try to speak spanish... no way

[laswalkirias]

Thankyou for all the encouragement to persevere with my Spanglish I must admit my confidence has been knocked sideways!!!! however the more I think about the incident the more I come to the conclusion that this is a "Torremolinos" thing. In Malaga city I have only recieved a polite attitude from the locals to my pathetic attempts at conversational Spanish whereas people who work in Torremolinos generally speak quite good English anyway and I soppose they get quite fed up with the hordes of British tourists inflicting bad Spanish at them and we obviously got that lady on a bad day
She probably wasnt Spanish herself!!!!! She did have bad hair and appalling clothes, obviously an impostor! I have not seen any seniorita dress that badly... probably from Bolton
I love everyone in Malaga city for their kindness....thank god for them

[caroig]

I agree with Dane in Spain, why lower your standards if speaking with the locals. when the madrileños come down they don't start saying grasias instead of grathias. If you visit Newcastle would you change your way of speaking to geordie? or adopt eyup as a form of greeting if you are in Yorkshire.

It would might be odd if you learnt your Spanish in Burgos and then adapted to Cadiz when you arrived there. But it's hardly 'lowering your standards' to speak a regional dialect if that's where you've learnt the language.

[Trooperman]

...and so Walkirias, how do you feel now that you´ve just insulted all women in Bolton?
ps. just what is a seniorita? Is it an older woman? Or is your comment merely addressed to older women from Bolton called Rita?

[Julie]

I take it you have never been to Bolton, but obviously , you being from London are as ignorant as the person you first met in Torremolinos

[laswalkirias]

Whooo,,,,,,,,,,,
I jave not insulted the women of Bolton attall, just their dress sense!!! I am not from London and have lived in Manchester most of my life and yes I have been to Bolton many times and can state categorically that most women and gentlemen from that town are geninely nice down to earth people unlike most people I meet here in the overrated capital!!!!
I am afraid it is a fact of life that women in this country do not have the style and grooming of most Spanish ladies.
And yes the woman who insulted my friend and myself did look a bit rough around the edges and I did see her out of her workplace the next day and she did look scruffy!
I would be the first to admit that my dress sense is vastly inferior to the standards set in Spain and as a Northerner myself I dont think it is insulting to say that peolpe from Bolton and Manchester stick out like sore thumbs in Spain, we do!!!!!!!!!

[Colinm]

Now that I'm back home, I asked my Spanish language coach about the expressions. Her reply (she's a madrileno) is that the southerners are lazy! I asked a business colleague, from Barcelona, and he said that the spanish would never say 'dia' always buenos dias. So there it is, even they can't agree..........so what about Bolton?

[Trooperman]

OK, Las walkirias. So let´s be pedantic shall we? You have just admitted that you´ve insulted the dress sense of the women of Bolton. Is that somehow different from insulting the women of Bolton? I´d be delighted if you could enlighten me.
p.s your English is rubbish - your sentence construction is poor, spelling inadequate, and punctuation appalling. That is fact, not an opinion.

[peteroldracer]

Re the women of Bolton: Whenever I passed through the town, or its neighbours in that part of Lancashire, I was always impressed with the colourful dress of most of the ladies - there were saris in blue, pink, green, all colours, some with gold or silver threads woven in. As I passed through the outer reaches to regain the motorway, the dress sense changed, so that I was transported back to the sixties, with very very short skirts, fishnet tights or stockings, and makeup straight out of Grease, the movie. The ladies of these areas, as well as being paler-skinned were always more friendly than their town-centre peers, and could often be seen waving coyly, almost as if they wanted you to stop and spend some time with them!

[Solysombra]

Peteroldracer, I have to agree with you, the ladies of Bolton are amongst the most accomodating I have met, and not at all expensive,

I notice the grammar police have wormed their way back in, innit!

[silver]

but they definitely seemed to be saying 'hallo'. Am I imagining it?
They are just showing off with the one word they know in English..its quite common...it makes them laugh..but does not mean they are laughing at you...and thay would probably like you to answer...and even try conversing....

