scampicat

In the UK I love :

The green grass
The fact that so much stunning scenery can be fitted into one small place
Rivers with water in them
Indian Take-aways
Fish and Chips

In the UK I hate :

The lack of family values
Political Correctness
'Nanny' State
Consumerism and 'keeping up with the Jones's'
Traffic!

In Spain I love :

Family values
The sunshine
The friendliness of the Spanish people
Lack of Traffic
Cost of living
Laid-back lifestyle

In Spain I hate:

Bureaucracy
Cruelty to animals
Not being able to find an Indian restaurant
Finding all clothes for womeen my age are 'fogeyish'
Plastic Greenhouses
Golf Courses

scampicat

[QUOTE=scampicat;4918868]In the UK I love :

The green grass/none in my part of Spain for around ten months of the year!
The fact that so much stunning scenery can be fitted into one small place
Rivers with water in them/Water???? River?????
Indian Take-aways
Fish and Chips

In the UK I hate :

The lack of family values /These are alive and well and flourishing in Spain
Political Correctness/?Que?
'Nanny' State
Consumerism and 'keeping up with the Jones's'/Shall I have one sardine or two?
Traffic!/Empty Roads

Highlighted in blue are my opinions ofdifferences between the two countries.

Mitzyboy

Political correctness & the Nanny state


Scampi ... you beat me to it!

poollounger

Interesting responses. Family values seems to be a very common issue. Spain has a rising number of single parents and non married co-habiting couples, recognises gay marriage but not civil partnerships. When I was a youth worker the kids would all discuss the films and videos they had watched when their parents were out. Silence of the Lambs was a favourite, much more gruesome than the Exorcist which is almost black comedy. It was them who told me about a certain website that specialises in photos of gruesome accidents, like Kennedy's autopsy pics and pictures of decapitations. I remember a bpook of adventure stories I had as a boy, All about people being boiled in oil and hung drawn and quartered. Perhaps the Spanish have got it right, let them watch with their parents ?? I watched Last Tango in Paris again last night and the sex scenes were tame compared to what we now have in mainstream TV.. I remember the fuss it caused when it first came out, likewise films like Sunday Bloody Sunday. Spanish kids socialise with their parents, they learn patterns of behaviour at an early age.
There is a really interesting programme called Sex with Mum and Dad currrently on BBC3. Radical, embarassing, but thought provoking. Where are the young getting their yob behaviour from?? It doesn't come out of thin air.
Yes the Spanish do have their problems.. but I wonder if this is possibly because their young people are now seeing and acquiring different role models.

Mitzyboy

The family values issues has always been very high on my list of what ultimately causes, or should I say contributes greatly, to yob culture. When I was a kid all our meals were together as a family. We did things at the weekend as a family. You felt like part of a family and you picked up respect and values.

Nowadays quite often the parents are out at work so much, kids have to cook their own tea, spend time on their own or go out on the streets and hang around on street corners.

Here in Spain ... well in this area anyway, I notice the family unit is well intact.

Lochy

It does seem to be one of those generalisations which is true. We're brought up in the UK to believe that when we're teenagers, we shoudln't get on with our parents and that every teenager should be moody, depressed and rebellious. And yet that's not the case here - kids seem togenerally get on with their parents. SO much so that parents can't get rid of them out their house until they're 35.

poollounger

But Spanish have single parents and working couples.. they just deal with it differently. The husband of my Spanish friends passed thru London on his way to a conference. When I asked where the kids were that night, as his wife has a busy academic career, he said they were at the uni with her !! Their kids stay up late in school hols...at the feria they decided when they were tired and wanted to go home. We cannot stop change, but we can examine how we deal with it. Watch Sex with Mum and Dad on BBC 3 if you can... a frighteningly novel approach to teenage sexual behaviour, but seemingly it works. And the sex therapist is Dutch, and Holland has much lower rates of teen pregnancy.

Lochy

SOS adolescentes on Cuatro ( i think ) makes interesting viewing as well. Not sure if it's still on though...

lynnxa

True.......but a lot of brits bring their 'values' with them

We have always eaten together as a family in the evening.........thankfully now later rather than at 5pm, now that the kids are older........

