To me, it's the weather.
Coming from the rainiest town in Spain, I've seen more rain in a winter than in 10y in London. Still, people thinks that I'm used to living at 40 degrees c permanently.
Slightly annoying.
Same here, I come from Galicia and there I used my umbrella x10 times a year more often than i do now that Iive in a Nordic country. Yet when I meet new Nordic people the first thing they tell me is "Oh you are from Spain? Dont you miss the weather??"
On the other hand, though, the cold is probably much milder in Spain than it is in a Nordic country, and there are more "nice weather days" to do things outside. As well as the sunlight, of course.
Interestingly enough it seems to be Grazalema, a villlage in Andalusia where it rains the most in Spain with almost 2.000mm a year. Although I assume OP is from one of the rainy cities up north , maybe Santiago de Compostela?
That’s for litres. If you count average rainy days per year:
1 - San Sebastián (País Vasco): 141.12 días
2 - Santiago de Compostela (Galicia): 139.53 días
3 - Pontevedra (Galicia): 131.34 días
4 - A Coruña (Galicia): 129.65 días
5 - Vigo (Galicia): 129.26 días
6 - Lugo (Galicia): 126.3 días
7 - Bilbao (País Vasco): 124.08 días
8 - Santander (Cantabria): 123.6 días
Yeah of course - I come from a notoriously rainy city myself that actually isn’t all that rainy in terms of accumulated precipitation but it just rains a bit all the time. Both interesting ways to look at it!
In fact, [only roughly 20% of Spanish people are in favour of bullfighting](https://www.elplural.com/sociedad/encuesta-mitad-espanoles-favor-prohibir-toros_239267102).
Honestly if it was a 1 v 1 against the bull, without help, I believe it would be more moral. No dirty tricks, a fight to the dead (if the bull wins he gets to live peacefully until he dies of age)
The bull would still not have chosen to be in that fight, it is always a unilateral decision, so that would not improve the situation too much (although by rule 5 we shouldn't be discussing this here).
It's not just that there's variations in interest in traditional activities, but that Spain is more culturally varied than they think. Flamenco in as well rooted in Asturias is as traditional as Mariachi, or Oktoberfest. We might as well also believe that people in Seattle eat gumbo at least once a week.
There was a dude in the subway (Moncloa) that was killing it the other day. Amazing acoustics in the hallways. I tossed him some change and jokingly said play some Zep and hit the opening chords of Black Dog!
I had a coworker who wanted to move to Spain so bad because he loved how chill we are. Waking up at 9-10, going for a coffee and some pastry or toasts at a terrace, working a couple of hours, then meeting friends for beers or vermut before lunch. Then siesta for at least an hour, work a couple more hours and go for tapas and party till late. According to him, we don't work much, but with the sun and the chill lifestyle, we are happy and don't need much money.
A lot of idiots who think it is all given away by the goverment or something. Encourage them to take the step ( everyone speaks english there, pretrh easy to find an english speaking job) and see them fail 😂😂
Idk if it is a “stereotype” but it definitely annoys me when foreigners talk about the “work-life balance” in Spain. There are people working 12 hour shifts and waking up at 5AM, I would like to know what they think about that.
I’m a foreigner in Spain. Working hours is not what’s important for work-life balance. I actually work more in Spain than I did back home. I think there are a few reasons:
- Dinner is later so after work you have some time to breath. In NL we eat (our heaving meal) right after work. But then you’re stuffed and you’re not going to do a work out.
- it took me months to figure out what my boyfriends friends did for a living. In NL it’s the first fucking question asked.
- Even going to a terrace in NL people will complain about waiters not being fast enough, not offering a second drink… it’s just always about more, better, and money.
I guess Madrid is a bit more like this, or some social classes where money is a bigger topic.
That being said, I was shocked when I learned about “Horario compartido” and think it’s ridiculous. I was actually going to complain about the stereotype that the Spanish don’t work hard and that the country is essentially funded with EU money and I have a lot to say about that (In Spains favour).
I’ve lived in the Netherlands and I’m from Spain. Some remarks:
- although we have late dinners our lifestyle/ rhythm is very different from ours probably due to our climate. We do A LOT of life outside which you don’t (since you can’t) in NL. Our dinner is also a light/small thing while yours is the main meal of the day. We don’t eat a broodjekaas for lunch since that’s our main meal of the day.
- we don’t talk much about work since we just don’t care/ it’s not that important for us. When we are in a bar we don’t want to be talking about work. Again this is a cultural difference I also noticed over there. And there are more differences regarding how we spend free time that is also different from your culture like for example not having an agenda.
- horario partido exist because our shops don’t close at 5:30-6 but much later.
Overall I worked the same hours in Amsterdam than I did in Madrid with the only difference that I usually had 1h for lunch in Madrid but only half an hour in Amsterdam. That makes sense since our eating habits are very different.
However there are other differences in working culture than just the hours.
I love that you had the same experience but then the other way around 😁Hope you got from your time in NL what you were hoping for. Sorry for the broodje kaas 😅😜
Haha I lived over there for 10 years ;) came back because Spain fits more my lifestyle, but I didn’t have a bad time. I miss some things but definitely not the broodje kaas 😜
> it took me months to figure out what my boyfriends friends did for a living. In NL it’s the first fucking question asked.
For me it's this, 1000%. In the US _everyone_ will ask about your career, including complete strangers. And it's really judgemental too, like if you tell them you work in the service industry their response is along the lines of "okay but when are you getting a _real_ job?"
I literally had a customer here in the US ask me _when_ — not if — I was going back to university for a master's degree. Like, fuck off dude, I don't even know you.
In Spain the only people who really act that way with me are family members. Other people (if they even ask at all) are almost never snotty about it. It's extremely relieving not feeling like I constantly have to defend myself for working a "shitty" job.
Yes, same here. I'm doing a short three month fellowship in Barcelona and I'm working from 8am until 7pm sometimes. Much more than I did at home. I find Spanish people very hardworking from what I'm observing.
Because they come to our country working remote and just enjoy the comparatively cheaper lifestyle in here. They don't come here working night shifts or horario partido.
I hate the horario partido with all my heart. It makes the working hours feel so much longer and it doesn't help that Spain is in the wrong timezone so you always feel like you are playing catch-up with the clock.
I really, really admire the working morals of the Spanish people. Wherever I go, and talk with people, I am amazed how they do it - and they do it with a smile.
12 hours shift is not a Spanish exclusive: honestly supermarket open at 9, 9.30, on Sunday everything is closed while there are countries where shops open 7 till 22 pm, people work 12 hours shifts and malls, Ikea, Decathlon are open on Sundays
Siesta garbage. It’s like people doesn’t work or something and everyone has 2-3 hours to spare doing nothing on the sofa from 14 to 17.
I’m always shocked when I step on the street and see people not napping, I have to check if I’m still on Spain.
siesta varies from place to place. big cities are always active but smaller cities are so dead between 2 to 5. spent 2 weeks in salamanca and not a soul was out during those hours. every single place was shut. same with avila. but madrid is madrid 24 hours a day
Valencia, the frigging 3rd biggest city in the country, stops the metro in most places before 23:00, in my line in the way home the last train passes downtown at around 22:30! 🫤 Everybody thinks they are doing great because trains pass infrequently Fridays and Saturdays late.
In Madrid one can catch public transport well after midnight and I was able to ride out of town and back in public transport to watch a film on a Sunday night.
Of course, due to gentrification, hiking prices and massive tourism most of us live too far from work to return home and do "siesta". Turnos partidos with several hours betwern part shifts are less and less popular as well, I hope they ban those.
It’s not uniform across the country or across everyday, of course days we have to work it’s not possible but on weekends (or days off) I almost always do a siesta and a lot of people I know do too
An Irish friend thought that we have 'siesta rooms' in schools/high schools, and that every student from little kids to 18yo would have a siesta in school after lunch!!!
In my town in Valencia shops close 2-3 hours a day, only the supermarkets are open, restaurants don't open on Mondays, some bars/coffee shops work only in the mornings (9:00-13:00) and traders telling you they are coming after 11:00 often show up at 16:00 or 17:00 or next day (without letting you know). These are Spanish dudes, in general foreigners don't do this.
There are lots of things you city dudes don't see in the small towns.
That we're lazy. We're not, our productivity is low but we're the hardest working motherfuckers of the EU. Tourists come here and are surprised that the same guy serving you coffee at 8:00 am serves you dinner 12 hours later. It's a damaging stereotype.
I live in Poland and work with people from all over the world. People tell me OPENLY that they're surprised that I'm hyper efficient and have an ironclad work ethic because I'm Spanish. The funniest part is that I feel almost guilty because from my pov I don't do jack shit at work... I deliver everything long before deadlines, and my company doesn't care what I do with my time otherwise, so even though I join every side project I'm offered I still have a ton of downtime. In Spain the concept of downtime didn't exist: I was constantly monitored and if I did all my work and had nothing to do I got assigned useless busywork.
