Adjusting to Spanish culture hasn’t been very difficult for me. After spending a semester in Spain during my gap year before starting at Northeastern, and then spending the past 9 months in Amsterdam, I am pretty well adjusted to European life. However, due to my lacking Spanish skills, I do often find myself struggling to communicate with my flatmate, his friends, or the Granada people I meet when out and about.
My poor Spanish rarely causes actual problems or serious miscommunications, but everyday I realize more and more words that I can’t translate. Today while hiking with my flatmate and friends, I struggled to explain what “squirrel” is. I eventually settled for saying “rata grande en un árbol” while translates to ” big rat in a tree”. My flatmate proceeded to freak out at the idea that in Boston, we have giant tree rats that eat acorns and aren’t afraid of people. These are moments when I regret not having a data plan so I can Google image search squirrel. I later came to find that squirrel is “ardilla” in Spanish, and they do actually exist here but are much skinnier and darker (a lot more like tree rats, actually).
Besides the nonessential small furry animal vocab, I have also learned a few key phrases in Granada. My Spanish culture class has taught me a few, and I am constantly picking up new ones from my flatmate. My favorite is ” no pasa nada” which literally translates to ” nothing is going on” or “nothing happens”, but in general means ” don’t worry about it”. If you spill something at a restaurant, your waiter will quickly assure you that it’s fine, “no pasa nada”, and help you clean it up. If you show up 20 minutes late to meet Spanish friends at a bar, it’s “no pasa nada” because chances are all your friends are also running late. It seems to be less of a phrase and more of a way of life in Spain, and especially in Andalucia. Everything runs at a much slower pace, and people tend to be less irritable and annoyed by small mistakes or problems. It’s a cultural difference that I’m very happily adjusting to.
