How much does your average American know about Spain?
Probably very little.
So are Americans all ignorant? Well, that’s a longer story, which I’ll tell here.
Let me speak from personal experience…
I’ve been here in Spain for about 19 years now. And a lot of people ask me why I chose to come to Spain and what I knew about it before I arrived.
Why is a long story, which I tell in another article. (Short version: I was young and having an adventure, plus there was a certain girl in Madrid I wanted to hang out with.)
What I knew about Spain before arriving is a much shorter story, because I always have to admit, somewhat apologetically, that I knew absolutely nothing.
Yes, I moved halfway around the world without having any real idea of what to expect. I didn’t even really have an opinion or a mental image of Spain.
I had spent about a week here, travelling from city to city, and I liked the feel of it. I’d seen a couple of neighborhoods in Barcelona, a bit of Valencia, Granada and Madrid.
That was enough to get me on the plane.
Also, I was young, stupid and idealistic, and moving to Spain was just one of a long series of bad ideas I had in my teens and early twenties – a bad idea that actually turned out surprisingly well, now that some time has passed.
Anyway, how much do you really need to know about a country in order to catch a plane? I’m not into over-planning. And in those days I wasn’t even into underplanning. I bought a ticket to Madrid, put my six best t-shirts in a duffel bag and figured I’d work out the details later.
These days I know that you learn much more spending a couple of weeks in some other country than you ever would reading books or travel blogs. But this was 2004, so we didn’t even have travel blogs. I read Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia and called it a day.
Of course, I did learn some Spanish before coming. Which was an adventure in itself.
Wanna know about American ignorance? Read on…
Perro Pepe and elementary school ignorance
I remember quite clearly that my first introduction to the concept of Spain was in elementary school Spanish class.
It was during the Barcelona Olympics.
I guess that was 1992, so I was about nine and a half at the time. Our teacher (she was from Ecuador, I believe) showed us where Spain was on a world map – a small peninsula just south of England, basically – then briefly explained that in Spain they spoke Spanish and that it had 50 states just like the US.
Then she went right back to teaching us useless vocabulary like hipopótamo, jirafa, and elefante.
That was it! No Spanish history, nothing.
And I guess I should mention that I didn’t believe the “50 states” thing at all. How were they gonna fit 50 states into such a small country? Turns out I was wrong. They actually do have 50 provinces, which is sort of the same thing.
(My ignorance of European distances and how kilometers work lasted me through my first several years in Spain. I remember once getting in a friend’s car in Madrid at around 11AM. We were going to Toulouse in the south of France, and I just assumed that we’d be there for lunch. I believe we eventually got there for dinner the next day, after spending a night sleeping in the car in the Pyrenees. But I digress.)
Anyway, I hated learning Spanish back then because even in my little pre-adolescent brain it was clear that knowing the names of a few African animals in a foreign language was a waste of time.
The teacher didn’t teach us how to talk about anything we might find in Arizona, like rattlesnakes or scorpions or teddybear cholla. It was all so abstract and impractical.
In any case…
When we weren’t learning how to say hipopótamo and jirafa, we were watching low-budget videos of a fat guy in a dog costume – Perro Pepe – who would teach kids Spanish vocabulary.
You can watch Perro Pepe on YouTube, it’s pretty absurd, and was probably produced in LA or Miami.
It’s fun, though. Now. At the time I was unimpressed.
Why don’t Americans speak more languages?
I don’t want to speak for all 330 million Americans – or whatever the number is right now – but I can tell you that in my case, nobody made a compelling case for language learning in my middle-class life, growing up in the Arizona desert.
With math, they tried much harder: learn calculus or you’ll end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life. You don’t want to be a total failure, do you?
Well, I learned calculus, and still, the local Burger King never called me back about my job application. My high school offered French and Spanish – I took Spanish because I was under the impression that I’d need a foreign language credit to get into college.