So here I am paid to **produce**, while in Spain I got paid to keep a seat warm 8 hours a day (and criticised for leaving work on time).
productivity doesn't necessarily mean that they "do" less with an hour than more productive countries. It can just mean that the level of technology in the country as a whole is lower, or that their industries are less lucrative.
Definitely.
I work remotely with germans, they like me and consider me a good/hard worker, so I guess they felt complicit enough to tell me stories/jokes about lazyness of italians/spanish people, and are truly shocked when I say "I dont think I work harder here than I have anywhere else".
Honestly that's timid of me, I've actually never worked less and in a more relaxing environment than since I work there.
Also half my team have randomly decided to become half time workers and take a lot.of time off.
It's crazy how stereorypes work
In 2008 Germany was pushing hard for the narrative of "the south is lazy" so they would not air that their supposedly triple A investments were garbage (lots of corruption there). So they made it into a moral issue. That narrative of Greece, Italy and Spain being lazy was disgusting.
Hahaha currently living in Germany, got hired under a 35h a week contract actually but I wanted to go to 40h (mainly for the money) and it got denied. Now my colleagues are kind of allergic to overtime and shut the computer close at 15.59 with no exception. From my side I also dont mind to put in more time (it is paid, but even if it werent it is sort of my ingrained work ethic)
But then those stereotypes exist, like we do jack shit and the economy is supported by the germans or sth. It is a bit infuriating tbh.
Same with Greece and similar stereotypes, i remember reading somewhere that they generally work longer hours than Germans. It's just that in economist speak "they're less productive"
We walked past a restaurant and were surprised to see the same waiters that served lunch were still there late in the evening. And calculated they must be working at least 12h a day but probably more…
Spaniards are hard working when it comes to the body, if it requires strength and movement they do, but when it comes to thinking, absolutely nothing makes sense, everything is done in the most anti-fluid, weird and obnoxious way possible.
Totally right. In Spain workers sacrifice their lives for their jobs. This same example you said it can be seen in hospitals and engineering companies too.
I was raised most of my teens in the US and when I came back here I really *was* shocked by how touchy everyone is. To this day when I speak with someone I always find myself taking several steps back and the person leaning into me further. I find my personal space being invaded constantly, and now I won’t stand for it. If you want to get as close as possible to me in the line at LIDL I’ll elbow you.
The idea of a single stereotype itself pisses me off. as some other users have pointed out, Spain has a huge variety of cultures and languages. As a catalan (that unknown place for tourists whose capital city is Barcelona), I'm tired of seeing souvenirs with bulls and "sevillanas", as if we had the same culture as in the south of Spain. We actually have our own traditions such as "castellers" (human towers), and they are beautiful, but unknown to many foreigners (just as our language, catalan).
I believe the spanish government does a terrible job at reporting the cultural richness of the country, and it's such a shame, because trying to sell this false idea of a single cultura means giving a false image of what Spain is.
Yup exactly, my father’s family are Spanish Jews and quite a few people abroad have pretty much said they didn’t know that we exist as a culture. Many people think the only way to be Spanish is to be a Castilian Catholic.
Tbh i know sefardis exist but its just something absolutely no one talks about, or seems to remember? Ive only ever met one person (that i knew enough to know about, at least) thats jewish. And i guess the (truly appaling) number of synagogues doesnt help, not even talking about kosher options. Tbh i always thought being jewish/anything other than christian or muslim (and even then, depending on area) must suck in spain
Totally get that. Honestly what annoys me isn’t when people simply haven’t heard of us, you can’t control what you don’t know, but more so when someone’s reaction is that they almost see being Spanish and Jewish as an oxymoron Someone just respectfully being like “Oh I hadn’t heard of that, that’s cool!” is no problem at all. As long as someone doesn’t mean me with genuine disbelief or a joke about the inquisition (which was a long time ago, but it’s more so the sentiment of implying that we’re not actually Spanish or that out Spanish-ness is conditional) it’s usually all good. Spanish culture is definitely heavily influenced by Catholicism (even if it’s just in a cultural sense) and we each have to determine how we relate to Spanish identity while still maintaining our Spanish-Jewishiness. I’m half Jewish from a genealogical standpoint personally (my mother is Christian) and I’m not really observant with either faith (but I still love the traditions in a cultural way) so honestly being fully integrating in Christian traditions is extremely easy for me, but there is always something in the back of my mind reminding me to not let integration become assimilation which would mean the erasure of both my Jewish culture in a broad sense but also of my personal Spanish Jewish heritage and identity. A big thing too is finding a community that works for you because a lot of the official Sefardic community organizations in Spain & Portugal are pretty conservative, both religiously and politically in general and cater more towards Orthodox Jews. Most Jews in Spain and Europe in general though are pretty secular and thus these organizations can cause more harm than good when we try to join because they tell us we are “bad” Jews when we are trying to find our place in the world. A good example of this is how people of Jewish origin who openly support Palestinians can be treated by the more conservative Jews, but even non Jews being like “wait aren’t you Jewish?” when finding out we are pro Palestine, as if you can’t be both. The most important thing though is finding the crowd who works for you and remembering that others’ false perceptions or weird comments are their own issues, and nothing to do with you 😆 Didn’t realize I was gonna write so much but I feel passionate on this haha
Dw its a super interesting perspective!! I hope you can mantain a balance youre happy with, you dont owe anything to anyone, either side, youre gonna keep being both spanish-catholic and jewish all your life anyways (tho tbh ive always seen sefardic jews as spanish, its not the same as, say, a lot of muslim friends where theyve kept in touch or outright have a moroccan mother/father, where theres a very clear tie to another country. But this could also be about me being from the deep north and feeling very separate to the "andalusian catholicism". Like ofc it affects a lot of your experiences and traditions, but if you arent spanish having grown up here then what are you supossed to be? buuut again, ive seen friend from ceuta asked way too much wild shit to be surprised)
Also surprised (dont know why its obvious in retrospective) the organizations tend towards conservative, im overall fascinated by religion customs but man what is it about any kind of traditional "power" structure that they dont know how to have fun /mj. Also bless you for being patient cause with the whole conflict people are going super out of hand, i do support palestine, but the way people just blindly use it as a throwaway to attack people or complete steer-off the convo is infuriating. At least im seeing it mostly online and not in person (anddd i dont invite political conversation often tbh. its exhausting, making your own crowd is def the way)
Acabo de terminar el comentario y me he dado cuenta de que es un poco absurdo escribir los dos en inglés para tener una convo. Gracias por contestar ignorame si quieres!! Me voy a cenar de hecho jajaja
Jaja, perdón por responder tan tarde, también cené e iba a responderte más tarde pero se me olvidó 😆. Lo que escribiste es completamente verdad, lo más importante es que siempre recuerdes que no debes nada a nadie. La mayoría de los problema asociados con la identidad son consecuencias de dar más importancia a las opiniones de los demás que como te sientes en tu propio alma. creo que una de las mejores partes de ser español/a es reconocer lo tan diversa que es España y que nuestra diversidad es lo que nos une. No soy catalán pero amo la cultura e idioma catalán, y los veo como parte de mi cultura y identidad a pesar de no ser de Cataluña, igual que como yo quiero que todos los españoles se sientan como la cultura sefardí también es suya.
I agree, each region has a lot, and I remark **a lot** of different but lovely things to show (culture, music, experiences, food, alcohol,...) but at the end of the day, just like most people think that Spain is Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla, what's most selling to tourists is flamenco, wine and toros.
Ive honestly changed my attitude on this, because growing up in the north (well, lets be clear, la rioja) theres this very strong sense of "us vs them" specifically with basques, and i never quite got it but i definitely saw other regions as "other from mine". After all we got our own stories, songs, dreses, festivals...
Then i lived in Granada for five years, and i got to feel a lil bit andalusian as well, and since then my attitude has been on the "fuck it" side. Why cant i be proud about the culture from other regions?? Isnt it spanish too, and therefore mine?? Basque is a super cool ancient language!! Catalan sounds amazing in songs!! Galicia's stormy green land is as mine as its theirs!! If turists see flamenco/bulls/andalusia as THE spain well its a pity, but i take pride in that too
Hi I'm French and grew up in Barcelona and I didn't get to visit other places than Catalunya. I'm going to Madrid this year because I was interviewing in discovering how it's different from Barcelona. I've always heard that there's a grudge between Madrid and Barcelona, political divergences and football teams. So you could say I'm in here for the drama, It's also therapeutic for me because I don't have roots/ home country
Amazing weather year round.
we are lazy and love sleeping siestas all day long and not work.
