"Meaningful Mealtimes" by Ava Vanhelfteren

One cultural and psychological difference I have noticed in Spain is the meal time and meaning. Though at home I always have a sit-down dinner with my family, it is nothing compared to the Sevillano host family evening meals encountered. While it makes little sense to me to eat so late into the night (22:00) when you've been hungry already for hours and while you don't need much sustenance to sleep, la cena here is more of an event or excuse for socializing. Dinner here is smaller, logically, and the timing provides ample conversation opportunities. There is a long sobre-mesa, speaking after having finished eating. In the US, of course, people go out to eat and chat for hours, but it is typically at an earlier time, and more so with friends or colleagues than with family at home. I have become extremely fond of this habit in my homestay, as it is a chance to laugh and communicate with my "siblings" and it comes at an hour when many are giggly and slightly tired but still willing and able to share the entirety of their day. As with the longer lunch, dinner provides a way to discuss the highlights of your daily experiences and end each day with a lively conversation and a jubilant state of mind before bed.

¿Hablas inglés? By Finya Swai

Being a native speaker of a language consisting of over 1.5 billion speakers (360 million of them being native speakers), I have never felt the urgency to learn a second language. There is no expectation for Americans to master any language other than English, as it is considered to be a universal language and the most important language to know. An English speaker could point to nearly any place on Earth and he or she would most likely be able to find at least a few people there with at least a conversational knowledge of English. It is very rare to find anyone in the United States who has mastered a second language purely from studying the language in school. Most Americans who speak a second language fluently are simply taught at home by speaking regularly with family members.

When telling my friends and family that I would be studying abroad in Spain, most responded with excitement for my decision to explore a new country. Few jokingly asked if I could even speak Spanish (which I cannot), but no one had any genuine concern about my ability to live in a new place where I did not speak the language. This is because English speakers have the inherent expectation that anywhere we go, we could probably find an English speaker, so we’ll probably be alright. It was not until my arrival in Spain that I realized that there was a large amount of hypocrisy in that expectation—why was it that it was okay to assume that Spanish people could probably speak English, but it is not normal to assume that Americans can speak any language other than English? When speaking to my host parents on this topic (both of whom speak English), they told me that it is because English is considered an important language to learn, and that the Spanish school system prioritizes English language learning much more than, say, the American school system prioritizes Spanish language learning.

When asking someone on the streets of Seville for directions, or ordering from my waiter, when I don’t feel comfortable speaking Spanish I often ask “¿Hablas inglés?” to which most Spaniards respond, “a little.” However, if I were to ask Americans if they spoke Spanish (assuming they are not Hispanic), the answer would most likely be “uh… no?”

Burger King in the USA vs. Burger King in Seville by Mateo Rueda

Before coming to Spain, I promised myself that I would do my best to experience the culture here; this means doing whatever I can to immerse myself in the people, history, cuisine, and other aspects of the quotidian life in Seville. However, even though I resisted the pull of fast food chain options easily found in the U.S. for a few weeks, I eventually caved and went into a Burger King that is only a few blocks away from my residence.

When I entered there was a familiar feeling of being in any Burger King in the U.S.. Even though I don’t frequent Burger King, it is still my go to late at night or on road trips if there is nothing else around. What I immediately noticed was that the prices were higher and that the menu options were a bit different. For example, in the U.S. you can’t get an egg on your burger anywhere if you’re at a fast food place. Even more surprising is the ability to get a beer on tap to go along with your Whopper. However, for the most part the vibe was the same and these small deviances in what I expected didn’t make it much different than one of these restaurants back home. I thought to myself, maybe Burger King has been able to break the paradigm of slow service etc. that is characteristic of the Spanish.

Although I may have been fooled initially, the well-oiled fast food machine that I’m used to at home seemed to have not been taken care of in Spain. When I got in line I immediately noticed that the five people in front of me were incredibly frustrated with how long they’d been waiting given their snarky comments and body language. This was exacerbated by having only one man on a register who kept running into the kitchen, where nobody even used gloves, to exchange jokes with one of his coworkers. In fact, the process of ordering alone felt even longer to me than going to a regular restaurant for tapas. While I understand that people aren’t rushing around as much it felt almost like a practical joke was being played on me. I honestly couldn’t tell that if the start juxtaposition was what had me thinking everything was taking so long of if I was in fact waiting an inordinate amount of time.

What I still can’t understand about Spanish culture is the incredible slow pace everyone moves at. While I can appreciate that back home people may say everyone is too stressed out or moving too quickly, in Spain it feels like the bottom line must get impacted by the general ambivalence people seem to have in doing their jobs. The good thing about fast food here is that you pay up front, the bad thing is that you get less food than at home and the prices are twice as much. In a culture where everyone is set on moving slowly and relaxing, I don’t understand the place that “fast food” has in the culture, especially when it is not even more economical than going to a local bar or restaurant for drinks and tapas.