By that time, I was pretty suspicious about adults who said I needed to know things. Most of the adults I was acquainted with seemed to know very little. But it seemed more likely that I’d run into a Spanish speaker some day than a French speaker, so I signed up.
(We had students form Mexico in my school district, but they were off in some ESL program somewhere and I almost never saw them around.)
In any case, I wasn’t sold on the Spanish language until I dropped out of college and ended up working in a kitchen. (I wasn’t flipping burgers. I was grilling paninis, which is much classier, thank you very much.)
Being in contact with Spanish speakers at work made language practice more fun and interesting than anything I did in high school.
Eventually, I’d spend a couple of decades as a language teacher, and draw some new conclusions about why Americans don’t all speak multiple languages. Basically, it boils down to two things:
- Learning a foreign language is hard.
- Most people who learn languages do it because they need to.
That is to say, people who learn languages for fun, or in order to become more well-rounded, knowledgeable individuals, are pretty rare. Because actually learning a language takes years.
People who learn 200 words and then just claim to speak a language at native level are more common. As are people who think “I’ll just learn the local language from a phrasebook on the plane. How hard could Japanese possibly be, right?”
So, long story short, my theory is that Americans don’t speak languages because they don’t need to, or want to. Just like most other monolingual people out there.
But back to my more ignorant teenage years.
My knowledge about Spain grows very little in the coming years…
In high school, when we learned about the Age of Exploration and the colonization of America, there must have been some mention of Spain, but mostly the teachers talked about what was going on in the Americas or on the high seas.
The names of the Spanish conquistadors, the fate of the Armada, all that.
As far as I can remember, Spain as an actual country in Europe, with its own history and culture, was not really a part of the picture.
In high school Spanish class, I remember doing an activity that involved picking out some of the words in Mecano’s classic song Maquillate, which was a truly awful experience. Mostly, what I got out of the whole thing was the knowledge that other countries also had crappy pop music.
It’d never occurred to me that there might be other types of music outside what was being played on the radio stations around Phoenix.
Anyway, that was my introduction to “world music” – and also Spanish reflexive verbs. Even today I can’t get more than 10 seconds into a Mecano song without wanting to vomit.
Sorry, Mecano.
Sorry, Spanish culture.
If the teachers, back in 9th or 10th grade, told us anything about Spanish life, history or geography, I obviously wasn’t listening.
I guess I was too busy having hormonal fantasies about getting the fuck out of Arizona.
So, in one way or another, between the Barcelona Olympics and university, I managed to spend about 10 years without giving any serious thought to Spain.
Did I give any serious thought to other European countries, like France or Italy during that time? It’s doubtful.
Where’s that damn vaseline?
At university, I had a real madrileño teaching me Spanish for a semester. Our homework was usually to go to the video library and watch early Almodovar films.
If you haven’t seen any early Almodovar, well, that’s your loss!
Let’s just say that I remember one film (La ley del deseo) had a gay sex scene involving a very young Antonio Banderas (there was some comic relief when his lover has to search around for a tub of vaseline, if I recall correctly), and another film called Matador in which one of the main characters (also played by Antonio Banderas) was a bullfighter.
It ended kind of badly when the two other main characters committed murder / suicide in the middle of, uh… “lovemaking”.
Some weird sex and death fetish. Don’t ask.
Almodovar was, perhaps, the worst possible introduction to modern Spanish lifestyles – the films were so obviously surrealistic that all I learned about Madrid or Spain was that a lot of people lived in red brick buildings. Literally.
As for the bullfighting, well, I took that as a symbol for something. I never expected to come over and find that people actually did it.
(The red-brick building thing wasn’t an exaggeration either.)
So here’s the mystery…
How is it possible that I managed to graduate high school and even do “some college” and end up knowing virtually nothing about Spain?
I’m not quite sure! All I can say is that what I remember of my experience in the American educational system is that we mostly focused on ourselves.