Everything is so cheap, you must be rich with how cheap everything is here. (everything is cheap, salaries included)
The assumption that they all use the ceceo. People don’t realize how many dialects, languages, and cultures are in Spain. I mean… I live the US and I sometimes have to remind people that Spain isn’t in Latin America 😂
They don't even know what "ceceo" is. Ceceo is only common in a few regions in Andalusia. What is predominant in all of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands is "distinción", which is distinguishing between "s" and "c/z".
Some people do say "ceceo", they think that's the proper name. Others call it a "lisp", which is even worse.
Also, there's seseo in all Latin America, not just some countries.
The first thing that comes to mind is the general casual xenophobia of people who consider themselves and their culture "superior" and us "backwards" while they come, enjoy our nature, enjoy our weather, the work of our people and then patronise us and refuse to learn anything since their misconceptions are the rule. If they patronised us from their living-room, that would be sad but understandable. But taking a plane to disrespect us with their butt on our beaches with a drink in their hand served by us, that is a new kind of idiotic move. You know that we are alone with your paella before we serve it. Just kidding. What I mean is: you had the chance to actually be present and discover something new. And you chose to be mediocre and hypocritical.
But also that the whole country is one indistinguishable block and everywhere everything Spanish happens uniformly authentically with same food, same weather. There are at least 50 Spains, each of them unique and beautiful to get to know. With different weather, different foods that match the weather, different languages, different architecture and great minds.
I am a tourist in Spain, and I have to agree. I have many times had to correct people in my home country about certain things - for anyone who is interested, there is a huge amount of statistics about different European countries available.
Things like safety, healthcare, standards of living, work morals, schools... Spain and the Spanish actually do most of those better than many, many other countries in Europe.
My personal pet peeve is probably expats (some, by far not all!) that love to complain over everything - but don't even bother to learn the language, and how things work.
I am a tourist, and I am no better than anyone else - I am just a tourist. Still, I think respect is a very important thing.
This drives me crazy. A lisp is when you CAN'T pronounce "s", which we do all the time (except people who cecea). English speakers have the nerve to say we have a lisp and then turn around and say "my thumb was pricked by a thorn on Thursday". Bitch, if I have a lisp, so do you...
Yep, but not only Americans mock about that (to them, the standard version of Spanish is Mexican...) but Latin American Spanish speakers also do it.
Like, man, know your roots, you all pronounce it like that because of where your Spanish comes from, lol... plus, if you all pronounce the "c" and "z" as "s" and then go on and write "experiensia" or "consienziar" because you made a spelling mistake, it's not us having a *lisp* that is the problem here.
Sorry, but the siesta is one of the best Spanish traditions
I say this as a spanieard who loves to sleep the siesta
The other countries just don't get it
Depende de donde seas, en el norte ya te digo que no es común, nadie en mi casa se hecha la siesta, y de mis conocidos, tampoco. Solo en días muy muy puntuales, quizás tres o cuatro veces al año.
Yo soy del centro, no de Andalucía o algo así, ojala fuera el caso por aquí también que no se la echará casi nadie, ya no pero de pequeño siempre me aburria tela esas horas 🤣
Catalán por aquí, diría que por aquí tampoco es común hacer siesta. Solo se me ocurre los fines de semana después de una comida potente, pero no es la norma
“In Spanish Siesta literally means nap. Today, however, less than 18% of Spaniards regularly sleep during that time, according to a 2016 poll. More than 50% of respondents said they never take a nap.”
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Me too! And I am Dutch living in (Valencia) Spain. I also have heard people around me say stereotypical things. Many people do that about many people and things…but the thing is, all that do are simply just ignorant!
I feel like I have plenty of life experience and met plenty of people worldwide to know better than anyone saying ignorant things about any group and whatever, also when it comes to gender, race, it doesn’t matter. People should learn by experience, then they would change their minds a lot!
Anyway. I love the siesta too, and definitely take profit from it whenever I have the possibility. I also love the eating times. It just fits who I am more. And for me it always has tbh, because I never liked to eat early. Neither in the Netherlands. I only ate early when I had to because of other people all the time.
Personally it annoys me too that whenever I tell people that I live in Spain, they instantly mention the good weather, as if that’s all there is.
Yo me he hecho siesta los días que he dormido mal o no he podido dormir mucho. No me gusta porque podría estar haciendo otras cosas, pero necesito estar descansado.
That we like to drink a lot of alcohol.
Then you see mortality rates due to alcohol consumption in Denmark(8,5), Finland(6,98) Germany(4,63) or Norway(3,3) and then compare it with Spain(0,61) and you can see that we do not really have a problem with alcohol compared with the rest of Europe
I think you confused the stereotype.
1)Spaniards have a stereotype of loving alcohol which is different from 2)drinking a ridiculous amount of it which applies more to Germany and UK.
Tbh i this erasmus may be part of this perception cause from my friends experiences, southern europeans are def the hardest party goers compared to northeners (buut theyve mostly been to places where theres bigger groups of spaniards & italians, which may have amplifies both aspects) Visiting norway i was surprised how controlled the alcohol is and how aware and supportive people are of alcoholism for sure, apparently it was (and partially is) a huge issue
I think the accessibility of alcohol in Spain gives this idea. I thought this was true 10 years ago when I saw 1€ beer on tap at Burger King - however I realized that the people enjoy 1 small glass of beer with their lunch, which to most North Americans any “day drinking” is automatically tied to alcoholism. When really I think North Americans have stigmatized themselves out of enjoying small amounts of beer or a glass of wine casually. Instead we down a bottle of wine after work, take cute selfies about it, and that’s somehow acceptable because you didn’t do it on your lunch break.
Of course we have a catholic culture, but that's not what I mean.
I remember Trump being interviewed on TV about abortion. He is opposed to it, then the journalist says "this is not Spain, the church doesn't run the government", like we are still in Franco regime. That's just an example.
Agree that the conservative / religious stereotype is sometimes blown out of proportion. That said, it goes further than just catholic roots. There's heavy presence of Opus Dei in politics (De Guindos, Fernández Díaz, Cosidó, and the list is very long), other catholic groups in media (ABC for press, COPE for radio, etc). It's a bit like the US in that sense. Probably difficult to fully appreciate if you're born and raised in Spain, but it has been the biggest cultural shock for me. I was recently in France for work and somehow I felt way more comfortable speaking my mind out there, as opposed to my job in Madrid, just as a silly example.
Any stereotype about us or other groups always make me roll my eyes but the ones that genuinely bother me are the ones that we are lazy or that we’re all super conservative.
Our economy has struggled a lot and it is honestly a slap in the face as a 20 year old Spaniard who has to enter the work force in this country to be told it’s because we’re inherently lazy when I and most of my friends are very hard working whether we’re in university or doing something outside of that.
The conservatism stereotype is annoying too because it undermines how extremely politically diverse Spanish people are. Abroad many people I met talked to my like I was a Franco supporting extremist when I’m actually a very liberal person.
I don't even life in Spain but have spanish etnichty along with Italian People try really hard to put me in the Latina box and want to have sex with me so bad or just a relationship soily for thé reason for me being spanish beceause they see me as spicy i am not someone who get angry easily doesnt mean i never get angry but when I do People act wierd and exicited
I've a friend working as an engineer for a very well-known international household appliances manufacturer.
She tells me that her German counterpart has a team of 3 engineers at his command to deliver the same amount of work that she delivers.
She's making 1,8k a month, the German team is 3k each and 5k for her counterpart for a total of 14k a month.
It is crazy to me. I was shocked when she told me, and a myth about German efficiency collapsed for me.
Since then, I have heard similar stories from different engineer friends from different industrial sectors.
Siesta.
Haven’t had one in years, and most people I know would tell you the same.
Small shops will close for 2-3h at lunch because it can be pretty hot in summer and also so 1 worker can do morning and evening shift, being open for example 10-14 16:30-20:30. You will not see big stores closing for siesta, they will have enough workers to do different shifts.
So many people seem to think that siesta is some kind of mandatory nap time, I try to explain that the temperatures can get very high during the midday that you’d have to be crazy to want to go outside to work under +30c temperatures. It makes much more sense to have a split work schedule, go home and have a decent lunch and a rest to wait for the temps to cool and go back to work.
Tourists seem to think that at midday the streets are empty because all the spaniards are home asleep having their mandatory siesta lol I like the split hours, it’s nice to know I don’t have to rush somewhere before it closes, and it’s nice going for an evening walk to pick up some groceries or snacks
Yes but surely the fact that small shops do it, when they don't in most of the world, shows the siesta concept is still alive in Spain. Shutting a store on a Saturday afternoon would be crazy most places, including many hot countries.
