When you holiday in Spain, you are doing just that. You are on holiday and you have all the time in the world. It doesn’t matter if there are twenty people waiting to pay in the supermarket and only one till is open, because you are not in the hurry. You don’t even mind being kept waiting in the bank as it gives you a chance to listen to the Spanish language being spoken and people watch.
All in all, you tend to think of Spain as somewhere that you can lead a relaxing, laid back lifestyle. An alternative to the clock controlled, stress inducing lifestyle that you lead in the UK. Well, think again. Once you live in Spain life can get really get your pulse going at times especially when you are late to pick your children up from a nursery and a bulldozer is blocking your path. In fact, a typical day can involve being kept waiting at the bank when you have work to do, not being able to find your mail, which is not delivered to your home, but has to be collected at the post office, the garage won’t have the part for your car until the week after next and so on. This could all have happened by 10am. Okay there’s less traffic, less people going to the same places at the same time. It’s just as well because if there were, the whole place would come to a standstill.
However, instead of getting over frustrated with some of the daily experiences, you can use your time in Spain as a learning experience. Okay that was not you intention for coming to Spain but aspects of life in Spain can be positively character building.
When I was at university, around this time, employers had decided that a degree was not enough. Academic ability was no longer enough to go on and instead they wanted evidence that the graduate had other skills. The name they gave to these skills was transferable skills. These were skills that could be applied to everyday life such as decision making, communication skills and so on. So I started to think about what transferable skills I had gained from living in Spain and how I could put them to good use in the future within a different context i.e. returning back to the UK or living in another country. So I came up with the following:
Language skills - An obvious one but my Spanish is gradually improving all the time.
Communication skills - This has nothing to do with the spoken language but involves the skill of reading the other forms of communication. It can include learning what certain gestures and facial expressions mean that are used by Spanish people. This is really useful when you don’t fully understand what the person is saying to you.
Listening skills - listening is an integral part of communication and when you are dealing with a foreign language you have to listen intently in order to understand. Practicing the art of really listening can be applied to getting more out of communicating with people in your English too.
Making the most of your time - In Spain, you are often kept waiting. One way of overcoming the frustration of being kept waiting is to make sure you always have something at hand to do while you are waiting otherwise you feel like you are wasting your time. This could be something simple like keeping a little notebook in your bag to make lists of things to do whilst you are waiting your turn. You could also use these bits of time to catch up with your friends by texting. You don’t even need anything to do, you could use the time simply for thinking about your plans and ideas.
Social skills as the lifestyle in Spain is more on the street. Whereas in the UK it is easy to go for days without speaking to people, in Spain you can’t help but open up to others. Where we constantly say sorry or thank you, the Spanish constantly acknowledge each other by saying hello. If I ever went back to live in the UK I think I would be more open and friendly towards strangers on the street or in shops to help break down barriers.
This brings me onto making friends. When you are living in a foreign country far from your old friends you can get lonely. So you have to make an effort to talk to people and make friends. Some of them will become close friends but most will remain acquaintances. That doesn’t matter but it does make you open up to all kinds of people as potential friends. If I ever went to live anywhere else I would use this skill to not be as hesitant to approach people and start conversation.
You get plenty of practice of starting conversation in both your own language and the Spanish language. When I think of starting a conversation in the UK for some reasons I always imagine being stood at bus stops with old ladies discussing the latest weather patterns. But it doesn’t have to be about the weather. In Spain, a small child is usually a good conversation piece so if I ever returned to the UK to live, I would probably invest in a dog to get talking to people!
Spain can also help you to develop skills in all kinds of areas in your life. You may never have been very good at swimming but having a communal pool on hand means that you can practice more. You might have disliked cooking before but eating different types of food might make you keen to have a go yourself at home.
Other qualities that I personally have developed from living in Spain are:
Adaptability - when you live in a foreign country and your children go to the local school there will be certain cultural elements that you are exposed to and adapt to such as the afternoon siesta during the hot summer months.
Open mindedness from living among people who have a very different history and therefore may have different ideas about things.
Patience because it is tested all the time!
Courage to try new things because when you first come everything is new, from driving in unfamiliar surroundings on the other side of the road to speaking on the phone in a different language. When I lived in the UK I would only drive within my own comfort zone, now I wouldn’t think twice about driving the length of the UK.
Community spirit - unless you live in a private villa in Spain you live much closer to your neighbours. Your immediate area is far more shared than in the UK so naturally you need to be more aware and considerate of others
These are just a few that I can think of but I am sure there are much more that I am unaware of. It would probably take for me to return to living in the UK or another country just to discover how far my character has been developed by life in Spain.