Spanish School or Culture School

We just finished our 15th week of Spanish school. While we have learned a lot of Spanish grammar and vocabulary over the last few months, we have also learned a lot about different cultures. Spending time with classmates from different countries has brought its own rewards and surprises. We have studied with people from Germany, France, England, Holland, Italy, Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Canada. Of course, we know that all of these places are different from the U.S., but sometimes these differences struck us as very strange.

For example, what does a rooster say? Ask any American and they are almost certain to respond that a rooster says "cock-a-doodle-do". However, it appears that only American roosters make this sound. For example, here in Spain (as well as in China) a rooster says "kikiriki", in Italy "chichirichi" and in Japan "kokekokko".  We are not sure whether these differences are inherent in different species of roosters or in how we hear the sound they are making, but everyone was pretty sure of the sound roosters make in their respective countries.

Second example: what do you say when someone sneezes? In the US, "(God) bless you" is the most typical response. Here in Spain, you will generally hear a "salud" or "Jesus" and, in Germany, "gesundheit". Our German classmates were surprised to hear that we knew this word, but that may be because of the Yiddish that we grew up with in our homes. Most surprisingly to us, in much of Asia (at least China, Japan and Thailand) people say nothing when you sneeze!

In addition, being with people from so many cultures allows us to confirm or refute stereotypes (Germans really are punctual). We, of course, try to avoid the stereotype of the "ugly American", but sometimes it is hard for us because things can move very slowly here and patience is not our strong suit.

In the coming months, as we continue our Spanish studies, we hope to continue meeting people from other countries and cultures, and of course reporting on unusual cultural differences.

Saludos,

Shana and Jeff