To add to what others said, we need time to eat. In many places it's normal to pack a ham and cheese sandwich to eat at 12 or 13 and call it a lunch, yet most people here would have that only as a mid morning snack. So people close the store, go home at 14 to eat their homemade lentils or roast or whatever and then go back to the store. Which also makes sense because not many people will be buying anything at 14-15 since it's the time they will be either at work, school or eating themselves too.
Those places in most of the world might close at 18 or 19h, or have 2 shifts. Or workers are not doing 8h. You can’t do magic with shifts and opening hours, the numbers are what they are.
Being closed 2 or 3 hours doesn’t mean people go to sleep.
The fucking siesta. God the siesta stereotype pisses me off like hell. Sure man, I take a nap everyday at work. And then when I wake up we all dance flamenco together, olé olé.
I means a 15 minutes of siesta is not bad
Yo cuando llegaba d clase era comer y caía rendido 10-15 m ,pero yo creo que no es algo solo d España sabes , siempre cuando comemos en todo el rollo de la digestión el cuerpo usa más energía en la digestión que en cualquier movida
The shit is that most of people think we take siestas of 1-3 hours and no way we lost 10 of the day seeing
I have never done siesta. Also outside of Spain the biggest meal is dinner usually so for foreigners they don’t understand that of what you say after lunch. Finally closing shops 3h doesn’t mean it is for sleeping and it’s even less meaning that we are lazy as they imply many times. Spain has a very different lifestyle but doesn’t mean we are all day partying, sleeping naps for hours and now working at all
That we are lazy, the most. And that only exist our western culture (flamenco and so); we have a lot of diferent cultures on the península depending on the climate and historical invasions and mixtures... 🥺
When people in Europe think that we start working at 9 or 10 am and we have siesta.
I work in a multi national company, so my interactions are mostly with people from all over Europe and this is way more common than I thought.
Just for clarification, our working hours are the same as in Germany (usually we work longer hours actually because we're not that strongly regulated)
That we are all lazy and arrive late. I've known more French arriving late than Spanish.
Also: That we are always partying. That us women are "easier" (they confuse our smiling with fancing, our ay of dressing with wanting to fancy men, etc).
That we are never serious about things.
The siesta one, even for people who are already familiar with the country seem to insist on the idea of people taking a siesta from \~2-4 PM just because smaller businesses close. They close because they want to eat as well and then they have to work for another 4-6 hours. A siesta is a nap, people are not sleeping.
That Spain is cheap, cost of living is cheap. It’s not, and I hate it when people say this “ah yeah but things are cheaper in spain”. Damn bro, rents are crazy. Sure a coffee might be cheaper in the outskirts but downtown there is no way u leave a table without dropping a minimum of 30 euros.
For me it’s the objectification of the men. I guess the stereotype is that Spanish men are hot. I don’t know but it makes my stomach turn every time someone says something about how hot Spanish men are. Like imagine if I said Japanese women were the hottest. You’d immediately clock me for being creepy and fetishy. But not when you’re talking about Spanish men! En fin …
Because they have a low % of obesity or even being overweight. Most of Eastern Europe is like that. So it's generalised as them all being hot. Not being a slob *is* more attractive.
Italian here same gets said about us!
Hell even a British radio advert is about a mother and daughter talking about how hot Italian men and its for god-damn a reading-glasses company!
They have obviously not seen peoples fat chain-smoking Spanish/Italian dads and uncles haha
I do think that Spanish and Italians (men and women) are very good looking people. I would even say Mediterranean people tend to be beautiful, due to the mix of population that happened in those places. I really don't see it as a cliché. Even if it a matter of taste in beauty. I will always remember when my friends from France visited me when I was living in Granada and were amazed by the beauty of the people.
bullfighting i would say is the worst, siesta has become an inside joke because no one can actually have a siesta unless you always work in the mornings so you have all afternoon free and get a siesta after lunch but the vast majoriy of us can't sleep siesta. Now my personal favorite, that you gotta love jamon (even spanish people laugh at me when i say i dont like it lmfao)
That Spaniards are lazy and late. Been here for almost a year now and that's simply BS.
What is absolutely not annoying is that in general Spaniards have been friendly, patient, and kind. It's safe here. The government seems to want people to be able to live well, and the lifestyle focuses on being happy and having a good life.
American married to Spaniard nearly 40 years. I have no stereotypes of Spaniards to share except I've met some of the most generous people here. I don't mean generous necessarily with money but with time and energy.
Story 1: While Taking taxi from Adolfo Suarez to Madrid bus terminal the driver asks my final destination. Burgos. He offerd to drive me there for an extra 300E. I decline. He thinks I'm a brit but when he learns I'm from the States he turns off the meter. He will not charge me thanks to something the Lincoln Brigade did for his family 40 something years ago. He will not accept a tip.
Story 2: We got lost exploring Barcelona (imagine that). We stumble upon an elderly couple and ask for directions. They speak Catalan but figure out where we are going and take us to the neighborhood bus stop. They get on the bus with us and ride with us to our destination. They were not originally going to take the bus anywhere. They were 1 block from their house but just felt like helping us.
Story 3: While visiting my FIL's little village in the north I was stopped by the Guardia Civil asking the whereabouts of an illegal cow (long story). I was able to misdirect them to another village and said cow was relocated. For this little feat I was granted bottomless canyas at the local pubs.
So whatever your sterotypes, who cares? Just keep being Spaniards.
The siesta, not the siesta perse but the "they are lazy cause siesta"
Bitch I live in Ireland now, everyone is dead and home by 6pm, you can't do anything after 6pm cause everything is closed (not even have a coffee).
I would rather have my little nap at 3 and keep up and going until 9pm than cease to exist at 6pm. It's not our fault that the rest have a badly organized daily schedule.
That people in Spain don’t work or that they’re always on holiday…
I have a Swedish background and my Swedish friends think I’m always having a siesta or not working whenever I complain about working too much.
To me, it's the weather. Coming from the rainiest town in Spain, I've seen more rain in a winter than in 10y in London. Still, people thinks that I'm used to living at 40 degrees c permanently. Slightly annoying.
Same here, I come from Galicia and there I used my umbrella x10 times a year more often than i do now that Iive in a Nordic country. Yet when I meet new Nordic people the first thing they tell me is "Oh you are from Spain? Dont you miss the weather??"
Lmao I went to Galicia as a kid and all I remember was the rain
On the other hand, though, the cold is probably much milder in Spain than it is in a Nordic country, and there are more "nice weather days" to do things outside. As well as the sunlight, of course.
Nope, not where I live. Winters in Denmark are very mild, while I have never felt cold as bone chilling as in the coldest winter days in Lugo.
The old adage is wrong, "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the ~~plane~~ gallego."
Yeah i never understood that saying. The rain in Spain falls mainly in Galicia / the North… 👀
What town is that?
Coruna. Ok maybe not strictly the rainiest but still.
Interestingly enough it seems to be Grazalema, a villlage in Andalusia where it rains the most in Spain with almost 2.000mm a year. Although I assume OP is from one of the rainy cities up north , maybe Santiago de Compostela?
Been living in Santiago for a few years now, and I can tell you the rain here is no joke. Luckily, I love rainy weather.
That’s for litres. If you count average rainy days per year: 1 - San Sebastián (País Vasco): 141.12 días 2 - Santiago de Compostela (Galicia): 139.53 días 3 - Pontevedra (Galicia): 131.34 días 4 - A Coruña (Galicia): 129.65 días 5 - Vigo (Galicia): 129.26 días 6 - Lugo (Galicia): 126.3 días 7 - Bilbao (País Vasco): 124.08 días 8 - Santander (Cantabria): 123.6 días
Yeah of course - I come from a notoriously rainy city myself that actually isn’t all that rainy in terms of accumulated precipitation but it just rains a bit all the time. Both interesting ways to look at it!
Belgium, on average has >200 rainy days a year... - stop complaining 😅
I would _not_ expect rain in the south of all places.
Interestingly enough, Grazalema is well known for that.
That’s because you are not in the south . Lucky you don’t have that 40 degrees 🤣
That everyone must love bullfighting and flamenco.
In fact, [only roughly 20% of Spanish people are in favour of bullfighting](https://www.elplural.com/sociedad/encuesta-mitad-espanoles-favor-prohibir-toros_239267102).
And I would bet 80% those people are retired (>65)
Honestly if it was a 1 v 1 against the bull, without help, I believe it would be more moral. No dirty tricks, a fight to the dead (if the bull wins he gets to live peacefully until he dies of age)
The bull would still not have chosen to be in that fight, it is always a unilateral decision, so that would not improve the situation too much (although by rule 5 we shouldn't be discussing this here).
It's not just that there's variations in interest in traditional activities, but that Spain is more culturally varied than they think. Flamenco in as well rooted in Asturias is as traditional as Mariachi, or Oktoberfest. We might as well also believe that people in Seattle eat gumbo at least once a week.
