.

Good to see you dipping your toe in Rosemary now and then.

genegenie

Sorry to say it but the world is full of knob heads.

dunmovin

.... or people made from reject knobheads

mikelincs

I used Spanish whenever I could, and I'm sure shopkeepers etc respected me for it, but I did have to have a go at a fellow Brit, who was making fun of an assistant who was trying to use her limited English to help him while he shopped. It really pissed me off, and I told him so, the assistant thanked me.

amideislas

Well, I have to say, I live in a place where the foreign population is dominated by Germans, and secondly a few Brits.

My personal experience comparing the two are very different.

The Germans generally seem to be of the assumption that in a foreign country, it is necessary not only to speak the language, but if you can't, then it is fundamentally unreasonable to expect that everyone has an obligation to speak German.

Many Brits, on the other hand, seem confused as to why so few speak english, and why the restaurants don't serve fish & chips & mushy peas, or roast beef & puds. Some express their discontent with it by huffing off to the next tapas place to demand fish & chips.

My favourite is when they are trying to speak to somebody that doesn't speak english, and as they become more frustrated, they just speak english louder and slower.

I'm sure you can find them, but very rarely do you see the Germans demanding (or even looking for) schnitzel and bratkartoffeln, or speaking German loudly and slowly to the locals. Most Germans seem pretty charmed with the cultural experience, and seem eager to stumble over their horrible Spanish to ask where they can find the bus, often to be answered in English, of which the vast majority of Germans are nearly fluent.

jimenato

God that sounds awful. Why don't you move to a nicer area?

All the Brits here speak some Spanish and those whose Spanish isn't so good are embarrassed about it.

The only time I've been embarrassed to be English around here was when a customer in a shop shouted "Why don't you speak to me in English" very loudly to a shop assistant. After I had had a word with the customer I explained to the shop assistant that the customer wasn't English but was probably Scandinavian or eastern European or German. She just shrugged in a "I don't care where he came from - he spoke English" kind of way. I guess that happens a lot.

amideislas

Oh, perhaps something more British, where I can get fish, chips, mushy peas, roast beef & puds? And where they speak a "real" language?

No, I'm happy where I am, thanks.

Oh, and have a look at my last post. It may be helpful to actually read it.

jimenato

That's what made me think that I probably wouldn't want to live there. It's not like that around here.

Lynn R

In the town I live in, very few of the (not large) British population speak more than a few words of basic Spanish, and some of them have been here up to 10 years.

Earlier this morning we called at the house of someone we know who has unfortunately been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She had a scan on Tuesday, and when we arrived she said "Oh, it's a pity you weren't here earlier, I had a call from someone at Carlos Haya (hospital in Malaga) but I couldn't understand them so they said they would get an interpreter to call back (at least I think that's what they said."

I just don't understand how people can live that way, I could not bear to be so helpless and not understand what people are saying to me, especially about something so important.

Domino

are these Spanish knobheads or foreign imports ?

Domino

and how many times have I had telephone conversations with people in call centres who tell me the line is breaking up (I need a pee don't take too long), can't hear you very well (its my coffee break - why did I take this call just to meet the numbers)
But as soon as I say "OK, will call you back" they can hear that and hang up first.