Nora From France

Nora Zeggout - LENGUA INGLESA IV Lifestyle and schedule in Spain and France Spaniards’ rhythm of life turns out to be very different from the French one. In Spain, the day seems to be longer because Spanish people organise their life differently. First of all let’s explore an important point in every culture : food and the hours reserved for this indispensable task. Spanish meals are taken later. Spaniards usually have lunch between 1.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m., what can seem very bizarre to a French native because his habits concerning this activity are quite different. Sometimes this can seem very unfamiliar because in France some people start to have lunch at 11.30 a.m. and that French children take their afternoon snack at 4.30 p.m. that is to say one hour after Spanish people had finished their lunch. French people are usually designated as early diners, eating around 7 p.m. but I think the majority of them have dinner around 8 p.m. / 9 p.m. as the time they finish working at doesn’t permit them to eat so early. Although some people may have told you that napping was not so associated with Spanish culture, as I was told, it is quite frequent and it is clear that you will notice it, and even participate in this pleasant custom. The reason for this is simple : the day is organised differently and although Spaniard are said to be lazy people, this lovely activity is, I think, due to the fact that as the day finishes later (for they eat and go out later) they have an “extending” day and remedy to it by napping in the afternoon. When at 11 p.m. French people think about going to bed, Spaniards can be eating. Television night programmes in Spain start at 10 p.m. whereas in France these ones would have been broadcast for one hour already. So, in order to compensate this extra time during which they are still awake, eating and ending the day, they‘re used to taking a nap during the afternoon… they are just human after all. After lunch, the city seems deserted, as if everybody had disappeared. The stores will only reopen around 5 p.m. Thus, going to do shopping starts around this time, whereas in France you usually meet around 2.30 to go shopping, as the stores close at 7 or 8 p.m. Let’s focus now on another aspect of Spain according to their unusual schedule. At university, although classes are scheduled to be of one hour starting for instance at 10 a.m. and ending at 11 a.m., in reality they start at 10.10 or 10.15… When one of my teachers asked the class if we preferred to divide the two hours we were supposed to have in 45 minutes of class followed by a pause and then 45 minutes of class or if we preferred to have one hour and a half non stop, I thought “are you serious??” In France, they would usually start on time and finish on time, if it’s not 5 or 10 minutes later. It’s not so common in France that students tell the teacher so frankly that it is the time and that the class is over. Every student usually waits for someone to take the lead to talk and suggest to the teacher that the time has passed. Spaniards consider things with more tranquillity, and may enjoy life more than the Parisian do I think. Their stressful lifestyle sometimes prevents them from enjoying life at the most and they happen to be annoyed by little things that a Spaniard wouldn’t pay attention to. Their sense of the organisation seems to be neglected to give way to a view of life guided by enjoyment and to a relaxing attitude.

In Paris when going out, three different kind of teenagers groups can be classified by the time they want to come back home after partying. The first group chooses to take the last metro (between 11h30 and 00h30 p.m.), the second chooses to take the first metro the day that follows (around 5h30 a.m.), and the third chooses to take the strange night buses between the last and the first metro. What sounds funny is the distinct behaviours of Spanish and French people regarding going out. When you go out in a bar at 11.00 in León, in Paris the first wave starts thinking of leaving. Although being neighbours, the organisation of time and the notion of it in these two countries are quite different. That’s a fact, French people do everything earlier. But you always find exceptions in the two countries, like everywhere in the world.