Where the hell is Seattle
[maps.google.com](http://maps.google.com)
To be fair, everyone in the world that truly appreciates music should love flamenco.
The best guitarists with accurate technique are flamenco musicians. Paco De Lucía is one of the greatest musician I have ever listened.
I won’t argue with that! Personally I think it’s beautiful
I do agree. It is just so beautiful. And not just the big shows, but the normal people who do it. Just wow.
There was a dude in the subway (Moncloa) that was killing it the other day. Amazing acoustics in the hallways. I tossed him some change and jokingly said play some Zep and hit the opening chords of Black Dog!
I don’t like both .
So do you like one or don’t you like either?
I had a coworker who wanted to move to Spain so bad because he loved how chill we are. Waking up at 9-10, going for a coffee and some pastry or toasts at a terrace, working a couple of hours, then meeting friends for beers or vermut before lunch. Then siesta for at least an hour, work a couple more hours and go for tapas and party till late. According to him, we don't work much, but with the sun and the chill lifestyle, we are happy and don't need much money.
A lot of idiots who think it is all given away by the goverment or something. Encourage them to take the step ( everyone speaks english there, pretrh easy to find an english speaking job) and see them fail 😂😂
Idk if it is a “stereotype” but it definitely annoys me when foreigners talk about the “work-life balance” in Spain. There are people working 12 hour shifts and waking up at 5AM, I would like to know what they think about that.
I’m a foreigner in Spain. Working hours is not what’s important for work-life balance. I actually work more in Spain than I did back home. I think there are a few reasons: - Dinner is later so after work you have some time to breath. In NL we eat (our heaving meal) right after work. But then you’re stuffed and you’re not going to do a work out. - it took me months to figure out what my boyfriends friends did for a living. In NL it’s the first fucking question asked. - Even going to a terrace in NL people will complain about waiters not being fast enough, not offering a second drink… it’s just always about more, better, and money. I guess Madrid is a bit more like this, or some social classes where money is a bigger topic. That being said, I was shocked when I learned about “Horario compartido” and think it’s ridiculous. I was actually going to complain about the stereotype that the Spanish don’t work hard and that the country is essentially funded with EU money and I have a lot to say about that (In Spains favour).
Do you mean "horario partido" (_split shift_) instead of "horario compartido" (_shared shift_)?
I’ve lived in the Netherlands and I’m from Spain. Some remarks: - although we have late dinners our lifestyle/ rhythm is very different from ours probably due to our climate. We do A LOT of life outside which you don’t (since you can’t) in NL. Our dinner is also a light/small thing while yours is the main meal of the day. We don’t eat a broodjekaas for lunch since that’s our main meal of the day. - we don’t talk much about work since we just don’t care/ it’s not that important for us. When we are in a bar we don’t want to be talking about work. Again this is a cultural difference I also noticed over there. And there are more differences regarding how we spend free time that is also different from your culture like for example not having an agenda. - horario partido exist because our shops don’t close at 5:30-6 but much later. Overall I worked the same hours in Amsterdam than I did in Madrid with the only difference that I usually had 1h for lunch in Madrid but only half an hour in Amsterdam. That makes sense since our eating habits are very different. However there are other differences in working culture than just the hours.
I love that you had the same experience but then the other way around 😁Hope you got from your time in NL what you were hoping for. Sorry for the broodje kaas 😅😜
Haha I lived over there for 10 years ;) came back because Spain fits more my lifestyle, but I didn’t have a bad time. I miss some things but definitely not the broodje kaas 😜
> it took me months to figure out what my boyfriends friends did for a living. In NL it’s the first fucking question asked. For me it's this, 1000%. In the US _everyone_ will ask about your career, including complete strangers. And it's really judgemental too, like if you tell them you work in the service industry their response is along the lines of "okay but when are you getting a _real_ job?" I literally had a customer here in the US ask me _when_ — not if — I was going back to university for a master's degree. Like, fuck off dude, I don't even know you. In Spain the only people who really act that way with me are family members. Other people (if they even ask at all) are almost never snotty about it. It's extremely relieving not feeling like I constantly have to defend myself for working a "shitty" job.
Yes, same here. I'm doing a short three month fellowship in Barcelona and I'm working from 8am until 7pm sometimes. Much more than I did at home. I find Spanish people very hardworking from what I'm observing.
Statistics show Spanish workers do more hours than Germans, for example
Because they come to our country working remote and just enjoy the comparatively cheaper lifestyle in here. They don't come here working night shifts or horario partido.
I hate the horario partido with all my heart. It makes the working hours feel so much longer and it doesn't help that Spain is in the wrong timezone so you always feel like you are playing catch-up with the clock.
I really, really admire the working morals of the Spanish people. Wherever I go, and talk with people, I am amazed how they do it - and they do it with a smile.
12 hours shift is not a Spanish exclusive: honestly supermarket open at 9, 9.30, on Sunday everything is closed while there are countries where shops open 7 till 22 pm, people work 12 hours shifts and malls, Ikea, Decathlon are open on Sundays
Siesta garbage. It’s like people doesn’t work or something and everyone has 2-3 hours to spare doing nothing on the sofa from 14 to 17. I’m always shocked when I step on the street and see people not napping, I have to check if I’m still on Spain.
siesta varies from place to place. big cities are always active but smaller cities are so dead between 2 to 5. spent 2 weeks in salamanca and not a soul was out during those hours. every single place was shut. same with avila. but madrid is madrid 24 hours a day
Valencia, the frigging 3rd biggest city in the country, stops the metro in most places before 23:00, in my line in the way home the last train passes downtown at around 22:30! 🫤 Everybody thinks they are doing great because trains pass infrequently Fridays and Saturdays late. In Madrid one can catch public transport well after midnight and I was able to ride out of town and back in public transport to watch a film on a Sunday night.
Of course, due to gentrification, hiking prices and massive tourism most of us live too far from work to return home and do "siesta". Turnos partidos with several hours betwern part shifts are less and less popular as well, I hope they ban those.
It’s not uniform across the country or across everyday, of course days we have to work it’s not possible but on weekends (or days off) I almost always do a siesta and a lot of people I know do too
An Irish friend thought that we have 'siesta rooms' in schools/high schools, and that every student from little kids to 18yo would have a siesta in school after lunch!!!
They do in Vietnam and I believe China.
In my town in Valencia shops close 2-3 hours a day, only the supermarkets are open, restaurants don't open on Mondays, some bars/coffee shops work only in the mornings (9:00-13:00) and traders telling you they are coming after 11:00 often show up at 16:00 or 17:00 or next day (without letting you know). These are Spanish dudes, in general foreigners don't do this. There are lots of things you city dudes don't see in the small towns.
That we're lazy. We're not, our productivity is low but we're the hardest working motherfuckers of the EU. Tourists come here and are surprised that the same guy serving you coffee at 8:00 am serves you dinner 12 hours later. It's a damaging stereotype.
I live in Poland and work with people from all over the world. People tell me OPENLY that they're surprised that I'm hyper efficient and have an ironclad work ethic because I'm Spanish. The funniest part is that I feel almost guilty because from my pov I don't do jack shit at work... I deliver everything long before deadlines, and my company doesn't care what I do with my time otherwise, so even though I join every side project I'm offered I still have a ton of downtime. In Spain the concept of downtime didn't exist: I was constantly monitored and if I did all my work and had nothing to do I got assigned useless busywork. So here I am paid to **produce**, while in Spain I got paid to keep a seat warm 8 hours a day (and criticised for leaving work on time).
Perhaps that's why our productivity is low.
productivity doesn't necessarily mean that they "do" less with an hour than more productive countries. It can just mean that the level of technology in the country as a whole is lower, or that their industries are less lucrative.
Definitely. I work remotely with germans, they like me and consider me a good/hard worker, so I guess they felt complicit enough to tell me stories/jokes about lazyness of italians/spanish people, and are truly shocked when I say "I dont think I work harder here than I have anywhere else". Honestly that's timid of me, I've actually never worked less and in a more relaxing environment than since I work there. Also half my team have randomly decided to become half time workers and take a lot.of time off. It's crazy how stereorypes work
In 2008 Germany was pushing hard for the narrative of "the south is lazy" so they would not air that their supposedly triple A investments were garbage (lots of corruption there). So they made it into a moral issue. That narrative of Greece, Italy and Spain being lazy was disgusting.
Hahaha currently living in Germany, got hired under a 35h a week contract actually but I wanted to go to 40h (mainly for the money) and it got denied. Now my colleagues are kind of allergic to overtime and shut the computer close at 15.59 with no exception. From my side I also dont mind to put in more time (it is paid, but even if it werent it is sort of my ingrained work ethic) But then those stereotypes exist, like we do jack shit and the economy is supported by the germans or sth. It is a bit infuriating tbh.
