UPDATE**** Remember I said locals and other Spanish speakers refer to campus as "cubi?" My friend David has enlightened me- it's "Cuvi" as in Campus Universitario VIgo. This being said, it's a great segway into this week's post about some of the immediate cultural differences we've encountered. Week 2 1. The Galician Accent One of the most difficult things that we've begun to adjust to is the Galician accent. Thanks to this blogger I was able to find the correct words to describe this particular challenge. Having grown up around the Mexican accent there are a few things that have made communication just slightly harder. Spain is comprised of many different regions- Vigo is in Galicia. There are a few characteristics that make the Galician accent so easy to identify. An important characteristic of the Galician accent which is different from the Mexican accent is that "B's" are pronounced as "V's" thus my confusion with "Cubi" versus "Cuvi." You can imagine how pronouncing one letter as another might lead to some miscommunication. Another distinction between the Mexican accent and the Galician accent is that everyone seems to ignore seso. Seso simply refers to the hard pronunciation of consonants. As I understand it all of Latin America follows seso where as native speakers in the Galician region do not. This means that speakers here in Vigo "lisp" consonants. There is just no distinguishing between "Z, S, or C" here. For example, a word like "zapatos" (shoes) would be pronounced as "thah-PAH-tos" in Galacia, while in Latin America speakers pronounce the word as "sah-PAH-tos." The lisp aspect of the Galician accent is only a small difference, but it is enough to require especially especially close listening. Finally, I have noticed that Spanish here is a "throatier" language than I would have ever imagined. The "G" sound ends up being a "KH" or "K" sound made in the throat. What I am referring to is the gheada accent. Words like "jamón" or "jalapeño" are pronounced with a throaty "KH" to sound something along the lines of "KHa-món" and "KHal-peño." (Note: I really tried to find the phonetic spelling of these words in Spanish but I was unsuccessful, so I made up my own.) Although this is a small difference in comparison to the other two I've identified, it is enough to cause some confusion. It has been an adjustment learning to listen to these aspects of speech. Through modification of how we listen and what we listen for, understanding a more complex conversation with a local will become easier with practice! 2. Hours of Operation Son MUY différentes! Even though the sun isn't up yet, it seems like everybody starts the day about 8am. The morning is considered to be between the hours of 10am and 2pm, then lunch is taken shortly after 2pm. One of the most inconvenient differences we've encountered is siesta. From 2:30pm - 5pm nearly everything is closed. Everything from the grocery stores to restaurants. And if restaurants are open they're only serving coffee and beer- not food. About 5pm cafes open back up and most stores open shortly there after. But, if you're looking for dinner at 5pm you're wrong. This is when everybody sits down for coffee or a beer- or both. Then restaurants begin to open for dinner between 7pm and 8pm during the week, and some later on the weekends. Dinner is nearly always followed by coffee. The amount of coffee people drink here is incredible. I have no idea how they drink as much coffee as they do AND take a siesta, and then sleep at night. Baffling. But I'm not complaining- I love coffee. 3. Fiesta 1, Fiesta 2, Fiesta 3, Fiesta more! One of the most mind blowing things to discover was how people celebrate the weekends. For those of us in college, I'll be honest, we party. Now and again, some of us more than others. But, whether it be going to a house party or hitting the frats we start around 10pm. Give or take. For most of us the night ends around 2am. Here people are sleeping until 10pm, waking up to have coffee, and getting ready for the pre-party which will start at 11:30pm. But don't be fooled nobody shows up on time. In fact most people show up at least an hour late. Around 2am the bars close and the clubs open. From the bar the party migrates to the first club, and after a few hours to the second and third ones. The party continues until 7ish in the morning. IN THE MORNING PEOPLE! There's a club that serves breakfast!! So what happens to the next day? You guessed it- the day following the fiesta is slept away. I have discovered that Spaniards will take any excuse to have a fiesta- if they can drink the party is on! While it seems superficial on the surface I've also noticed that it is just as much about spending time together as it is about going out. What's more is that the fiestas are not limited to the "jóvenes" or young ones. It is something that is embraced by everybody- it is a very prominent part of their culture. 4. School? In the States going to school is so incredibly mandatory- especially to do well. I'm about to make a generalization of students at home, forgive me, but I have found it to be true for most individuals. For most people, skipping class (at least the important ones like math or science) is difficult to do. Also, our grades tend to be impacted by our attendance. At home I very rarely skip class, and when I do skip (even if for a good reason) I feel oh so guilty. But here it's more normal not to go to class than it is to go. What? Yes you read that correctly. Most, I would dare to say all, students live in the city center. So, it is between a 30 minute bus ride and an hour to get to campus. If you only have one class it seems like a waste of €2.70 and half a day to go to one class. Attendance isn't taken and the lectures are posted online. From what I've heard failing is also incredibly common- probably due to the fact that nobody goes to class. I was warned by my advisor to expect C's- apparently C's are considered to be very good. Needless to say I am nervous about how said "good grades" will affect my GPA. An example of students not going to class would be my roommate Shayma. She left for a 10 day trip to Paris and Amsterdam among other places. I was shocked when she told me that she would miss that much school- it didn't seem to bother her at all. Another roommate Sara, a local in Vigo, never goes to class. She works full time and teaches herself from the lectures that are posted online. Online classes aren't offered here so many students who work just teach themselves at home and go to campus only to take tests. Finally, our third roommate, Yeshim, often sleeps through her first class and misses others no problem. The concept of attending school is just not very big here. 5. Punctuality, por qué? Ok, this one makes me a little nuts but I can't really say anything because then I'd be a hypocrite. I'm late to everything. I try not to be, but I am. Usually I'm late by a few minutes and I'm hurrying the whole way. But here my late is on time. In fact, it's early! They say class starts at 9am, but it doesn't usually get going until about ten minutes after. Give or take. The other day my professor walked into a class of 50 students 20 minutes late. It happens. There is no sense of urgency nor punctuality. I went to watch Ben play basketball one day. The coach said to be there around 3:15pm. We were the first and only ones there until 3:30pm. Even the coach was late! People were wandering in until 4:30pm. Over an hour late! And nobody said anything about it. The other players strolled in with no care in the world and the coach didn't say anything about it. Incredible. Growing up, if I had showed up to gymnastics practice that late, without a good reason, I'd have had it handed to me in reps of push-ups, laps around the gym, and lack of coaching from the coach for the rest of practice. "Be here by" seems to be merely a suggestion for many. As you can see there are a few things that we immediately noticed. Neither good nor bad, just different. We've started to adjust, but it's still going to take some getting used to!
1 Comment
Mom
3/2/2019 05:50:00 pm
Enjoy Spain, but I hope you’ll go to class when you get home! 💗 Mom
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AuthorCoffee addict. Chocolate obsessed. I'm ready to explore. Archives
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