I spent one year in Zaragoza, in the north of Spain, and lived with a family in a tiny village surrounded by almond trees (it was as idyllic as it sounds!). I wanted to talk about one thing which seems to be quite different in Spain compared to the UK, and that is alcohol.
In the UK, alcohol is quite restricted, and is most definitely shielded from the eyes of children. In the supermarket, alcohol is placed separately to the aisles of sweets and fizzy drinks â the classic setting for parent child power struggles â and when found elsewhere in the store bottles are placed high up on the shelf so none but the gangliest preteen could hope to reach them. If aforementioned preteen does get to the check out with his contraband, he is unceremoniously turned away by the diligent store assistant. Drinking establishments often have clearly defined and distinct areas for eating and consuming alcohol âaccess to these places is restricted, and many children nowadays will not have set foot in a pub before the age of 18.
At a Spanish supermarket, in contrast, alcoholic beer appears side by side with soft drinks, near the entrance of the store. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beers sit together â itâs often hard to tell the difference between them. A British consumer might cast an eye over the price tags to differentiate â however, in Spain this is no help as alcoholic beer is often cheaper than the equivalent soft drink! This theme follows through to restaurants, where due to the economic savings involved I was compelled to order a lager with every meal for half the price of orange juice. Pubs do not exist in Spain in the same way as in England â stop at any local cafĂ© and lining the shelves will be lemonade, Colacao (a chocolately milk drink) and neat vodka. And the Spanish are just dying to give alcohol away. At the end of every meal out, tiny chupito glasses appear on the table â a 40 proof aperitif on the house.
I donât know whether itâs the difference in taxation, a more relaxed drinking culture or just flagrant alcoholism. All I can say is that now I know why the first Spanish phrase a British person often learns is âdos cervezas, por favour!â
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Drinking in Spain
Filed under My Intercultural Experience
“The Cultural Game” Workshop – A Great Success!
This workshop is set to run again during the Spring term â keep an eye out on this website for more information.
On 2nd December we ran our interactive workshop âThe Cultural Gameâ, held at Highfield campus in the Maths building.
We had a great turnout with around 16 students, home and international, coming to join in the activities (the email weâd sent round with FREE PIZZA in capital letters had clearly done the trick!) The event started with everyone getting to know each other a little, before we split them into small groups and began with the workshops.
The first workshop was mysteriously called âThe Culture Card Gameâ, and after receiving rulesets for a new card game, each group got to work learning the rules together. After it look liked everyone knew more or less what they were doing, we ranked the groups â from the unlucky âlosersâ tableâ up to the smug âwinnersâ tableâ. The game then became a tournament, with players having to beat their opponents and move up the ranks from the losersâ to the winnersâ table by winning games, and going down a rank each time they lost.
From this point onwards everybody had to remain completely silent, which was quite a challenge for some players! We got through however with minimal shushing. About halfway through the tournament it became clear to some that the game wasnât as straightforward as they had thought. By the time the tournament ended and the winnersâ table got a prize and a round of applause, many had figured out that the game had actually been rigged!
The game had been designed to give players firsthand experience of what itâs like to enter a new culture, where the ârulesâ are different to what you are used to and where you sometimes canât communicate very easily. We brainstormed ways you might cope with coming into a new situation like this, and started to draw parallels with experiences in our own lives. The discussion went brilliantly with lots of great examples from different members of the group who had lived or travelled to different countries, and there were also a few experiences people had had at university, which was really interesting to hear about.
We then had our pizza break and people got chatting to one another, before starting the next workshop, called âWhat is Intelligence?â The group was divided into three teams and given an intelligent test. They all did extremely well in the test and were all marked as âintelligentâ which was a relief! They were then given another test, based on the native Australian community of the kuuk thayorre, which proved a little more challenging, except for one team who managed to win the quiz and earn themselves a prize. However, again we found out that this team had been given a big advantage. We discussed what role cultural knowledge has in our definition of intelligence, with the group again having some great ideas.
In the end, everybody got a prize, and we finished off the workshop with a big thank you to everyone who came along. Lots of participants commented that they had really enjoyed the event, and were interested in taking part in more workshops and events run by the Intercultural Connections Southampton team, so watch this space!
Filed under Festival News, Workshops