The existence of other countries outside the US was an incidental and largely irrelevant fact, and the majority of Arizonians seemed to think that people in other countries were living barefoot and hungry in little mud huts, or were doing everything they could to emigrate to America for a better life.
It was “common knowledge” when I was growing up that everybody else in the world spent most of their time wishing that they had been born in America…
How was I to know any better?
You can call me ignorant, but the fact is, I think my level of ignorance was completely normal.
Does the average American know anything about Spain?
Probably not.
Does he know anything about any other country?
Not really.
Why don’t Americans travel more?
Originally, I wrote this article because of a little international crisis.
Several years ago, How I Met Your Mother did an episode in which Ted, as a teenager, travels around Spain. In the course of his travels, he runs into a mariachi band and dances a tango.
Mariachis are Mexican, and tango is Argentinian. Neither of those cultural trends have anything to do with Spain, the country in Europe. Obviously, Hollywood isn’t doing much to educate anybody.
Challenged about these facts by a student at the language school, I decided to write about this famous “American ignorance”.
And I had to admit that it’s true up to a point. We don’t know a lot about Spain. But I don’t think that Americans have any sort of monopoly on ignorance.
I’ve shared some more recent thoughts in a newer article, called European Stereotypes Revisited. Check that out if you want more.
In other news, a lot of people in Europe also like to criticize Americans for not travelling more. That famous statistic about how some massive percentage of Americans don’t even have a passport, blah blah. (That percentage may be around 50, it may be 63… depends on who you ask. But it hasn’t been 90% for many years now.)
I think what the critics miss, though, is the fact that international travel is expensive, and that most Americans live hundreds (or thousands) of miles from any international border.
Here in Spain, you can get a reasonably-priced flight to any of thirty or so different European countries, and be there by lunch time. The visa-free Schengen area and the unified currency make travel a breeze.
This survey on YouGov is clear about it: the higher someone’s income, the more likely they are to have a passport – and presumably, the more likely they are to travel abroad.
What about the he rest of us Americans? Well, let’s just say we’re not taking romantic weekend jaunts to Paris quite as often was we might like.
So how much do I know about Spain now?
After almost two decades living in Madrid and Barcelona, I now know a lot more about Spanish life.
I’ve read some history books, watched some films, learned how to cook some awesome Spanish food.
I’ve read a bit of Cervantes in Spanish, learned some profanity, and travelled around as much as I have been able. Mostly, I’ve just talked to a lot of people.
But I’m far from being “really Spanish” – whatever that means!
And Spanish people will get offended, even now, if I can’t locate their hometown on a map.
These are often the same people who think that Arizona is somewhere in the Midwest, or that the Grand Canyon is in Colorado, or that I’m an asshole for not considering Puerto Rico to be a state.
“You Americans are all so ignorant!” they’ll say. “You don’t even know your own geography, even the most obvious things like the fact that you have 52 states!”
It’s a bit frustrating, but I guess I understand where they’re coming from. Spaniards have spent their whole lives watching American TV and movies, and they at least imagine that they know a lot about the US and its culture.
And they think we should probably know an equal amount about them.
Well, sorry Spain. We don’t.
In any case, Spain has a lot of wonderful things, a lot of beautiful places, a lot of history, and a lot of interesting stories to tell.
Check out my viral article 32 reasons why I love Spain for something about that… I love the shit outta this country (if you’ll pardon my French).
Anyway, I’m going to continue writing about Spanish life and some of the cool people, places and foods we have over here.
I hope you all enjoy it! Maybe you’ll even learn something.
Ignorantly yours,
Mr Chorizo.
P.S. Is there anything you’d like to see me write about? Have any comments on my ignorance? Want to give me money? Let me know, right here. Love ya!
P.P.S. See also: Who are some famous Spanish people?