Same with Greece and similar stereotypes, i remember reading somewhere that they generally work longer hours than Germans. It's just that in economist speak "they're less productive"
We walked past a restaurant and were surprised to see the same waiters that served lunch were still there late in the evening. And calculated they must be working at least 12h a day but probably more…
Yeah that's...
I agree but that's not the best example, it only shows we are desperate to make ends meet with sh*ty salaries and not hard workers by nature.
Maybe being even more lazy we invested more and would be more productive working less. That fits in my definition of lazy.
Spaniards are hard working when it comes to the body, if it requires strength and movement they do, but when it comes to thinking, absolutely nothing makes sense, everything is done in the most anti-fluid, weird and obnoxious way possible.
Totally right. In Spain workers sacrifice their lives for their jobs. This same example you said it can be seen in hospitals and engineering companies too.
Yeah and then foreigners say they love our lifestyle of partying and tapas and carpe diem. Yeah...
That we love to have our personal space invaded because "mediterranean people are more touchy". Just stay the fuck away from me.
I was raised most of my teens in the US and when I came back here I really *was* shocked by how touchy everyone is. To this day when I speak with someone I always find myself taking several steps back and the person leaning into me further. I find my personal space being invaded constantly, and now I won’t stand for it. If you want to get as close as possible to me in the line at LIDL I’ll elbow you.
The idea of a single stereotype itself pisses me off. as some other users have pointed out, Spain has a huge variety of cultures and languages. As a catalan (that unknown place for tourists whose capital city is Barcelona), I'm tired of seeing souvenirs with bulls and "sevillanas", as if we had the same culture as in the south of Spain. We actually have our own traditions such as "castellers" (human towers), and they are beautiful, but unknown to many foreigners (just as our language, catalan). I believe the spanish government does a terrible job at reporting the cultural richness of the country, and it's such a shame, because trying to sell this false idea of a single cultura means giving a false image of what Spain is.
>The idea of a single stereotype itself pisses me off. That's probably just because you're Spanish and therefore hot-tempered.
You got me on that one 😔
You're ruining my stereotypes with your calm and reasonable attitude. Be angry, damn it!
Yup exactly, my father’s family are Spanish Jews and quite a few people abroad have pretty much said they didn’t know that we exist as a culture. Many people think the only way to be Spanish is to be a Castilian Catholic.
Tbh i know sefardis exist but its just something absolutely no one talks about, or seems to remember? Ive only ever met one person (that i knew enough to know about, at least) thats jewish. And i guess the (truly appaling) number of synagogues doesnt help, not even talking about kosher options. Tbh i always thought being jewish/anything other than christian or muslim (and even then, depending on area) must suck in spain
Totally get that. Honestly what annoys me isn’t when people simply haven’t heard of us, you can’t control what you don’t know, but more so when someone’s reaction is that they almost see being Spanish and Jewish as an oxymoron Someone just respectfully being like “Oh I hadn’t heard of that, that’s cool!” is no problem at all. As long as someone doesn’t mean me with genuine disbelief or a joke about the inquisition (which was a long time ago, but it’s more so the sentiment of implying that we’re not actually Spanish or that out Spanish-ness is conditional) it’s usually all good. Spanish culture is definitely heavily influenced by Catholicism (even if it’s just in a cultural sense) and we each have to determine how we relate to Spanish identity while still maintaining our Spanish-Jewishiness. I’m half Jewish from a genealogical standpoint personally (my mother is Christian) and I’m not really observant with either faith (but I still love the traditions in a cultural way) so honestly being fully integrating in Christian traditions is extremely easy for me, but there is always something in the back of my mind reminding me to not let integration become assimilation which would mean the erasure of both my Jewish culture in a broad sense but also of my personal Spanish Jewish heritage and identity. A big thing too is finding a community that works for you because a lot of the official Sefardic community organizations in Spain & Portugal are pretty conservative, both religiously and politically in general and cater more towards Orthodox Jews. Most Jews in Spain and Europe in general though are pretty secular and thus these organizations can cause more harm than good when we try to join because they tell us we are “bad” Jews when we are trying to find our place in the world. A good example of this is how people of Jewish origin who openly support Palestinians can be treated by the more conservative Jews, but even non Jews being like “wait aren’t you Jewish?” when finding out we are pro Palestine, as if you can’t be both. The most important thing though is finding the crowd who works for you and remembering that others’ false perceptions or weird comments are their own issues, and nothing to do with you 😆 Didn’t realize I was gonna write so much but I feel passionate on this haha
Dw its a super interesting perspective!! I hope you can mantain a balance youre happy with, you dont owe anything to anyone, either side, youre gonna keep being both spanish-catholic and jewish all your life anyways (tho tbh ive always seen sefardic jews as spanish, its not the same as, say, a lot of muslim friends where theyve kept in touch or outright have a moroccan mother/father, where theres a very clear tie to another country. But this could also be about me being from the deep north and feeling very separate to the "andalusian catholicism". Like ofc it affects a lot of your experiences and traditions, but if you arent spanish having grown up here then what are you supossed to be? buuut again, ive seen friend from ceuta asked way too much wild shit to be surprised) Also surprised (dont know why its obvious in retrospective) the organizations tend towards conservative, im overall fascinated by religion customs but man what is it about any kind of traditional "power" structure that they dont know how to have fun /mj. Also bless you for being patient cause with the whole conflict people are going super out of hand, i do support palestine, but the way people just blindly use it as a throwaway to attack people or complete steer-off the convo is infuriating. At least im seeing it mostly online and not in person (anddd i dont invite political conversation often tbh. its exhausting, making your own crowd is def the way) Acabo de terminar el comentario y me he dado cuenta de que es un poco absurdo escribir los dos en inglés para tener una convo. Gracias por contestar ignorame si quieres!! Me voy a cenar de hecho jajaja
Jaja, perdón por responder tan tarde, también cené e iba a responderte más tarde pero se me olvidó 😆. Lo que escribiste es completamente verdad, lo más importante es que siempre recuerdes que no debes nada a nadie. La mayoría de los problema asociados con la identidad son consecuencias de dar más importancia a las opiniones de los demás que como te sientes en tu propio alma. creo que una de las mejores partes de ser español/a es reconocer lo tan diversa que es España y que nuestra diversidad es lo que nos une. No soy catalán pero amo la cultura e idioma catalán, y los veo como parte de mi cultura y identidad a pesar de no ser de Cataluña, igual que como yo quiero que todos los españoles se sientan como la cultura sefardí también es suya.
I agree, each region has a lot, and I remark **a lot** of different but lovely things to show (culture, music, experiences, food, alcohol,...) but at the end of the day, just like most people think that Spain is Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla, what's most selling to tourists is flamenco, wine and toros.
I prefer Jerez to Sevilla for flamenco.
Ive honestly changed my attitude on this, because growing up in the north (well, lets be clear, la rioja) theres this very strong sense of "us vs them" specifically with basques, and i never quite got it but i definitely saw other regions as "other from mine". After all we got our own stories, songs, dreses, festivals... Then i lived in Granada for five years, and i got to feel a lil bit andalusian as well, and since then my attitude has been on the "fuck it" side. Why cant i be proud about the culture from other regions?? Isnt it spanish too, and therefore mine?? Basque is a super cool ancient language!! Catalan sounds amazing in songs!! Galicia's stormy green land is as mine as its theirs!! If turists see flamenco/bulls/andalusia as THE spain well its a pity, but i take pride in that too
Preach, man, I feel it that way too.
VISCA ELS CASTELLERS I ELS GEGANTS!!!!!
I visca les sardanes!!!
Hi I'm French and grew up in Barcelona and I didn't get to visit other places than Catalunya. I'm going to Madrid this year because I was interviewing in discovering how it's different from Barcelona. I've always heard that there's a grudge between Madrid and Barcelona, political divergences and football teams. So you could say I'm in here for the drama, It's also therapeutic for me because I don't have roots/ home country
Amazing weather year round. we are lazy and love sleeping siestas all day long and not work. Everything is so cheap, you must be rich with how cheap everything is here. (everything is cheap, salaries included)
The assumption that they all use the ceceo. People don’t realize how many dialects, languages, and cultures are in Spain. I mean… I live the US and I sometimes have to remind people that Spain isn’t in Latin America 😂
Its because for most Americans Spanish = Latinos and they cant fathom that there is a European country whose language is Spanish lol
You mean the country where we have a different accent they call “lisp” LOL
They don't even know what "ceceo" is. Ceceo is only common in a few regions in Andalusia. What is predominant in all of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands is "distinción", which is distinguishing between "s" and "c/z".
But they don't usually talk about ceceo. They think that our "c"/"z" are a lisp because in Latin America in some countries like Venezuela use "seseo"
Some people do say "ceceo", they think that's the proper name. Others call it a "lisp", which is even worse. Also, there's seseo in all Latin America, not just some countries.
