Kindness of the Spanish.

My husband had to download new mapping before leaving UK.  As we left the Spanish airport I realized there was no voice. We made the hour and a half journey by looking at the screen.

At our destination we were told of a very helpful chap who worked in a local shop but had no English.  My husband took his SAT.Nav along and managed to make him understand that he had not downloaded the voices.  The guy sat at his computer and changed everything to Spanish.  He then said that it would cost to download but my husband got across that if he gave his account number it was free.  The computer was changed to English then my husband said he had not got the lead for the Sat.Nav.  No problem said the guy as he reached for a brand new Box, took out the lead and proceeded to download the missing voices.

All this took over an hour and much difficulty with communication.  My husband reached for his wallet but the Guy would not take any payment whatever.  What a nice welcome to the new town.  Had that been UK  I think it would have been a different story.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

There are some wonderful people around for certain, Jaybe.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

It restores ones faith in human nature Jaybe - like you say in good old uk you would get a bill!

Julia

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Look for many of those... and you will find them... for sure...in the simplest places, in ordinary life.. there.

Welcome to Spain!

Maria

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

We're SO glad we found YOU, Maria.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Thank you Maria for the welcome.  We have found only friendliness so far but I do like to treat people as I would hope to be treated.  I only wish I knew more of the language but as we spend time between the two countries it is difficult to attend classes and we are learning from CDs.  In Spain we only have Spanish TV but at the present it is too fast to follow but we are trying!!!!  (very, said my husband)

We did hear one lady presenter who spoke so clearly and slowly that we understood some of what she said. But that was only once!

 I am sure it will get better in time and it is not long ago that we could not ask for a bottle of fresh milk or even a chicken breast.  Each visit improves the vocabulary if only slowly.

Luckily the local town is all Spanish though some people are trying to cope with English dictionaries on the counter.  I hope they do not try too hard as it is up to us to speak the native tongue and enjoy the challenge.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Similar (but different) experience in that when buying items, the shop keepers tend to round it down to the nearest Euro. Bought some light fitiings and some bits in a supermaret and the price was (for example) 35 Euros and 80 cents, rounded down to 35 Euros, probably so they don't have to carry all the small change, but a welcome change nonetheless.

Mark

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

My Spanish teacher at the Adult Education Class said the same thing about when she was learning English.  She thought that everyone was talking in one long sentance gradually though it improved.

I think it's because when you're learning a language you are converting the Spanish to English and back to Spanish again and missing so much of the conversation.

I find that when I come back to UK after a couple of weeks in Spain I want to reply to people in Spanish!

On our last trip shortly after we arrived our electric went off, I thought it was a normal outage and decided to say hello to our neighbour whilst waiting for it to come back on.  Her electric was on, she came back with us to show us what buttons we needed to press to get it back on but that didn't work.  We've never had problems before with electric tripping and we'd only had lights and kettle on so we couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Off she went and came back with a Spanish neighbour who after testing each circuit box managed to fix problem with a scrap of paper wedged between two of the boxes, they were too close together and that's what was tripping the system.  We felt very guilty as afterwards we found that he was just about to sit down to his lunch when he was dragged off to fix our problem. 

We didn't know what the correct protecol was for saying thank-you but decided to do the same as we would here so later we gave him a bottle of wine.  A couple of days afterwards we were given a Spanish omelette by the wife DH (a chef) now wants to ask her to teach him how to cook one as it's so different to how I make one.

That should be interesting as his Spanish is worse than mine.

 

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Dear Jaybe23:

Keep trying... enjoy the language and that will make the learning easier and faster. MAke spanish  friends, everybody wants to learn English in Spain and you could have exchange lessons.

Just the try, makes you welcome and closer to us!!! We appreciate that.

DVD in Spanish with English subtitles are a great way to learn.

Thanks Morerosado for the compliment... I am also very happy to be a member of this friendly community.  Thanks to Justin and Susan.

My new website is about to be launched... I will let you know as you asked about.

Best wishes,

Maria

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Hi there.  Just thought I could follow up on this story with a little kindness tale of my own!  We were travelling in Northern Spain and, stupidly, left the mobile charger in the last hotel we stayed at (nearly a day away!)  Well, of course the battery went!  My OH went into a mobile phone shop and explained what happened (he's Spanish).  No problem sir!  Give me the phone and we'll charge it .  Come back in a couple of hours.  Went back - NO CHARGE!  Sorry I meant phone charged but they didn't want any payment!  Same thing happened to me last year in Bournemouth, I went to the phone shop, hoping for a similar experience, (silly me!) and was charged £17.99 for a new charger!!!!!!

