"Like all Englishmen I am simultaneously enthralled and intimidated by the dazzlingly relaxed, refined and generally not uptight culture that seems to exists everywhere beyond the borders of my drizzly and grey little island"
Sam Delaney, Ryanair Magazine, Feb-March 2010
If you were to change Englishmen to British and Irishmen in the above sentence, it would come very close to accurately summing up the relationship of the inhabitants of the British isles with most of the rest of the cultures on earth, but, in particular, with continental Europe.
Like most people who have spent a significant amount of time out of their country of origin I am absolutely fascinated by cultural differences, national identities, language and linguistics, travel and cultural, social and linguistic clashes/integration in general. Here in Northern Portugal the majority of tourists tend to be French or Spanish whereas the Northern Europeans, or as a woman from the Canaries on my flight back to Portugal put it yesterday, the people from the cold countries (!) meaning Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Holland and Germany tend to go to the established tourist centres, in the Algarve in the case of Portugal. Obviously this is a bit of a generalisation but the main point is that those who go to Lisbon and Porto as well as smaller cities such as Coimbra and Braga tend to be slightly more culturally and linguistically aware whereas many of those who go to the Algarve aren't sure whether they are in Spain, Portugal or Greece. It's been a while since I've been somewhere which has mass tourism of the latter variety. So my long weekend in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was very interesting. The city itself is fascinating as it very much acts as a stage on which hundreds of thousands of cultural and linguistic battles are fought every day. First comment to make is that I am delighted, shocked and very amused that in almost every place I've been to in Spain where there are tourist resorts or large numbers of foreign tourists the grasp of English which the Spanish people living there have, never seems to be very advanced. Despite the fact that they are practically flooded with completely monolingual British and Irish tourists as well as other Northern Europeans who predominantly communicate via the use of English as opposed to their own native language. And yet, the Spanish don't so much see this as an opportunity to speak English and perfect their command of English as... well I'm not sure how the see it. I just find it so amusing. It's like neither side really wants to budge and admit that perhaps everything would go a lot smoother if both sides spoke the others language. Honestly, it's like watching the British colonists trying to communicate with the Native Americans all over again. And this is Europe! It's not so much a criticism as just a comment from someone who feels bemused and entertained by the situation. I don't really believe in any case that in a city such as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria which receives a large number of tourists but is, at the same time, a large, fully functioning, Spanish city, that the Spanish people who reside there should be expected to speak English. Nor am I really optimistic enough to believe that Northern Europeans, the British in particular, will ever admit that they are not the centre of the universe and that learning another language doesn't erode or render less valid their national identity and would instead improve their time in another country. I just found it, from a linguistic and cultural perspective, to be incredibly interesting to watch Anglophones becoming irritated, rude, confrontational and confused when spoken to in Spanish, in Spain. Or when they actually had to make an effort to communicate and flail around feeling awkward and silly because of their lack of linguistic knowledge or cultural sensitivity. And again I echo, this is Europe! Two Europeans trying to communicate and it may as well be two ancient tribes from the opposite ends of the globe... Saying that I am honestly absolutely in awe of the immense amount of patience displayed by Spanish and Portuguese people when confronted with often (but not always of course) rude and abusive tourists who manage to make, for example, the Spanish person in Spain feel responsible for the confusion created in their conversation in English and try to somehow project their linguistic inability onto the native speaker of the national language of the country they are in and to somehow blame the Spanish speaker's lack of English for the difficulties in communication.... I don't know. Perhaps it is just insecurity, frustration and intimidation. Some people don't like what they don't know and all that. It just then seems hypocritical to get on a plane and fly somewhere else. Linguistic neo-colonialism and all that. It's just a terrible pity that the attitude towards foreign languages is the way it is in the UK. The education system at all levels is woefully, miserably inadequate when it comes to teaching foreign languages. Moreover British and Irish people tend not to have a very developed knowledge of their own native tongue when it comes to grammar, idioms, regionalisms and colloquialisms (as the teaching of English itself is also incredibly minimal) and therefore can rarely even manage to adapt their own speech patterns in English to make their communication simpler for a non-native speaker to understand. In short, the UK is culturally isolated and is linguistically an island and I believe, very strongly, that it needs to change. Maturation and development comes from exposure to a wide range of influences.
