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2,097 Posts
People wonder why I'm so negative about Brits over here.....well they need to walk a mile in my shoes!
I've been here since Nov 2005, and besides the first four months where we were looking for somewhere to live....I've been working. Every day.....usually all day.
I haven't had the time to have any formal instruction in Spanish.....because I spend all my time earning a living. But I have to speak Spanish every day just to be able to survive.....so a little bit of research along with continual speaking and listening....and I get by.
If people ask me do I speak Spanish....I just say a little. And I leave it that.
On accasions I've helped one or two good friends out with personal business....but that's it. However, over the past few months I've had more and more calls from shops that I go to.....where I know the owners.
And on every occasion it's because some monosyllabic, ****** Brit is kicking off in their shop. Having a tantrum because they can't get what they want.....when they want....and the shopkeepers don't know WTF is going on. So I either have to go to the shop and help out the Spaniards or placate the Brit ****** on the phone.
This week I had two calls from two different shops on the same morning about the same Brit humanoid. Went to two shops and kicked off in both.
These people make me sick.....they come to rural inland Spain and think they're going to get the same level of choice as they would in Milton Keynes shopping mall.
I'm trying to make a living here and I keep getting caught up in the messes that these losers create. I do it, not to help them, but to help the local Spanish.....and hopefully try to repair the damage that they do to all our reputations in the community.
Moral of the story? Do not go to a rural part of Spain unless you are able to speak a reasonable degree of Spanish already, and do not go to rural areas if you're used to living in big cities.
If you do.....you will fail miserably. And in the process you'll make a [email protected] of yourself......and destroy any good Brit-Spanish relations that may exist.
I've been here since Nov 2005, and besides the first four months where we were looking for somewhere to live....I've been working. Every day.....usually all day.
I haven't had the time to have any formal instruction in Spanish.....because I spend all my time earning a living. But I have to speak Spanish every day just to be able to survive.....so a little bit of research along with continual speaking and listening....and I get by.
If people ask me do I speak Spanish....I just say a little. And I leave it that.
On accasions I've helped one or two good friends out with personal business....but that's it. However, over the past few months I've had more and more calls from shops that I go to.....where I know the owners.
And on every occasion it's because some monosyllabic, ****** Brit is kicking off in their shop. Having a tantrum because they can't get what they want.....when they want....and the shopkeepers don't know WTF is going on. So I either have to go to the shop and help out the Spaniards or placate the Brit ****** on the phone.
This week I had two calls from two different shops on the same morning about the same Brit humanoid. Went to two shops and kicked off in both.
These people make me sick.....they come to rural inland Spain and think they're going to get the same level of choice as they would in Milton Keynes shopping mall.
I'm trying to make a living here and I keep getting caught up in the messes that these losers create. I do it, not to help them, but to help the local Spanish.....and hopefully try to repair the damage that they do to all our reputations in the community.
Moral of the story? Do not go to a rural part of Spain unless you are able to speak a reasonable degree of Spanish already, and do not go to rural areas if you're used to living in big cities.
If you do.....you will fail miserably. And in the process you'll make a [email protected] of yourself......and destroy any good Brit-Spanish relations that may exist.
Agreed with you, personally - but there's been so many posts on here (incl. recently) whereby the poster has said "why should we integrate and learn the language, expatshire heaven/hell...blah blah blah". The very least one can do - and I know, after a certain age, it can be very difficult to attain even a rudimentary level of another language - is just bloody TRY. Be respectful. And if it's not going your way and you can't make yourself understood, don't stamp your feet and do a "Rumple Stiltskin", thinking that by shouting louder, you'll be understood. However, I fear that that idiot in the shop perhaps would have been a complete @sshole in the UK as well. He/She has probably gone away thinking that the shopkeeper is rude and ignorant and "how dare they...surely they would want my custom, especially in the current crisis....etc". 
