Intercultural Conflicts: Practical Questions

The other day I was recalling some situations that I have witnessed where my intercultural know-how left me a little short or simply wasn’t there. Those moments have made me reflect on how I can help our students avoid some of the same gaffes that can inevitably happen when we find ourselves immersed in a culture that is not our own.

Spanish Customs

When a Spanish person goes to the fish market or produce store, invariably due to their popularity coupled with the necessity to eat, it is common to observe a large mass of people with no particular organization waiting to place their order with the person behind the counter. If you’re not used to this, you will find yourself in the middle of this madness thinking “there are way too many people!” And lines? What are those? Apparently they don’t exist. Some of our northern European neighbors will line up for anything…in fact there is an aphorism that goes: Dos ingleses son una cola or Two Englishmen are enough to form a line. As far as we Spanish are concerned, forming lines isn’t our cup of tea since we don’t mind crowds very much.

I live in a city where tourists are a common sight. I’ve been able to observe that the tourists that go to the local market have one characteristic in common: They are dead quiet. It’s not that they don’t know how to speak Spanish, many speak enough to get by…it’s just that they don’t feel they need to. Let’s return to the produce store.  When a tourist enters the establishment, they will observe the crowd trying as hard as possible to determine who the last person waiting is and place themselves directly behind them. And that’s it.

Here’s the thing: When our outsider approaches the mass of people standing before the fruit counter, they freeze and aren’t sure what to do next. They’re lost. Probably because nobody has ever taught them a wonderful sentence that’s clear and easy to say: ¿Quién es el último?  (Who’s the last in line?). That’s that, Problem solved. All of the annoyance and frustration of the non-Hispanic dissipates when they come to realization that one only has to ask. It’s not enough (nor necessary) to arrive and place yourself in line. You only have to communicate verbally. It ends up that the mass of people is very organized after all.

There have also been moments when some people may think that the Spanish are a breed apart, permanently indignant and angry because we are always yelling like a people possessed. This is another misconception. In Spain, it is the tone of voice and not the volume that determines whether one is angry or outraged. If a Spanish person runs into someone they know and they haven’t seen for a while they will usually be greeted with an Hola, ¿Qué Tal? (Hello. How are you?). This greeting will usually be made so loudly that it may offend us because they are letting us know with their emotive greeting just how little they care about us or, simply, we are just nobodies who are destined to be ignored. In this case, the only one that matters is the person that hasn’t been seen in a while. Let’s look at the flip side of things. For example, let’s say that an old student has returned to visit and we say to him in loud and robust voice: “Hey Vadim, it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other! ¿How’s it going?” Our Russian student will most likely freeze and doubly so if he missed our class on non-verbal communication or intercultural relations. And if we consider the possibility of what would happen if our student were Japanese instead of Russian? Can you imagine the trauma would we would inflict if we happened to add a firm pat on the shoulder?!

Because of this, it is important to never forget all those gems we call teaching aids that are within our reach thanks to modern technology and the internet. Here we have one that is a famous (at least among Spanish teachers) comedy sketch from the television show Splunge from TVE. In this short, two-minute video we’ll witness a complete conversation that makes perfect sense even though they have substituted some words or expressions for gestures. This is something you can’t miss!