Spanish culture

After living about 2 months in Madrid now, I can tell my loyal readers something about the cultural differences with the Netherlands.

First of all, the university. To be honest, it is not what I expected from a university. I would compare it more to high school because of the small classes, homework and the numerous cases and review tests. That was something I really had to get used to, because at Tilburg University there most of the time is only a final exam. So during the semester you do not have to do the cases, assignments and review tests we have to make now. When I think about that however, it might be a better way to get a higher grade for the final exam as you already have got some partial exams and midterms.

Another thing at Carlos III that I noticed is that the distance professor-students is much greater than at Tilburg University. Here a professor is somebody who is always right; students are not supposed to challenge something a professor says. That immediately is seen as rude and disrespectful. In the Netherlands however it is seen as a good thing that a student expresses his or her own opinion. Here in Spain that is not the case; you are supposed to follow the professors in their opinions. That leads to the fact that Spanish students are much more careful when answering a question. They often start their answers with ‘maybe …’ or ‘perhaps …’. Your opinion cannot be the right one unless the professor says so.

One thing I really like is that I have Spanish friends now. That makes your exchange so much better, because they know things we don’t know. For instance, they know good places to go out, they know nice places to have lunch or dinner and they of course know a lot of interesting things about the country. I like it to talk to them about the differences between Spain and the Netherlands.

One of those is the way the Spaniards eat. Their breakfast for instance is usually nothing more than a bolleria or tostada with an café con leche. For me, that is definitely not enough to start a day with; I need more than that.
Their lunch however is much bigger than the breakfast. They often eat something like a menú del dia, which is composed of a starter, main course and a dessert or coffee. In the Netherlands, we only eat bread for lunch, something that Spaniards cannot understand.
Finally, their evening meal is often only some tapas. Furthermore, they eat that around 10 p.m., which is really, really late for Dutch people. Nowadays I am used to eating around that time, but in the beginning that is something you really have to get used to.

Another thing is one tradition of Spain, namely the bullfight. One friend of mine went to see this tradition and she asked me to join her. I said no, because I do not like this cruelty. When she told me the story about the bullfight, I made the right decision. 6 Bulls are killed during the spectacle. My friend thought it was enough after 3 killed bulls and I cannot disagree with her. It would have been nothing for me. When I talked about this event with my Spanish friends, they say that it is indeed a tradition and that they sometimes go there. They explained me that the bulls killed led a better life than the bulls who are killed just for the meat. Knowing that did not make me change my opinion about bullfights.

Another thing I would like to mention is the amount of people that speak English. One Spanish friend of us said that the percentage of Spaniards speaking English is about 20 per cent. I was really shocked by that number, saying him that the amount of people in the Netherlands who do not speak English is 20 per cent. Such a big country, but so little people speaking English. In the beginning, that was a problem when you wanted to get some things arranged, but later you know better how to deal with such things and you can make yourself more clear.

Now I have mentioned the most important differences I have encountered so far. There are a lot as you have read above, but that does not make your exchange worse. In fact, I think it is great to adapt to different cultures and to try to live and do as they do. Meeting people for the country you are on exchange really helps with that.