dios41

Has anyone ever done this? Gone into a busy Spanish bar to order a coffee, and waited to be served like one would in the UK, only to find that people are coming in and shouting their orders at the bar staff willy nilly, and then being served soon after. If you stand in-line like we do in the UK you could be there for a very long time. Don't ever be shy to shout out your order, it's not rude here, that's just the way things operate within a Spanish bar.

HBG

I don’t suppose it was the OP’s intention, but any discussion of differences between British and Spanish people is easily blown off course when personal prejudices come to the surface.

I’ve spent more than a third of my life in Spain and can honestly say that I haven’t noticed any major differences between the two peoples. When it comes to history, art, literature and culture in general, I don’t think you can put a cigarette paper between them.

And even when you compare specific and irksome behaviour by minorities in either country, I guess it would be a draw too. The major differences that I can see are the climate and the language – and the way they drive round roundabouts.

dios41

Sorry but I totally disagree with you. Whether you like it or not we are very very different indeed. And a great deal of this difference is brought about by the different religion and beliefs. Spanish people dress differently, eat totally different food to British people, they eat five meals a day at completely different times. They generally stay up much later, they party much more than we do. They live on the streets far more than we do due to the difference in their climate. Their houses are constructed very differently to ours, consequently their way of living within the house is very different. They die and have to be in the cemetery within two days. Generally they don't look after their cars, have you never seen parking Spanish style? I could go on for hours.
Their history is also very different to ours. It wasn't very long ago that they lived under a dictatorship, they were very restricted in what they could say and do, Valenciano's for example just like Catalan's were not aloud to speak in their own language and were severely beaten if not heard to be speaking in Castellano.

rugbymatt

Nah... of course it wasn't!

dios41

You going to join in or just ponse about then?
If you have been living here for any length of time you must have seen some differences?

Having said that I had to visit Torrevieja the other day and it was just like being back in the UK. And Illegal Brit cars everywhere.

rugbymatt

Hmmm......

HBG

Looks like you were right, Matt.

dios41

I get this enormous impression that you are living in Spain but within a little Britain, am I close?
Because this is the only conclusion that I can come to as to why you really don't think there's much difference between the two peoples as you put it.
I realise that well over ninety percent of British people living in Spain only circulate among other British people, and if this is your case this would be exactly the reason why you have not noticed any difference so far. There is nothing wrong with this at all. It just means that you will never get to see it.

johnnyone

Another thread going down its usual route.

dios41

If your experienced in this, could you please tell me what the usual route may be, because this is completely new to me.
I guess that this type of discussion is never going to work?

jackytoo

I'm bored now

dios41

Me too!

steviedeluxe

No, because it's fairly easy to say "Hola!" on entering the bar (perhaps with a "buenos dias" or "buenas tardes"), give your order, and then get served 100 times faster than you would in a Starbucks. There again I've seen tourists enter a UK pub, sit at tables for a while, then edge up to the bar, and eventually realise they've got to force their way to the front of the queue in order to get served. A different etiquette, but people generally soon learn.

steviedeluxe

Thinking about it, it does take some time to pay up on occasion...

dios41

Just thought of another Steve, How many pubs in the UK could you go into and order a round, even two or three and not pay for them until you got up to leave?