Living abroad is an experience that allows you to grow professionally and personally, as well as getting to know new cultures, languages and places. However, it also has its negative side, and that is that, sometimes, as a foreign person, you can be the target of many prejudices. This is how Celia, a Spanish woman who lives in the United States, has been able to see it firsthand and has explained the idea that many Americans have of Spain.
First of all, something that “makes him very angry” is that they don’t know where our country is. “They think that we are in Latin America because we also speak Spanish. We have to make small clarifications to them and tell them, ‘No, I am in Europe.'” Likewise, he assures that many Americans believe that “in Spain we are an underdeveloped country. And that there are still goats in the streets and that we do not have air conditioning.”
The air thing, according to what he says, comes because they think that we do not have industry and transportation, many believing that, upon arriving in Spain, “they will be like in a village.” Going into stereotypes and our lifestyle, she states that Americans think that “we are always taking naps and eating on terraces,” Celia clarified that “we do love eating on terraces, but it is not what we do all the time and we are very hard-working.”
On the contrary, his belief that Spaniards are “very stylish” is positive, believing that “we dress very well and we all tend to be handsome.” Other positive thoughts are that they assure that we are in a country with “a lot of security” and with very good weather.
“In Spain we are all more family, more friends and there is much more closeness”
Celia also points out that there are many differences in character and behavior between Spain and the United States. “This is not that it is very good, but I can’t say no. And they think that we Spaniards talk too loudly, laugh a lot and invade personal space.”
Now, he adds that we also tend to be more like that because in “Spain we are all more family, more friends and there is much more closeness.” On the contrary, he indicates that in the US “you have to be very careful with who you have next to because one bad gesture, one bad word and things can get complicated.”
Continuing with their way of being, he adds that, for Americans, we Spaniards are also very direct: “I notice it with people, I notice it with my partner. To tell you a phrase they have to warm up first, as if we were saying, to tell you that they don’t like something you’ve done they have to turn it around and tell you that everything is very good.”
Lastly, he explains that Americans feel that in Spain people are “very proud” of their country, qualifying, with respect to the above, that Americans who do have culture do recognize that “we are a country with a lot of historical and cultural richness and we are an extraordinary country.”