P.P.P.S. Since I wrote this article, some people have pointed out that Spain actually played a large role in US independence – something I was not previously aware of. Anyway, apparently Spain funded the Battle of Yorktown and helped out in some other ways. Check this wikipedia page for more about that. And thanks as always to those who take the time to fill me in on things I don’t know about.
What’s the difference between tortilla and a tortilla, and why is a difference?
Oh yeah. I totally gotta talk about the Mexican tortilla vs Spanish tortilla thing. Thanks!
Its very easy.
Tortilla(mexican) is based on corn, and they put vegetables, meat….
Tortilla (spanish) is based on egg and potatoes mainly.
They are different foods. In mexican food they used spicy or sweet flavour. In spain the spicy is never used. In spain we use olive oil to cook and we add wine, onion, cheese or pepper to give flavour to the food.
Well, I know that! Spanish people, generally, don’t!
The words “Torta” is applied to all kind of food shaped flat and round.
Even though in most of the cases “Torta” is referred to flatbread, that is not always the case, like with the Torta del Casar, which is a kind of cheese.
Eventually, the word evolved into “Tarta” for cakes.
The expression “Tortilla” refers to a really thin “Torta”. Both Corn Bread and Omelettes fit in this category.
Corn is not a usual ingredient of Spanish cuisine, reason why the expression “Tortilla” is only applied to the omelettes.
In the case of Central America, since Corn is such a basic element of their cuisine, the expression “Tortilla” was mostly used for the Corn Bread.
In the end, if you look at a French Omelette and a Corn Tortilla you can easily see the similarities.
Thanks Bertuccio, I had never thought much about why a tortilla was called a tortilla. There’s a restaurant around here called Tortas DF, which serves, incidentally, flat round sandwiches from Mexico.
I guess the european history you learn is basically the history of the UK, and the american colonization of the UK. The famous ‘spanish armada’ that is so well-known in the english speaking countries is barely known here in Spain. You learnt it because it is a victory of the british empire over the spanish empire. Surely you know nothing about the ‘english armada’. I recommend you to look for it in wikipedia…
By the way the southwestern part of the USA and Florida were part of Spain until the begining XIX century. The british colonies were just the eastern part of the country.
We either do not learn too much of the English colonization of America, and most of the spaniards just know a few cities (NY, Los Ángeles, Chicago) and states of the US, although i suppose we know more about the US than you about Spain (does any american know where Zaragoza is located? =S)
Yes, very true. We learn history in a way that makes it look like the USA always wins. And only British history related to colonizing the Americas. Thanks for commenting!
Well, you have to know that thanks to spain, the USA is independent state? We sacrificed with our lives weakening the British Royal Navy giving the way to France to transports troops and warships or even giving guns, uniforms and artillery guns to the american rebels and futhermore opening a second front to the british troops.
It’s been a long time since American history class, and actually, no, I don’t remember being told that the Spanish were involved in the Revolutionary War. Thanks for the comment!
Great blog! Actually, the Dollar was a Spanish colonial coin, a fraction of the Spanish “Doblon”. Spain financed the US Independence efforts from the British Empire.
Thanks José Manuel… I’ve heard about the idea that the Spanish were a big part of American independence–unfortunately it’s not something they told me about in American history class. I’ll research it and write something… Thanks!
Google Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid, he was a general in the spanish army and a friend of George Washington. He attacked the british from the south to prevent them from either flanking Washington from the west or reinforcing their troops engaged in the northern colonies. He aswell provided uniforms, blankets, powder and weapons to the rebels.
Do not forget the city of Galveston was named in honor of Bernardo de Galvez
I had no idea! I really need to do some research here. The version of history we get in the US talks very little about any of the European powers, except occasionally England. Thanks for commenting!
Hi. I’m currently learning Spanish history and I learned in class that during the US Revolution, the American colonies were losing the battle from the British and if not for the help of a Spanish military guy (forgot his name but Spain made a huge effort), then history would have been different. Spain’s effort was not altruistic though.
