For those of you who are reading my blog and don’t speak Spanish, a “gringa” is a foreigner (at least in Argentina anyways). It’s not that anyone’s been mean or nasty to me (on the contrary, everyone has been so lovely! Apart from a particularly grumpy check out lady where my card didn’t work), just that there are a lot of cultural differences between England and Argentina. I was explaining some differences to one of my classes the other day and they found the English way of doing things as bizarre as I find the Argentinian way of doing things!
1. In England, I would say “afternoon” takes place between 2-6. From then onwards it is evening and if you’re anything like me, you’re set in for the night from about 9 and wouldn’t dream of going out. Here, afternoon is anytime between 2-8. When I told the students that in England I have dinner at about 6/6.30 they gasped in shock! Here dinner is from about 9.30 (in fact the other night I went out for dinner at 10 and we didn’t order till about 11.15😂) and therefore bed isn’t until much later, around 1/2.
2. Clubbing! I haven’t been clubbing here (kind of tempted, just because it would be a random & cool thing to have done. Plus it would be good for the game two truths and a lie) but I have it on good authority that there’s some differences there. Whilst they have pre-drinks here, no-one arrives at the club until maybe 2! And then it goes on till 6 (someone else told me 8) and then sometimes there’s post-drinks. Ha!
3. A few students follow me on my Instagram now. For me that’s totally bizarre as that would be super dodgy back home, but here it’s totally fine! Apparently it would be different if I was a teacher at school but as I’m not, it’s more acceptable. In fact, a few are even reading this blog!
4. As mentioned above (point 1), the structure of the day is different. For me, as an English teacher at an institute, the students are at school in the day time and so the earliest I start work is 4.30, and sometimes not until 6.30. This isn’t the case for everyone in Argentina but for me, with my British way of thinking (get up, go to work, evening to relax) I find this so bizarre as I’m going out to work at about the time I would be winding down to come home in England. Bizarre.
5. The type of questions asked here! Whilst the majority of questions students asked me when I met all the classes were fairly standard, there were a few curveballs in there which I wasn’t expecting! And when I say curveballs, I mean personal questions. One question being “Do you want to have children in the future?”. The other question which was asked to Laura, was “Have you ever been in love?”. I can’t speak for everyone in England but personally, I am incredibly bad at talking openly about my feelings and feel a bit awkward, so I was so grateful that last question wasn’t addressed to me! Feelings? What feelings?!
6. Argentinian people naturally gush out their words in a seemingly never ending lovely spiel. I can’t do this at all! I am not a natural gusher! I am trying to cultivate it but I think I am more like a staccato music note at this point 😂
7. I just can’t get in my head the Spanish word for puppy. Whenever I try and say it (‘cachorro’) I just say ‘cuchara’ (spoon) or ‘cuchillo’ (knife), or a mix of the two ‘cachara’, which is nothing at all 😂 . I really just can’t get it in my head! In fact, even writing this part of the blog, I clarified with Noly ‘so you said it’s cachorro?’ and two mins later was like, ‘so what is it, cuchara?’. Haha someone. Help.
8. Being a planner in a non-planning culture. I have always been someone who loves being busy. This has mellowed a little bit as my energy levels have been a bit funny over the past few years, but I usually have at least a few things scheduled in the diary or that are in the pipeline. In Argentina, people don’t massively plan very far in advance. This is hard to get my little brain around! I plan everything – what I will have for dinner each day of the week, what I’m going to do and when etc. Last week I had to rearrange to skype my Auntie about THREE times because plans kept coming up last minute! It’s also hard with food to anticipate how much I should buy because I’m not sure if randomly I might be going out for dinner or be out at an event or something. Whilst I really don’t mind things being last minute, in fact sometimes the most last minute things are the most fun in my opinion, I just don’t know how people don’t plan in advance here like I would do at home!!
9. The time difference. Even though I am very much used to working out the time distance between England and Argentina (Argentina is four hours behind the UK), it can be weird at points. The other night I couldn’t sleep and it was about 3am here and I noticed my cousin had just liked my instagram photo. Because it was 3 am here, it would have been 7am at home and she was probably getting up to go to work! (Hannah, I’m talking about you if you’re reading this! Haha).
10. I didn’t think I had a tenth point and was going to cobble something together, but I’ve since realised I have quite a few more (hence this is part 1 😂). Something I find genuinely really hard, is it’s okay to talk over/interrupt people here in a group setting! It’s usually a case of whoever speaks the loudest get’s to talk 😂 Coupled with the fact that I’m quite quietly spoken as it is and I have to try and work out how to say what I want to say in Spanish, I find this so hard! Group conversations are probably the most hard for me to follow because the topic changes so rapidly so it’s super hard for me to contribute. This week just gone at a Bible study I managed to chip something in to the discussion (😎) and leading up to it my heart was going like BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM 😂 .
Here endeth part 1! Stay tuned for part 2 😉
Nadia's Adventures 