A British expatriate living in Spain has taken to an online forum to prove that life is not all sunshine and roses in the Mediterranean country.
The expat, who lives in Gijon, Asturias, listed their post as a 'general moan' and listed 'things that irk you about Spain'.
Recently, there has been an increase in people from the UK moving abroad in the search for salvation from Covid restrictions and a change to witness close to 300 days of sunshine over the course of a year, rather than Britain's measly 300 hours.
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As is the case on most online expat forums, as well as interesting updates and fellow Brits guiding each other to life outside of the UK, there are also a mountain of people complaining over the disadvantages of living abroad.
This user points out various factors that they have noticed is quite noticeable compared to their home country, including Spain's obsession with education, the difference in table etiquette and rather unusual comparison towards how Spaniards approach small talk.
One the first subject, the user said: "While I have observed families are much closer in Spain than in the UK, i.e its not uncommon to see the whole family walking and being together here and also its nice seeing children actually using parks compared to the UK.
"BUT it really grates on me that parents and schools force so much "school" onto their kids. Some of my own students (kids and teens alike) seem not to have lives like ordinary kids."
Whilst this is an uncommon theme on expat forums, this user has certainly observed details in Spain that most Brits would glance over.
The user also points out to how table etiquette is taken much more seriously in Spain and that even the positioning of cutlery is important.
They added: "This is a seriously big thing in Spain, at least with regards to my wife and her family, I don't actually know if this is throughout Spain or just a class thing, I've got no idea??? But having the correct forks and knives on the correct side and the use of a fish knife etc seems to be a big thing in Asturias according to my experience and well.... connecting it to the above, seems a little pretentious to me."
This user concluded their rant by expressing the difficulty whilst chatting to their neighbours. In the UK, most people get to know their next door neighbours like they're distant relatives. Not in Spain, though.
They ended with: "I don't know if anyone has found this, I have tried to interact with neighbours and people in the street and always hit a brick wall. For me I use Small Talk as Spanish practice, but ultimately its more harder than it's worth."
Fellow users in the comments did not take the slander lying down and sought to defend their countrymen.
One hit back with: "What's wrong with having table manners? Would you rather eat with fingers?"
Another said: "I find the Spanish are pretty good with small talk. Even in these days of remote working we always have a few minutes of general chit chat before getting down to business."