I am spanish and i have just came back from new York and is horrible that people from there Think spanish and south american people is the same what no we are from Europe and we are so soso so different
Maybe because of the language but british and Américan people Share language too and i perfectly know they are totally different so please dont Think we are the same because it is awful
Any way hope you like my country as much as i like yours xx
Well, the great problem is that in USA always has supported the idea that France was the great ally in their independence but the reality is very different. Spain did the major effort. The british power at the sea, was amazing on the early XVIII. There wasnt any rival in Europe and if it wasnt for the effort of Spaniards on the war of Jenkins Ear (1739-1748), the americans will never get independence later. Spain won that war, in spite of the overwelming force of the British expedition force on the americas composite by: 186 warships and 30.000 soldiers. The british lost 20.000 men and 407 ships, while Spain lost 9.500 and 186 ships.
Don’t worry after all Spanish don’t know too much about Hispanic world. Some Latinoamerican must suffer stereotyopes when in Spain.
Hello! I found the post very interesting.
I must say people in Spain does not know very much about America, because they don’t even know almost anything about spain!! People in spain is generally quite ignorant. (They just know things because of the films)
However, there are the other half of the population (who has studied at least a bit) who know much more of general things of Europe and America than you do!! (in general, of course). I am not calling you stupid, I just want to make you understand that you’re education is based in learning your own history, your own geography, when all your culture comes from Europe somehow. I just found really sad that some American people think that Spain is in South America hahahahah
I’m spanish by the way!! hahahaha From Barcelona.
Another fact (I bet you dont know) is that in Barcelona people does not speak spanish, we speak catalan which is similar to french (we also speak spanish though).
I hope you have from now on more interest in european culture, is great!! hahahahaha
(Sorry for my english, I know its weird)
PS: And yes, we helped you in the war hahahah Well, he helped France because our king was cousing of France’s king, and we helped france to be able to sand their navy to America, while spanish attacked english navy!!!
Hey Edward, Yes, it’s true that in the US we learn history that’s mostly history of the US, without a lot of the background of what was happening in Europe. I also know all about Catalán and these things, but I never talk about it on here because I don’t want to be too controversial 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
The issue about Catalonia and the basque country is easy to explain. You only have to see the flag of Spain and see the shield in the Centre. O The Big Shield you will see inside that is united by 4 shields. Those 4 represent the original kingdoms that create the future spain.
-Up on the left Castille (the biggest Kingdom only Castilian Spanish was the main language).
-Down on the left Aragon (the second biggest Kingdom and Catalan or Castilian Spanish were the main language spoken).
-Up on the right Leon (Small northwestern corner kingdom and Galician or Castilian Spanish were the main language spoken).
-Down on the right Navarre (Small atlantic northeastern kingdom and Basque or Castilian Spanish were the main language spoken).
Until the arrival of the French royal family in the early XVIII, Spain was decentralised, a model created by Catholic kings. The French royal family gaining the crown of Spain over the Hasburgs started to centralise spain provoking the anger of ancient kingdoms. First, Leon, later, aragon and finally, Navarre in the final of XIX century. At the end, in the early XX. century Basque Country and Catalan were major regions that want to recover their ancient status that they have before. First, on the liberal-monarchy of Alfonso XIII and later with the second Republic with democracy and in peace, they recovered but with the Civil war all was lost and provocked the increase of nationalism feelings on the two regions.
There were times that all spaniards feel proudly spanish and coincide with the Spain´s Golden Age. Later, with the french influence and politicians weakened the Spain´s position.
Comparto su idea de el desconocimiento de los americanos sobre España, pero le aseguro que dejando de lado las grades películas de su industria EE.U.U. es también un gran desconocido para los españoles. Tampoco sabemos mucho de España, para ejemplo mire usted la historia que explican en Cataluña o País Vasco con la de otras autonomías.
Sorry did you just say “Spain is not part of Mexico anymore”‘? When were we a part of Mexico? Would it not be the opposite?
