Speaking in a foreign language and the cultural differences between Spanish and British English 🇪🇸 🇬🇧

When you live in another country for a while you start to experience a different culture, way of talking and customs. Even though you have been living in another country, at times it just won’t feel like home and you don’t belong there.

For me, there are times where Spanish is difficult to understand, to speak it well and correctly . When I am very tired, I can't speak very well, my level of speaking Spanish drops by 20%. Working as a waitress, means that I have to push myself even further and to keep going even if it gets difficult. I'm sure other people can relate to this?

Manners and Customs

The way you speak politely in one language, can be seen as rude in language.

From my experience, having too many manners in Spanish is not necessary. People are blunt and used to asking for something by saying , I want and not is it possible to have or may I have.

Sometimes I say "por favor", "gracias" and "lo siento" too much for a Spanish person. My British side is always going to be there no matter where I am. Using "perdon" instead is better, as "lo siento" is too strong. Sometimes, British people are even capable of saying sorry to a door, so I can understand that it can get too much!

In England we refer to our partner as they are, "boyfriend", "fiancé" or "husband" and I haven't heard of anybody getting offended by that. However, just to give you a heads up speaking from my experience, in Spain referring to your partner as your fiancé "prometido" raises eyebrows and also causes some offence and people might look at you weird. I still don't understand this, as this is a natural thing. I don't mean to offend anybody, but at the same time I don't see how it is fair that I can't refer to my fiancé as "prometido".

Translations

If you translate exactly from English to Spanish as well, some people are going to raise their eyebrows at you confused. The English language is just as complicated as the Spanish language, and if you try to construct sentences from the top of your head, translating it exactly may be wrong. Sometimes there are sentences that don't translate well.

Also, there are a lot of false friends in Spanish and making words up can cause some awkward (but funny) situations. I have learnt that sometimes it's not good to translate a word according to what I think it could be, as it could be completely the opposite.

Accents

Everybody has an accent when they speak another language. Your native accent is most certainly going to be heard. You can change your accent to imitate an accent correctly, but by forcing it, and changing it significantly you are changing your identity just so you conform to society’s standards.

The more focus I put on speaking well, the higher the barrier I create. By speaking in Spanish freely and naturally, results in my English accent to be heard. At times I apologise for my accent, but why should I be apologetic. Should I really feel bad for being a foreign person. In the end I am speaking the national language.

I am learning to let these worries go. I shouldn’t apologise for my accent, nor should I be judged for it. Neither should anybody in the world. When you speak another language, just remember you are doing really well! If you can hear your accent, don't worry about it, you can't hide this and should never feel the need to.

Your accent is what makes you unique, everybody has an accent when speaking a foreign language, you should never be ashamed of this.

One day when I can speak Spanish better, there will be no communication barrier, and I think I will feel like I belong here more.