My weekend in Las Palmas was wonderful. The weather was extraordinary. Whilst everybody in Northern Portugal is still wrapped up in coats and scarves, we were on the beach in almost 30 degree temperatures. I found that confusing. But also amazing! I was also surprised by how easy it was to avoid the touristy areas and to feel like I was in a large Spanish city which was what I wanted. I was very impressed by the restaurants in the city- we ate Galician, Cuban, Indian, French, Japanese and Argentinean food and it was all absolutely incredible. All in all, a wonderful few days, made all the more enjoyable by the fact that I didn't have to eat in the sort of places that have pictures of the food in the menus and could take advantage of the daily lunch menus which were clearly aimed at the Spanish speakers and not the tourists. On that note, I chose to say Spanish speakers as the city is actually much more cosmopolitan and multicultural than I was expecting. I had the preconception that the Spanish would be in a minority, beaten down by progressive waves of Northern Europeans arriving by their millions of package holidays but what I found what a bustling city, with Spanish speakers from across the globe as well as a significant Muslim population. Very interesting. Also, I found Canarian Spanish to be much more distinct from Peninsular (Castilian) Spanish than I had expected. At times I was almost sure I was actually in Cuba/Venezuela/Dominican Republic! Anyway, all in all very successful and enjoyable break. A beautiful place and wonderful people with excellent food and unbelievable weather...in March! Three more weeks of work and then I'll be going to the Algarve. Oh, and I found out that I don't actually have to do my Portuguese tax return until next month. Which is nice!
And to have a few days completely away from the computer and the online world-absolute total and utter bliss. Facebook/Twitter/Blogging and so on are marvellous. But only if you have an offline life and therefore something interesting and meaningful to share. Sounds obvious but the world seems to be forgetting it...
Sam Delaney, Ryanair Magazine, Feb-March 2010
If you were to change Englishmen to British and Irishmen in the above sentence, it would come very close to accurately summing up the relationship of the inhabitants of the British isles with most of the rest of the cultures on earth, but, in particular, with continental Europe.
Like most people who have spent a significant amount of time out of their country of origin I am absolutely fascinated by cultural differences, national identities, language and linguistics, travel and cultural, social and linguistic clashes/integration in general. Here in Northern Portugal the majority of tourists tend to be French or Spanish whereas the Northern Europeans, or as a woman from the Canaries on my flight back to Portugal put it yesterday, the people from the cold countries (!) meaning Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Holland and Germany tend to go to the established tourist centres, in the Algarve in the case of Portugal. Obviously this is a bit of a generalisation but the main point is that those who go to Lisbon and Porto as well as smaller cities such as Coimbra and Braga tend to be slightly more culturally and linguistically aware whereas many of those who go to the Algarve aren't sure whether they are in Spain, Portugal or Greece. It's been a while since I've been somewhere which has mass tourism of the latter variety. So my long weekend in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was very interesting. The city itself is fascinating as it very much acts as a stage on which hundreds of thousands of cultural and linguistic battles are fought every day. First comment to make is that I am delighted, shocked and very amused that in almost every place I've been to in Spain where there are tourist resorts or large numbers of foreign tourists the grasp of English which the Spanish people living there have, never seems to be very advanced. Despite the fact that they are practically flooded with completely monolingual British and Irish tourists as well as other Northern Europeans who predominantly communicate via the use of English as opposed to their own native language. And yet, the Spanish don't so much see this as an opportunity to speak English and perfect their command of English as... well I'm not sure how the see it. I just find it so amusing. It's like neither side really wants to budge and admit that perhaps everything would go a lot smoother if both sides spoke the others language. Honestly, it's like watching the British colonists trying to communicate with the Native Americans all over again. And this is Europe! It's not so much a criticism as just a comment from someone who feels bemused and entertained by the situation. I don't really believe