Yes, that’s what I said. Perhaps you missed the humorous intention of such an obviously false statement. Thanks for commenting, though!
“Spain has about 50 states just like the US”.
Are you fucking kidding me?? Did your teacher really tell you that?? I thought teachers at least knew anything, but now I can see that everyone in the US is equally ignorant.
Spain is divided in 17 regions whitch are called “comunidades autónomas”, too far for being states, you dumb Americans.
Hey Julia, the fact is that Spain has 50 provinces. Exactly 50. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_de_Espa%C3%B1a
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, though. I think we’ve learned something today 🙂
Meh, don’t hurt yourself too much over that. Spaniards generally know less about Spain than Americans about American history, which is a sad state of affairs since we have, in my opinion, one of the most glorious histories in Europe. I really love to read how we were a “bacwater nation in the 18th century” (When we were at our territorial peak and, for the first time since 1492, with no debt), how “we dindn’t have an army at all when Napoleon invaded” (despite the Battle of Bailén being the first massive defeat the Napoleonic had in Europe); how the “Armada disaster destroyed our naval capacity” (despite stalling English activities in the Atlantic for over 30 years) and so on, in Anglo-Saxon media, but when I see my fellow Spaniards parrotting it, it breaks my heart…but alas, it is what it is.
I’m seriously conflicted about considering ‘Mecano’ Spanish culture to be completely honest with you. I dunno, is Justin Beaver Canadian culture? Is Britney Spears going down into history books as a representative of American culture? Honestly hope not…
Thanks for your thoughtful comments! I learned something in school along the lines of “the Spanish Armada was defeated because God wanted North America to speak English”. So whatever.
As far as Mecano goes, yeah, that’s culture. There’s certainly a distinction that can be made between Velazquez and Mecano, but it’s ALL culture.
And about Spaniards’ knowledge of history in general, I’ve found myself explaining some VERY basic things to “real Spanish people”. Like the fact that “it wasn’t the 2nd Republic that bombed Guernica” basic. Anyway… life goes on.
Hearing what I hear everyday about the Flag colors and the Anthem…I would be surprised if anybody from outside the Basque Country even know what “Guernica” is.
Hell, Basques would totally tell you that it was bombed by Spain most probably (Because names like “Wolfram Freiherr von Richtofen” just screams Spanish, he must have been from Cádiz) so…yeah.
I’ve travelled my fair bit around both, America and Europe, and can say with certainty that Americans aren’t particularly ignorant compared to us, and by us I mean Europeans in general. The situations you talked about in your other blog entry about the people yelling “but I am American”, I’ve seen mirrored in a lot of accents, as “but I am European” at the TSA checks. It boggles the mind.
If Mecano is Spanish culture, I am Spanish culture when I sing in the shower too. There is certainly a distinction that can be made between me and Plácido Domingo or Paco de lucía.
I’m really sure that you know what happened to Gernika mostly because the painting of Picasso that were in USA until the 80´s But most Americans I know just can’t avoid enlightening the world because the rest of us are in darkness. So whatever.
The paste of the Spanish provinces from the wiki was really funny for me, like if we don’t know our administrative divisions. It reminds me one day I am being a conversation with a friend that tell me that in Spain we said petheta and then he told me a fiery tale of a lisping king he studied in college. Thank you for this 🙂
You are right, we all can be ignorant and life goes on anyway, probably in a happier way for everyone. So Please, don’t teach us.
Don’t worry man. I didn’t know much about USA neither. In fact, all I knew was from XX th Century, it wasn’t until last year when I studied History of USA in Madrid when i knew a little more about your nation. However, I don’t consider myself an expert of USA.
An hug from Aragon
Very cool read. Really interesting to see what Spain looks like to someone who’s lived in America their whole lives. I agree with you on the fact that we’re as ignorant as Americans in the sense that we don’t really know anything about the US (only what’s shown on TV, but you can’t really rely on that). Thank you for sharing your thoughts and personal experience, glad you like living here!
