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Today’s post is from Brigitte Seoane. Born and raised in Germany, Brigitte now lives in Barcelona and has both lived and experienced how different we can perceive other cultures. Thanks to her family background as well as intercultural communication classes Brigitte will share her unique insight into this subject and she will write a couple of posts for us about cultural differences.
Germany and Spain: So uniquely…different!
Even though only 2468Km separate Berlin from Madrid, the countries Germany and Spain are often extremely different. Despite the fact that people tend to stereotype, there really are several cultural differences between the north and the south of Europe that are based on historical happenings, religion and also simply: the weather!
To understand some of the behaviors, it is important to take a look back into the history.
Spain on one hand, parts from a very catholic background, which puts huge importance on collectivism, family and tradition. Have you ever thought about the Spanish word for wife? – Esposa…esposar= handcuff. Which leads to the stereotype of male chauvinism (machismo) in the latin culture.
Germany on the other, has experienced religious conflicts throughout its history that led to the creation of Protestantism, which is based on the belief that the protestant is alone before God (personal faith), which in some cases justifies the more individualistic (introspective) thinking of Germans.
But again, one can not generalize this for every aspect.
Germany, for example is a very collective country when it comes to social help and security. You would need to have 11 children in Spain, in order to receive the amount of help you get in Germany with only one child!
Funny enough, it already starts with our eating habbits. A German will never understand how a Spaniard can have dinner at 11pm in the night (in Germany dinner time is around 8pm).
In my next post, you will find more of these sometimes strange but interesting examples and stereotypes between España and Deutschland!
Have you experienced any cultural differences? We want to hear about it!
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Related courses and posts:
Ten Strategies for Effective Cross-Cultural Communication
Communication skills courses
Interpersonal skills courses
Personal development courses
Feel free to contribute!
For every country in Europe I could say the same. Very useless post
To me this is an interesting subject since I encounter these “issues” on a daily basis. I think by talking about it openly it can help us understand eachothers culturals better.
The world is coming closer each day, its not very inusual to see a chinese, german, spanish, english, french, etc catch the same train as you to work each day; but despite of this we take our cultural differences for granted and by understanding and respecting the smallest differences in our cultural habits we can all not only co-exist but also learn for personal development!
It’s a good idea, starting a series of posts with an historic view regarding my point of view. For instance, I find the more individualistic behavior of the Germans represented in the countless number of how often somebody moves from point A to B, from north to south or from east to west or vice versa, for some – individual – reason, doesn’t matter how far away they are from their family. So friends, besides being friends, play a bigger role in helping to get organized than parents for instance. I think, I’ve learned quite a lot of technical skills by not finding any excuse when, again, a friend of mine was asking me “You don’t mind giving me a hand this week-end by painting the walls and ceilings? Soon, I’m going to move to another flat, you know?” 😉
i have a lot of these cultural differences i’m French Venezuelian living in Barcelona.
best is to mixthem all
we not use the french 35 heures with the spanniard leassynes and siesta ?? hahaha
and them add the efficiency of german workflow !!
i mean Why on the beginning of my 2nd post sorry, moderation can you correct this as i dont have acces to edition tool ?
merci !
This post is interesting because the arguments Brigitte uses are taken from history facts. It is always difficult to talk about cultural differences without generalizing or sometimes offending people, but the worst you can do is to attribute particular characteristics to a nation just because you’ve heard of it or is what people usually say. Brigitte has personally experienced the two cultures and I am looking forward to hear more about it 🙂
This post is interesting because the arguments Brigitte uses are taken from history facts. It is always difficult to talk about cultural differences without generalizing or sometimes offending people, but the worst you can do is attribute particular characteristics to a nation just because you’ve heard of it or is what people usually say. Brigitte has personally experienced the two cultures and I am looking forward to hear more about it 🙂
leyendo el articul, mis opiniones son las siguientes!!
pense que en españa habia mas ayuda con respecto a la familia! bueno mas ayuda que en argentina hay seguro! en argentina, no existe lo del paro, si te quedas sin empleo, cagastes! no hay ingresos! capaz el gobierno te d auna pequeña ayuda, pero ni te serviria para pagarte tu comida, osea es insignificante!! dsp lo de cenar tarde si! eso tmb e smuy tipico aregntino! cenamos a las 22 o 23 hs nos! viendo alguna telenovela, algun programa que nos guste a todos! yo creo que tm tendrias que comprar lo rigidos que son los alemanes, bueno tu no lo tienes, pero muchos alemanes que he conocido, manejas su vida con reglas todo el tiempo, aun estando de vacaciones, no se escapan del relog, de sus costumbres, de la rigidez de sus moviemientos, al caminar sentarse, etc. bueno ahora tengo en el hostel un aleman d emunich, y es super divino buena onda, y no parece los alemanes tipicos que conoci siempre.
dsp me han dicho que alemania es mucho ma slimpio y ordenado, bueno si se lo compara con barcelona. a barcelona la ven muchos como la parte gotica, y sucia de españa.
pero bueno hay mucha variedad de alemanes, y tmb mucha variedad de españoles, no se si los españoles se los puede agrupar solo en un grupo!
bueno no se si sirvio d algo
y ahora querid ame voy el 4 de diciembre, este finde me voy a madrid, no se si te vere, pero bueno si quieres pasarte por casa o el hostel, invitada estas!
Nowadays everyone is talking about globalization, especially concerning economical issues. But for instance with regard to international organisations coping with multicultural human resources you still need to be aware of cultural differences and their historical background, alike Brigitte has pointed out. Getting a deeper insight, far behind typical stereotypes, helps us all to be efficient in a multcultural but still…different community! Personally I’m German but have lots of spanish friends, I’m looking forward to read more stuff like this, which can fight superficial stereotypes and bring our both cultures together…
A small note:
You overestimate the importance that religion has in Spain. It really is the least Catholic of Catholic countries of Europe, except France. Even Austria and Bavaria are more religious than Spain. The image that foreigners have about religion is based on local festivals, which primarily are a tradition involving people with a deep faith, agnostics and even atheists culture lovers.
Moreover, it is true that Spain is a “macho” in comparison with the countries of northern Europe, but neither is sexism taken to the extreme. Today, men participate in housework and involve much in the education of their children. And women have absolute freedom, perhaps much more than in other Mediterranean countries like Greece or Italy. However, women are still paid less money than men and spend more hours of home care.