Tuesday, November 8, 2011

It's Everywhere!

   Have you ever realized that once someone points something out to you, you seem to notice said thing everywhere? Well that has definitely happened to me the past couple of weeks as a couple of things have been pointed out to me and now I can't go anywhere in Logrono without noticing them!


  Firstly, someone mentioned something about the old men (or men in general) loving machinery and construction. Bam! Right after that was said to me, I was walking to one of my private lessons across the train tracks and saw a long line of old men just staring at the big cranes and construction! I thought maybe it was a fluke but they were still there when I walked past an hour later, and still there two days later, and a week later, etc. I find it funny that not only had I not noticed it until someone told me, but that it literally is 'the thing to do' for these men. They gather, and talk, and stare, and just have a grand old time watching the construction. Now if only them staring would make the men work faster and we would therefore have a nice, new train station pronto (instead of the old, bombed out looking one we currently have).


  Secondly, people from different countries use different hand gestures or sounds to say different things. It is no different in Spain. Yet again someone mentioned to me the unusual way many Spaniards say no to something. Instead of just simply saying no or shaking their head, they add in a 'tsk, tsk' sound (which I can't accurately portray here but if you have heard it you know exactly what I am talking about). Again I had never really paid attention to it or took notice of how they said no here, but once my attention was caught, I now hear it everywhere. My 8 year old private lesson student did it in class today when I asked him if there was a shower in his bedroom, my students constantly do it in class if something isn't correct, even my teachers will use it if a student says an incorrect answer. I hear it so much that I have even caught myself doing it a couple of times and have had to stop myself. Although I am considering picking it up to be more Spanish haha.


   It's little things like that that I find myself suddenly noticing, even though I have lived in Logrono for a year and have lived in Spain four separate times.

1 comment:

  1. Great post!

    I have definitely noticed all the old men lurking on the bridges watching the train construction EVERY DAY! Or they just hang out on park benches, or they do the Spanish old man walk with their hands clasped behind their back, like they are contemplating life, that's my fave.

    I totally started imitating the clucking thing last year too! "Did you go out last night?" "Cluck, cluck, no way I was too tired."

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