Oh please dont blame yourself for not knowing a thing about Spain!. As far as I know, a lot of people dont actually know a lot about american culture or american places (including me) So dont worry, we re all truly ignorants here 😉
Hey Daniel!
This is one of the interesting and greatest topics of all I have ever read about in your article. I'm also glad that I like sharing my thoughts to your topic and my story. Yet, based on this article I read, we have some things in common about traveling in Spain and those differences between the past and present. Spain was one of the countries I've lived when I was in my teens in the 90s from 14 to 17 years of age due to my dad's Navy career. Even though I was growing up living in
Florida most of my life, I always dreamed of traveling places, learning new language like Spanish from numbers, phrases and vocabulary. I didn't really experience much of the culture shock when I was living in Spain the first time ever; all with the exception of different dialects and how they speak their Spanish words differently and their pronunciation. However, the customs are different from other Latin American countries and the United States alone seems less bizarre. Making friends with the Spaniards
were less difficult than any of the American people itself and with strong communication in adapting their language. I liked their foods and I was drinking alcohol back when I began after 16 years of age. Based on the social life there is more heart warming than in USA. I have a lot of stuff to say about living in Spain the first time, but I'm talking about the recent travel experience in Spain last July in 2022 as my adult life in my 40s. It's different than when I was in my teens and here's why. As an adult during my 40s, which now I'm 43 years old today. At that time from last July, I landed in Madrid after my long flight from Phoenix to London, from my connecting flight and I spent the night at the hotel towards Downtown Madrid area. I actually didn't experience much of jetlag until the next morning on the train ride to Malaga, where I spent 4 days on my vacation and it was my first time visiting that city. Again I was touring the city, went out to the beach, shopping, nightlife to enjoy after dining in a restaurant. Then meeting locals including from those apps prior meeting a guy in person for example. What did change for the most part is when I was living in Spain the first time, the currency was pesetas back in the 90s. But nowadays since 2002, after I came to Spain last July, I was using euros, which of the equivalent part of the cheaper version than US dollars. Also the drinking age rose up to 18 to purchase alcohol and to go to nightclubs and bars unless a teenager under 18 can drink only with an adult, but teens can't purchase alcohol in bars, restaurants or stores. I wasn't really surprised about it. Furthermore, I couldn't carry any drinks outside of the restaurant including alcohol for a take out. Once again, there wasn't a concern for me to know.
I took Spanish when I was in high school and I have some college experience in my academic life from my history. The highest level I completed was Intermediate Spanish II at a community college. Which means as a result, for my minor in Spanish with a major in International Relations. I was really prepared to speak Spanish in Spain, even though my Spanish is proficient but I still have some more ways to go in improving language and to make it fluent. My main skills ate reading and writing very well in Spanish by understanding these words. I'm planning to become a translator for that language for the career goal and one day I can additionally teach English for their native Spanish language.
In conclusion in your article, before I close out of my thoughts in your topic that I live in Phoenix suburbs. Americans who haven't travel outside of the North America regardless of race and etc. Yet, having an open mind is very important to explore and to experience in different cultures regardless of their income level without any excuses or ignorance. I'm not saying that some of the Americans…not us alone for our exclusion, which of course for me and you for example have things on common about our experiences in a great way in traveling. Furthermore, I asked our American people alone, for what I'm pointing out that some of them can be narrow minded based on another person's nationality and more close minded also. Even jealousy is another issue in the US and also their conservative political beliefs are the concern why they can refuse to go out of the continent from USA and the Americas itself. Honestly it's been so sad for them in US soil that they have excuses of their narrow mindedness for unknown reasons. I don't know what to say about it, so overall in this case, it's their loss not ours. I have to say that one day after your responses to me, I like to hear more of your story and I like to go back to Spain more than a 3rd time in my near future. Have fun and enjoy your journey!