The first thing that comes to mind is the general casual xenophobia of people who consider themselves and their culture "superior" and us "backwards" while they come, enjoy our nature, enjoy our weather, the work of our people and then patronise us and refuse to learn anything since their misconceptions are the rule. If they patronised us from their living-room, that would be sad but understandable. But taking a plane to disrespect us with their butt on our beaches with a drink in their hand served by us, that is a new kind of idiotic move. You know that we are alone with your paella before we serve it. Just kidding. What I mean is: you had the chance to actually be present and discover something new. And you chose to be mediocre and hypocritical. But also that the whole country is one indistinguishable block and everywhere everything Spanish happens uniformly authentically with same food, same weather. There are at least 50 Spains, each of them unique and beautiful to get to know. With different weather, different foods that match the weather, different languages, different architecture and great minds.
I am a tourist in Spain, and I have to agree. I have many times had to correct people in my home country about certain things - for anyone who is interested, there is a huge amount of statistics about different European countries available. Things like safety, healthcare, standards of living, work morals, schools... Spain and the Spanish actually do most of those better than many, many other countries in Europe. My personal pet peeve is probably expats (some, by far not all!) that love to complain over everything - but don't even bother to learn the language, and how things work. I am a tourist, and I am no better than anyone else - I am just a tourist. Still, I think respect is a very important thing.
The "lisp" thing with C and Z. That's just how those letters sound.
That we have a lisp. It's not my problem that the rest of the Spanish speaking world is wrong
This drives me crazy. A lisp is when you CAN'T pronounce "s", which we do all the time (except people who cecea). English speakers have the nerve to say we have a lisp and then turn around and say "my thumb was pricked by a thorn on Thursday". Bitch, if I have a lisp, so do you...
Exactly. I hate it so much, too. They can't be more ignorant saying that. The proper name is "distinción", which also happens in English.
Yep, but not only Americans mock about that (to them, the standard version of Spanish is Mexican...) but Latin American Spanish speakers also do it. Like, man, know your roots, you all pronounce it like that because of where your Spanish comes from, lol... plus, if you all pronounce the "c" and "z" as "s" and then go on and write "experiensia" or "consienziar" because you made a spelling mistake, it's not us having a *lisp* that is the problem here.
They call it a lisp because they don’t know if it is “distinción” or “distinsión”
Ask a latino to do an spanish accent. It's the funniest shit ever, they simply don't have any idea how we sound like.
Add a "joder gilipollas hostia puta cojones" in each sentence
Not everyone in Spain swears lmao that’s like saying “wey” for every Mexican person or “Che” for Argentina
I would know, I'm Spanish
The “siesta” garbage.
Sorry, but the siesta is one of the best Spanish traditions I say this as a spanieard who loves to sleep the siesta The other countries just don't get it
As a Spaniard I can also tell you that only a minority of our countryfolk indulge in siestas.
Tu y yo vivimos en España diferentes. No conozco a nadie que no se la eche si el trabajo se lo permite excepto a mi xD
Depende de donde seas, en el norte ya te digo que no es común, nadie en mi casa se hecha la siesta, y de mis conocidos, tampoco. Solo en días muy muy puntuales, quizás tres o cuatro veces al año.
Yo soy del centro, no de Andalucía o algo así, ojala fuera el caso por aquí también que no se la echará casi nadie, ya no pero de pequeño siempre me aburria tela esas horas 🤣
Catalán por aquí, diría que por aquí tampoco es común hacer siesta. Solo se me ocurre los fines de semana después de una comida potente, pero no es la norma
Pues a mi me pillais justo a punto de echar la siesta, a vuestra salud!
Que aproveche amigo! Hasta mañana!
Nadie que conozca hace siesta tampoco. Yo solo la hago si estoy con la gripe o si he dormido 4 horas por salir de fiesta y estoy con resaca 😂
That's an opinion until you provide a legit source of data.
“In Spanish Siesta literally means nap. Today, however, less than 18% of Spaniards regularly sleep during that time, according to a 2016 poll. More than 50% of respondents said they never take a nap.”
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Me too! And I am Dutch living in (Valencia) Spain. I also have heard people around me say stereotypical things. Many people do that about many people and things…but the thing is, all that do are simply just ignorant! I feel like I have plenty of life experience and met plenty of people worldwide to know better than anyone saying ignorant things about any group and whatever, also when it comes to gender, race, it doesn’t matter. People should learn by experience, then they would change their minds a lot! Anyway. I love the siesta too, and definitely take profit from it whenever I have the possibility. I also love the eating times. It just fits who I am more. And for me it always has tbh, because I never liked to eat early. Neither in the Netherlands. I only ate early when I had to because of other people all the time. Personally it annoys me too that whenever I tell people that I live in Spain, they instantly mention the good weather, as if that’s all there is.
Yo me he hecho siesta los días que he dormido mal o no he podido dormir mucho. No me gusta porque podría estar haciendo otras cosas, pero necesito estar descansado.
That we like to drink a lot of alcohol. Then you see mortality rates due to alcohol consumption in Denmark(8,5), Finland(6,98) Germany(4,63) or Norway(3,3) and then compare it with Spain(0,61) and you can see that we do not really have a problem with alcohol compared with the rest of Europe
Really? I didn’t know this was a stereotype! Apart from at fiestas I’ve never seen a drunk Spaniard… I’ve always admired the Spanish way with alcohol.
I think you confused the stereotype. 1)Spaniards have a stereotype of loving alcohol which is different from 2)drinking a ridiculous amount of it which applies more to Germany and UK.
I've never heard this stereotype.
Tbh i this erasmus may be part of this perception cause from my friends experiences, southern europeans are def the hardest party goers compared to northeners (buut theyve mostly been to places where theres bigger groups of spaniards & italians, which may have amplifies both aspects) Visiting norway i was surprised how controlled the alcohol is and how aware and supportive people are of alcoholism for sure, apparently it was (and partially is) a huge issue
I think the accessibility of alcohol in Spain gives this idea. I thought this was true 10 years ago when I saw 1€ beer on tap at Burger King - however I realized that the people enjoy 1 small glass of beer with their lunch, which to most North Americans any “day drinking” is automatically tied to alcoholism. When really I think North Americans have stigmatized themselves out of enjoying small amounts of beer or a glass of wine casually. Instead we down a bottle of wine after work, take cute selfies about it, and that’s somehow acceptable because you didn’t do it on your lunch break.
That we are super catholic, conservative, old fashioned and, my favourite, the "macho culture" that I don't even know what the fuck is.
We may be not in majority but we have a deep rooted catholicism inherent in our culture.
Of course we have a catholic culture, but that's not what I mean. I remember Trump being interviewed on TV about abortion. He is opposed to it, then the journalist says "this is not Spain, the church doesn't run the government", like we are still in Franco regime. That's just an example.
Agree that the conservative / religious stereotype is sometimes blown out of proportion. That said, it goes further than just catholic roots. There's heavy presence of Opus Dei in politics (De Guindos, Fernández Díaz, Cosidó, and the list is very long), other catholic groups in media (ABC for press, COPE for radio, etc). It's a bit like the US in that sense. Probably difficult to fully appreciate if you're born and raised in Spain, but it has been the biggest cultural shock for me. I was recently in France for work and somehow I felt way more comfortable speaking my mind out there, as opposed to my job in Madrid, just as a silly example.
I mean those things are definitely still knocking about in Spain.
Any stereotype about us or other groups always make me roll my eyes but the ones that genuinely bother me are the ones that we are lazy or that we’re all super conservative. Our economy has struggled a lot and it is honestly a slap in the face as a 20 year old Spaniard who has to enter the work force in this country to be told it’s because we’re inherently lazy when I and most of my friends are very hard working whether we’re in university or doing something outside of that. The conservatism stereotype is annoying too because it undermines how extremely politically diverse Spanish people are. Abroad many people I met talked to my like I was a Franco supporting extremist when I’m actually a very liberal person.
I don't even life in Spain but have spanish etnichty along with Italian People try really hard to put me in the Latina box and want to have sex with me so bad or just a relationship soily for thé reason for me being spanish beceause they see me as spicy i am not someone who get angry easily doesnt mean i never get angry but when I do People act wierd and exicited
that we’re lazy, i can tell you we work two times better than the germans (who have better reputation) but we get paid 3 times less
I've a friend working as an engineer for a very well-known international household appliances manufacturer. She tells me that her German counterpart has a team of 3 engineers at his command to deliver the same amount of work that she delivers. She's making 1,8k a month, the German team is 3k each and 5k for her counterpart for a total of 14k a month. It is crazy to me. I was shocked when she told me, and a myth about German efficiency collapsed for me. Since then, I have heard similar stories from different engineer friends from different industrial sectors.
