Getting Around the City: Sevilla vs. Los Angeles, by Hannah Deng

One of the first things I noticed when I came to Seville was the number of people that choose to either take public transit, such as the tram or the metro or walk on foot to their destinations. Los Angeles county is notorious for being a city/county that is so large and with areas that are considered dangerous to the point where people need a car to be able to get around, even when they’re simply exploring the downtown area. This is compared to Sevilla, named one of the best cities to explore on foot. Although you may see many tourists on foot in Los Angeles, most of the locals own cars and use that as their main form of transportation to get around. Most people in Los Angeles do not take public transit as it is not considered the safest option, and will often take an Uber to get around the city if they do not own a car. An article was just published by the LA Times showing that fewer women are now taking public transit because of concerns over their safety, the unreliability of public transit schedules, and homelessness plaguing the Los Angeles public transit system.

Even if the concerns people are having with the Los Angeles public transportation system are addressed, I don’t believe we will see more people willing to commute through the metro and busses as they do here in Seville because I think the lack of willingness to walk or use public transit has almost become a cultural practice. Even students who attend university in Los Angeles and live around the area will prefer to drive 5 minutes to school than to take a bus or the metro, whereas my morning train to Pablo de Olavide is typically full of students trying to commute to school. I often hear my friends from Spain making plans to walk to a café 25 minutes away or are surprisingly fine with commuting 40 minutes to school every day, which is not something people in Los Angeles would agree with. I believe these differences in perspective are due to cultural differences in behavior and how people are raised in Los Angeles compared to Sevilla. People in Los Angeles have the capability to walk 25 minutes just like people in Sevilla. However, they see 25 minutes as being an extremely long time to have to walk because they are used to the speed of a car to get places because it is what they’ve been exposed to since they were young whereas people in Sevilla may think a 25-minute walk is normal to be able to get to their destinations because the people around them find it ‘normal’ in their culture to do so.

 

Articles:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-04/female-ridership-on-la-metro-down-satisfaction-with-county-buses-drops

https://inspain.news/seville-makes-the-guardians-list-of-best-cities-to-explore-on-foot/

Fashion in Sevilla, by Ella Williamson

I have chosen to reflect on the fashion in Sevilla and the differences I have noticed from the United States. In Sevilla I have realized that many people dress up a lot to go to class and work, and even just to leave the house. I live with a host family, and my host mom will often put on makeup and nice clothing just to go onto the street to walk the dog. This is very different than the US where many people will walk their dogs in athletic gear or relaxed clothing such as pajamas. At university in Sevilla many students dress wearing nice shirts, dresses and fancier clothing. At my school in the US many students come to school wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants or just very relaxed casual clothing.

The difference in ress can be seen throughout a lot of European countries. I believe it has to do with historical differences in geography and culture. Importance of looks and clothing can be related to wealth and well-being therefore, still emphasized in Europe. In the US, where homesteading was historically common, dress was not as important. In class, we discussed this concept as culture is easy to see and judge on the surface when there is so much more underlaying the surface. Clothing is an example of material cultural; it is something expressed physically. Further, culture is deontic meaning culture has rules that explain how to act which includes dress. These norms are typically implicit rather than explicit. This news article talks about the different Spanish style and details that differ from a lot of American fashion. The article talks about how in Spain, comfort is typically of lesser importance.

https://ics-seville.org/dressing-in-spain/

The Andalusian Tongue, by Juliet Mattox

Being in Spain, I knew that it was going to take some time to not only get adjusted to the different culture, but to get used to speaking the language. Of course I had learned Spanish in school because in order to study abroad in Spain you have to have taken some Spanish classes. However, no one prepared me for the language barriers that were to come with arriving in Sevilla. As most people may know we are in the region of Andalusia here in Spain. In Andalusia, I have noticed that people tend to speak extremely fast especially when talking to a close friend or a loved one. To complicate things even more locals tend to remove the last syllable or letter of each word. For example, the word “gracias” is shortened to “gracia or graci” or a simple verb like “llegar” is shortened when conjugated. This makes learning Spanish as an international student virtually impossible because the combined action of speaking fast and shortening words is hard to understand. Additionally, an article published by Penn State, discussed how the possible loss of a syllable in a word or the reason why people here speak rapidly is in part due to the Arab/Mozarab influence that is incorporated into Andalusian culture. On the other hand, cities in Northwestern Spain for example, don’t have that influence. This results in a controversy over what is the real dictionary-approved way of pronouncing Spanish words. It seems that this Andalusian bubble causes turmoil for other regions of Spain that Sevillians are trying to communicate with. I have also noticed during my time here in Spain that when Andalusians text online, they text in this informal fashion where they drop that last syllable. However, in formal writing that does not occur. In class we talked about how culture has an idea of “shared sense of ordinary,” meaning that each culture regarding language and perception is going to be different even if we normalize categorizing Spain as one singular culture. Furthermore, cultures have a way of imposing themselves on society, meaning that this creates certain institutions and norms for how people should behave. In the case of Andalusia, the norm surrounding dialect is that you are supposed to talk fast and you are supposed to incorporate Andalusian slang that only immediate people inside the culture know about. This dialect in turn, ultimately shapes the identity of the Andalusian people.

Something as simple as ordering a cup of coffee is different between regions in Spain (ie Asturias versus Andalusia) Reference: https://www.personal.psu.edu/jml34/Andalusia.pdf