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

many years ago while on a touring holiday on my motorbike, we stopped in a small town where there was a sort of makeshift theartre in the square. My wife and i sat down on one of the chairs sat in rows, but soon realised that the show was soon to start and we would have to go out and pay entrance to get our seats back.  I was a bit naughty and said to my wife ' just sit here and pretend we don't the lingo, and they will leave us alone.' Anyway after about 5 mins of  some poor theartre guy  trying to explain we had to pay, a stranger came up and tried to explain to us the payment thing, but his English was about as good as our Spanish (hopeless), but he was trying so hard i couldn't stand our 'game' any longer and agreed to go out, assuming that would be the end of it.  The stranger then in sign language beckoned us over to a seat outside the bar opposite, and insisted we join him and his wife for a drink which he insisted on paying for. After  a couple of drinks and several attemps at conversation and lots of smiles and gestures, we had to leave to get ready for the next leg of our journey,  The stranger and his wife bid us fairwell and said if we ever go to Madrid we were welcome to stay with them in there house!.

This, and some other similar meetings on our bike touring trips started a love affair with Spain that lasted until we were unlucky enough to get mixed up with trying to buy a property at Angel de Miraflores in June 2002. Sadly the word Spain fills us with sadness now since it's clear that like many others we were completely lied to, and cheated out of our money. Our court case comes up in May, so just hoping 'Lawbird' can help us get long overdue justice against probably the worst large developer in Spain, who by the way was the result of using a very poor (we know now) UK agent!

I would love to feel the same way about Spain one day, i think the people in general are great, kind, generous, and with a good sense of what's important in life and a good sense of  humour.  We just mixed up with some very bad ones sadly.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Of course almost all people you meet are friendly. The other are in the builders or lawers office!

OK, my trick is: start any contact with a friendly ohla! and some spannish words. After a while they realize that you cant speek Spannish, but as you have tried so hard they do anything to help you communicate.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

SInce I´m lifing in spain a while now, my spanish is getting much more advanced, but at the beginning I thought I never get this in my head. One day I had to go to the centro salut and I had some heart problems,  I stood there and the guy in front of me argued with the nurse at the desk in english and she told him to come back another day, since on this day was a holiday and he was no emergency...I´ve got a bit scared how she would tread me after that and so I activated my little spanish and all over sudden she was so sweet you woul´dn´t believe it....they gave me a quick and good treatment rigt away and my problem was solved...thanks for the spanish I spoke their attitude had switched and I still can see it everyday when people make the effort to speak spanish you get better services...

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

The easiest way to get to the hearts of people is to speak the language of the land.

No matter how little you know (or speak), it works wonders with getting things done.

I think it's a lot to do with respect for the adopted land and it conveys it in no uncertain terms.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

I will always remember the kindness of the Spanish people. One Sunday we drcided to take a drive to a beautifl village called Montefrio  near Granada when my wife was mugged of her handbag ,  my wife then shouting ' POLICIA!!  POLICIA!!! and as she says watched everyone scuttle inside it was great to know one Spanish man who helped us, showed us where the police station was and helped us translate so yes a very kind man

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

If you go to inland places, you will find more and more.
There are wonderful inland areas, not far from coast, which provide superior lifestyle, humanhood, gastronomy, culture, history... where there is still sun and fiesta and siesta. Whose people will welcome you for sure...

Make the try and you will see.... Arcos de la Frontera, by example. Los Barrios, Tahivilla, San Roque, San Enrique de Guadiaro, Castellar, Jimena de la Frontera, Barbate... ( all in Cadiz).

Have a good day!
Maria

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

We have been made to feel so welcome in Spain

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Totally agree Maria. We have lived in Jimena for around a year now and it is so friendly with a great community spirit. Also , living somewhere like this , amongst people who dont speak any english whatsoever , our spanish is improving rapidly.

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Just to add my little bit, my family and I have lived in Spain for almost 4 years.  

The children are in the Spanish education system and I can honestly say that 97% of the teachers they have come into contact with have been so kind and helpful, especially when we first arrived, although we had taken private language lessons before we arrived, it was nowhere nearly enough to cope with school life, (I cried practically the whole of their first week at school thinking WHAT have we done!) by the end of the 1st week the children were smiling again, they had been made to feel so welcome by the children and teachers.

Our BEST friends in Spain now are a family from Madrid, it i such a shame they are only here for fiestas and Summer and Christmas, they are absolutely great they have helped my husband and I improve our Spanish no end.  They correct us when we make mistakes but NEVER make us feel silly.  Of course the children are now fluent and are still loving it here.

I do think if you make a little effort to intergrate with the locals and not isolate yourself, the Spanish people on the whole are lovely, open people and accept you into their community.

Just trying to Speak the language really helps, I always start a conversation with that I speak a little Spanish, usually that is enough to keep the conversation to a basic level.  My sons has had the same teacher in primary school sine we arrived, she speaks to me like a 5 year old and that is great, I understand what she is saying and can answer her!!!  

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know

Wonderful to hear.
There are hundreds and hundreds of Spanish people like this.

And if you offer your English language to be taught... that will be perfect for integration and multicultural cooperation.

I am so happy to listen to happy stories!

Let´s believe in  ( and work for)  a better future to come. What is life for if not for this?

Hugs,

Maria

 Spam post or abuse? Please let us know