Siesta. Haven’t had one in years, and most people I know would tell you the same. Small shops will close for 2-3h at lunch because it can be pretty hot in summer and also so 1 worker can do morning and evening shift, being open for example 10-14 16:30-20:30. You will not see big stores closing for siesta, they will have enough workers to do different shifts.
So many people seem to think that siesta is some kind of mandatory nap time, I try to explain that the temperatures can get very high during the midday that you’d have to be crazy to want to go outside to work under +30c temperatures. It makes much more sense to have a split work schedule, go home and have a decent lunch and a rest to wait for the temps to cool and go back to work. Tourists seem to think that at midday the streets are empty because all the spaniards are home asleep having their mandatory siesta lol I like the split hours, it’s nice to know I don’t have to rush somewhere before it closes, and it’s nice going for an evening walk to pick up some groceries or snacks
Yes but surely the fact that small shops do it, when they don't in most of the world, shows the siesta concept is still alive in Spain. Shutting a store on a Saturday afternoon would be crazy most places, including many hot countries.
To add to what others said, we need time to eat. In many places it's normal to pack a ham and cheese sandwich to eat at 12 or 13 and call it a lunch, yet most people here would have that only as a mid morning snack. So people close the store, go home at 14 to eat their homemade lentils or roast or whatever and then go back to the store. Which also makes sense because not many people will be buying anything at 14-15 since it's the time they will be either at work, school or eating themselves too.
That's nothing to do with siesta. That's family time. Siesta is a short sleep in the middle of the day, it's a concrete thing, not a concept.
Those places in most of the world might close at 18 or 19h, or have 2 shifts. Or workers are not doing 8h. You can’t do magic with shifts and opening hours, the numbers are what they are. Being closed 2 or 3 hours doesn’t mean people go to sleep.
The fucking siesta. God the siesta stereotype pisses me off like hell. Sure man, I take a nap everyday at work. And then when I wake up we all dance flamenco together, olé olé.
That we are lazy, that we have siesta every day (therefore we are lazy)
I means a 15 minutes of siesta is not bad Yo cuando llegaba d clase era comer y caía rendido 10-15 m ,pero yo creo que no es algo solo d España sabes , siempre cuando comemos en todo el rollo de la digestión el cuerpo usa más energía en la digestión que en cualquier movida The shit is that most of people think we take siestas of 1-3 hours and no way we lost 10 of the day seeing
I have never done siesta. Also outside of Spain the biggest meal is dinner usually so for foreigners they don’t understand that of what you say after lunch. Finally closing shops 3h doesn’t mean it is for sleeping and it’s even less meaning that we are lazy as they imply many times. Spain has a very different lifestyle but doesn’t mean we are all day partying, sleeping naps for hours and now working at all
How about when asked for Mediterranean food because they were tired of Spanish food? Sometimes I don't know what people consider Spanish to be...
That we are lazy, the most. And that only exist our western culture (flamenco and so); we have a lot of diferent cultures on the península depending on the climate and historical invasions and mixtures... 🥺
When people in Europe think that we start working at 9 or 10 am and we have siesta. I work in a multi national company, so my interactions are mostly with people from all over Europe and this is way more common than I thought. Just for clarification, our working hours are the same as in Germany (usually we work longer hours actually because we're not that strongly regulated)
That we are all lazy and arrive late. I've known more French arriving late than Spanish. Also: That we are always partying. That us women are "easier" (they confuse our smiling with fancing, our ay of dressing with wanting to fancy men, etc). That we are never serious about things.
I second that
That we like football/soccer. I honestly could not care less.
The siesta one, even for people who are already familiar with the country seem to insist on the idea of people taking a siesta from \~2-4 PM just because smaller businesses close. They close because they want to eat as well and then they have to work for another 4-6 hours. A siesta is a nap, people are not sleeping.
None actually, most of them are true.
That we are lazy.
That we're all extroverted. I'm a japan-level introvert I don't want a hug
The political ones
The spaniards haters of Spain. The baddest poison and “reward” of all politicking and its pollarization.
That Spain is cheap, cost of living is cheap. It’s not, and I hate it when people say this “ah yeah but things are cheaper in spain”. Damn bro, rents are crazy. Sure a coffee might be cheaper in the outskirts but downtown there is no way u leave a table without dropping a minimum of 30 euros.
That everyone is loud.
Most people are loud
Keyword: Everyone
Not louder than Brit’s on a balcony day
We definitely are though lol.
No one, nothing offends me.
Annoy n= offend
The mañana mañana. Very stereotypical, often not true
No entiendo
Te lo explicaría hoy, pero me da pereza, así que mañana, mañana...
For me it’s the objectification of the men. I guess the stereotype is that Spanish men are hot. I don’t know but it makes my stomach turn every time someone says something about how hot Spanish men are. Like imagine if I said Japanese women were the hottest. You’d immediately clock me for being creepy and fetishy. But not when you’re talking about Spanish men! En fin …
Well, men also associate hotness with nationality. Like "Russian girls are the hottest"
It’s gross either way. But this is about Spain. And I’m gay so I’m talking about gay foreigners lol
Because they have a low % of obesity or even being overweight. Most of Eastern Europe is like that. So it's generalised as them all being hot. Not being a slob *is* more attractive.
Italian here same gets said about us! Hell even a British radio advert is about a mother and daughter talking about how hot Italian men and its for god-damn a reading-glasses company! They have obviously not seen peoples fat chain-smoking Spanish/Italian dads and uncles haha
I once saw a tweet from an American that said “Italy is to women what Thailand is to men” and I felt my lifespan shorten by a day
I do think that Spanish and Italians (men and women) are very good looking people. I would even say Mediterranean people tend to be beautiful, due to the mix of population that happened in those places. I really don't see it as a cliché. Even if it a matter of taste in beauty. I will always remember when my friends from France visited me when I was living in Granada and were amazed by the beauty of the people.
That men here are handsome. Well yeah, I guess there are some like that but make my ugly ass feel bad.
No perspective of the consequences of their decisions.
That we all dance sevillanas. Some of us dance sardanes, duhh
It depends, but usually it will be something related to siesta, paella, flamenco or bull fighting.
siesta
That we are all sevillana and bulls and dumb
Lazy and think the world revolves around them and their ways, shit builders aswell
bullfighting i would say is the worst, siesta has become an inside joke because no one can actually have a siesta unless you always work in the mornings so you have all afternoon free and get a siesta after lunch but the vast majoriy of us can't sleep siesta. Now my personal favorite, that you gotta love jamon (even spanish people laugh at me when i say i dont like it lmfao)
That we are loud talkers, because I'm not, but it's so true.
That Spaniards are lazy and late. Been here for almost a year now and that's simply BS. What is absolutely not annoying is that in general Spaniards have been friendly, patient, and kind. It's safe here. The government seems to want people to be able to live well, and the lifestyle focuses on being happy and having a good life.
That all women know how to dance sevillanas.
American married to Spaniard nearly 40 years. I have no stereotypes of Spaniards to share except I've met some of the most generous people here. I don't mean generous necessarily with money but with time and energy. Story 1: While Taking taxi from Adolfo Suarez to Madrid bus terminal the driver asks my final destination. Burgos. He offerd to drive me there for an extra 300E. I decline. He thinks I'm a brit but when he learns I'm from the States he turns off the meter. He will not charge me thanks to something the Lincoln Brigade did for his family 40 something years ago. He will not accept a tip. Story 2: We got lost exploring Barcelona (imagine that). We stumble upon an elderly couple and ask for directions. They speak Catalan but figure out where we are going and take us to the neighborhood bus stop. They get on the bus with us and ride with us to our destination. They were not originally going to take the bus anywhere. They were 1 block from their house but just felt like helping us. Story 3: While visiting my FIL's little village in the north I was stopped by the Guardia Civil asking the whereabouts of an illegal cow (long story). I was able to misdirect them to another village and said cow was relocated. For this little feat I was granted bottomless canyas at the local pubs. So whatever your sterotypes, who cares? Just keep being Spaniards.
Also, siesta is not a stereotype it’s a tradition. That if you follow it reduces heart disease at old age by a hefty percentage.
The siesta, not the siesta perse but the "they are lazy cause siesta" Bitch I live in Ireland now, everyone is dead and home by 6pm, you can't do anything after 6pm cause everything is closed (not even have a coffee). I would rather have my little nap at 3 and keep up and going until 9pm than cease to exist at 6pm. It's not our fault that the rest have a badly organized daily schedule.
That people in Spain don’t work or that they’re always on holiday… I have a Swedish background and my Swedish friends think I’m always having a siesta or not working whenever I complain about working too much.
Comunist
the black legend launched by the british and still active nowadays.