in any case that in a city such as Las Palmas de Gran Canaria which receives a large number of tourists but is, at the same time, a large, fully functioning, Spanish city, that the Spanish people who reside there should be expected to speak English. Nor am I really optimistic enough to believe that Northern Europeans, the British in particular, will ever admit that they are not the centre of the universe and that learning another language doesn't erode or render less valid their national identity and would instead improve their time in another country. I just found it, from a linguistic and cultural perspective, to be incredibly interesting to watch Anglophones becoming irritated, rude, confrontational and confused when spoken to in Spanish, in Spain. Or when they actually had to make an effort to communicate and flail around feeling awkward and silly because of their lack of linguistic knowledge or cultural sensitivity. And again I echo, this is Europe! Two Europeans trying to communicate and it may as well be two ancient tribes from the opposite ends of the globe... Saying that I am honestly absolutely in awe of the immense amount of patience displayed by Spanish and Portuguese people when confronted with often (but not always of course) rude and abusive tourists who manage to make, for example, the Spanish person in Spain feel responsible for the confusion created in their conversation in English and try to somehow project their linguistic inability onto the native speaker of the national language of the country they are in and to somehow blame the Spanish speaker's lack of English for the difficulties in communication.... I don't know. Perhaps it is just insecurity, frustration and intimidation. Some people don't like what they don't know and all that. It just then seems hypocritical to get on a plane and fly somewhere else. Linguistic neo-colonialism and all that. It's just a terrible pity that the attitude towards foreign languages is the way it is in the UK. The education system at all levels is woefully, miserably inadequate when it comes to teaching foreign languages. Moreover British and Irish people tend not to have a very developed knowledge of their own native tongue when it comes to grammar, idioms, regionalisms and colloquialisms (as the teaching of English itself is also incredibly minimal) and therefore can rarely even manage to adapt their own speech patterns in English to make their communication simpler for a non-native speaker to understand. In short, the UK is culturally isolated and is linguistically an island and I believe, very strongly, that it needs to change. Maturation and development comes from exposure to a wide range of influences.
My weekend in Las Palmas was wonderful. The weather was extraordinary. Whilst everybody in Northern Portugal is still wrapped up in coats and scarves, we were on the beach in almost 30 degree temperatures. I found that confusing. But also amazing! I was also surprised by how easy it was to avoid the touristy areas and to feel like I was in a large Spanish city which was what I wanted. I was very impressed by the restaurants in the city- we ate Galician, Cuban, Indian, French, Japanese and Argentinean food and it was all absolutely incredible. All in all, a wonderful few days, made all the more enjoyable by the fact that I didn't have to eat in the sort of places that have pictures of the food in the menus and could take advantage of the daily lunch menus which were clearly aimed at the Spanish speakers and not the tourists. On that note, I chose to say Spanish speakers as the city is actually much more cosmopolitan and multicultural than I was expecting. I had the preconception that the Spanish would be in a minority, beaten down by progressive waves of Northern Europeans arriving by their millions of package holidays but what I found what a bustling city, with Spanish speakers from across the globe as well as a significant Muslim population. Very interesting. Also, I found Canarian Spanish to be much more distinct from Peninsular (Castilian) Spanish than I had expected. At times I was almost sure I was actually in Cuba/Venezuela/Dominican Republic! Anyway, all in all very successful and enjoyable break. A beautiful place and wonderful people with excellent food and unbelievable weather...in March! Three more weeks of work and then I'll be going to the Algarve. Oh, and I found out that I don't actually have to do my Portuguese tax return until next month. Which is nice!
And to have a few days completely away from the computer and the online world-absolute total and utter bliss. Facebook/Twitter/Blogging and so on are marvellous. But only if you have an offline life and therefore something interesting and meaningful to share. Sounds obvious but the world seems to be forgetting it...
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