One english family I know, the kids eat at about 6pm, are in bed by about 7.30pm, so that mum & dad can eat together...in fact dad won't even have them in the same room while he is having his dinner

Consequently the kids have no table manners whatsoever, and I dread them coming here to play with my kids.............although i have finally learned not to bother cleaning the dining room when they are coming....I swear more food ends up on the floor than in their mouths....and they can't sit on a chair for more than a minute!

I mentioned this to the mum...a very good friend of mine.........she thought it was amusing

tommyg

I hate to disagree with most on here, but even though manners in the UK are on the decline, they don`t exist in Spain at all. Maybe in a little town/village where they are delighted you are spending money, they are polite, but believe me in towns manners are non existant. We were actually told by a Spanish neighbour, that we don`t ever say por favor it`s only the tourists that do. Having said that it`s not a problem as you soon get used to barking out requests in shops without ever saying thank you, the staff don`t react any differently to you, indeed the staff almost have more respect towards you. A classic example is walking 2 abreast on a pavement towards a Spanish couple is always interesting as they usually walk straight at you, clearly expecting you to step out of their way. As holiday makers we use to as we had manners, but after a while you think FFS, why can`t you move for a change. So now we also walk 2 abreast and at the last second one of us will go behind the other. They usually continue 2 abreast and we collide. This usually is followed by a few Spanish expletives at which point we laugh at them.

Another example is how rude older men (sexist they certainly are) to female staff in shops, almost throwing the money at them and then waiting for them to pack their bags.

Once you get over this you can have a real laugh, but please don`t make out the Spanish are perfect.

Tom

Mitzyboy

Tom, imho thats just because Spanish attitude is different ..... Brits are naturally polite sometimes to the point of painfullness.

Even though the please and thank you are not there around here, people still smile as they serve you, and apart from the odd old mad woman who bludgeons herself to the front of the supermarket queue with her bag of onions I haven't had too many problems

Rosemary

I was told before I came here to live that the Spanish do not queue so wondered if I would ever get served in a shop. The reality is so different, whether in the supermarket, butchers or doctors I have found that they all check out who was first etc and if you only have a couple of items they always let you go first.

Rosemary

Mitzyboy

Apart from the mad old lady with the bag of onions of course ... don't forget her!

chrisw

Hi all! I agree with all the above statements re thing to hate, ESPECIALLY the "Nanny State" and "Political correctness"! :curse:It seems we fought for freedom and now this is gradually being taken away from us to the point that we are all assumed to be "morons" unable to make decisions for ourselves!
Believe what you see on the TV news, it IS all true! Our young generation have largely become "binge drinkers" I work with a large number of young people who are really lovely people, and who I get on with extremely well. But the vast majority of them regularly binge drink to the point that they don't know what they are doing, turn up for work hungover and spend most of the next morning in the loo disposing of "the evidence".
At Christmas, the local authority install urinals on a piece of waste land in the City because of the problems of "doorway deposits". Ambulances and Police are constantly in attndance because of fighting or passing out through overdrinking.
I think a lot of it is peer pressure, but of course this can only continue if family values allow or accept this type of attitude or behaviour.
It is REALLY refreshing for me to hear that the young people in Spain CAN and DO have a good time without having to get drunk to be able to enjoy themselves. Isn't this strange when Spanish children are permitted to drink (albeit that it may be watered down) at home with the family from a very early age. Surely there is a lesson for us to learn here.
HUGE big flashing red speed signs fitted in rural villages! :curse: HELLO, who is going to see them????? If they cut the hedges back motorists would be able to see the EXISTING speed signs!
Resurfacing roads that don't need doing , and not resurfacing roads that do! :curse:They have spent a whole week doing a road about half a mile away. The road is about quarter of a mile long and they have just COMPLETELY resurfaced it, involving detours an' all. There are 3 or 4 houses down that road! Our road is crumbling to pieces and serves hundreds of people!
Traffic light EVERYWHERE and as many per square mile as possible! :curse:
No independent shops, only chain stores or franchises!
I have got to stop myself here because I seems as though the list is endless!
Since having been a member of the forum, have read hundreds of posts, but have yet to read anything which would deter me from moving to Spain. Nowhere is perfect, but it is more than good enogh for me! I am so looking forward to making the move (whenever that will be! God willing not too long!)
You guys are SO lucky to be there already and clearly love your new lives. Savour it you are definately in the right place!
Chris XXX

Sally

What's your Blood Pressure mate?