[laswalkirias]

I am a little puzzled why I seem to have offended "tourist" with my remarks about Bolton women and my opinion on their dress sense, get over it !!! We are a nation of sloppy dressers and to anybody who spent any time in Spain would know that you can spot a Brit a mile away by their hairstyles and clothes !!!
Its a fact that some people on this website seem to delight in deliberately causing mischief when a genuine opinion is expressed and try the "superior. I am a much better person than you" insult when they are bored or just for the hell of it
As for my english all I can say in my defence that I was brought up on a council estate in Soth Manchester to very poor parents who tried their best to educate me at home as well as ensuring I attended the local secondary modern school.
Obviously my standards are not as high as Tourist but I admit I did make a mistake in not pointing out that bad clothes are worn by the men as well.
What a sad person you are

[jennyshaw]

This my first message, so please be gentle with me.
We bought a property last year in a little village called Bacor El Olivar very close the Lake Negratin, which is way inland, and the locals do not speak any English, only the local bar owner, who spent his youth working in a hotel in Ibiza, so we had to learn a little Spanish very quickly just to get by on a day to day basis.
We had the experience of being told to speak English when we went for a stay in Nerja, we thought we were doing really well practicing our broken Spanish, but the young girl behind the bar in the hotel spoke perfect English and didn't have the time to listen to our babble with a queue forming. we are not here permanent yet but maybe next year, we love the village and all it's way's like in the summer the locals will just leave on your front doorstep a basket full of the local produce they have grown on their allotments, the fiesta's that where all the food, wine and paella are all free, they don't expect you to pay for anything, but we do, we give the town hall a donation, and also bring over bags full of chocolate at least 6 times a year.
Can't wait to go again, the next time is in 3 weeks time for a long weekend

[laswalkirias]

What a woderful first post!!! Its nice to know that I am not the only person who has experienced the pained expression on the locals faces when we practice our Spanish.
It seems that I may be right that this is a problem in the tourist resorts and not in the "real Spain" away from the coast
I shall persevere !!!!!
Thankyou for your post

[laswalkirias]

Sorry did not use spell checker, that offending word is wondeful

[toddcl]

jennyshaw

You will find the local village folk will talk in their own little dialect that may not work on the costas.

Yes we get buried in produce and hugs from the old laddies that guard our house. You may find that the chocolate you bring makes them honor bound to repay you with produce.
We noted that one time we didn't bring any presents the produce didn't turn up either.

My favorite past time is sitting outside on the little chairs with the old laddies till midnight. They where amazed when They saw me [a man] sweeping and wetting down out side the casa, as this should be women's work as they explained.

[katy]

Don't any of you grow your own produce?

[toddcl]

katy

We do not all have land.

My casa has a garden area about the size of two car parking plots.
The ground is nearly all solid rock and I have two vines and a fig tree.
I could just about manage a few tomato's in tubs but whats the point when Spain has millions of poluthene tunnels turning out tomato's by the tone.

I would love a campo [what our locals call the allotments] but as in the UK someone has to die first and you have to be 'in' to get one.

[daneinspain]

everything is for sale

[jennyshaw]

Thanks laswalkirias

Katy, we have an apartment, so we don't have any land, even though the locals do offer us some of their land to tend.

Toddcl, Yes you are correct they do speak with their own dialect in our region, they cut their words short, they tend to leave out the s's so if its Dos, they say Do, Fiesta its Fieta ect. Have you heard the words Diga me when they answer their mobiles, it took me ages to fine out what they were really saying.
Like i said before we have just had this apartment for over a year now, but in that time there has been some changes, we now have about 7 English families in this village now and there are more looking to buy all the time, and i don't blame the locals but they are selling quite a few properties that need renovating, and the English are snapping them up, I just hope this village does not get too spoilt, it has only one bakery and 2 shops and one bar that shuts the whole of September!! and if three cars go by in 30 minutes then to us its like the M1 at rush hour.

[Colinm]

They are just showing off with the one word they know in English..its quite common

Silver, I know what you mean, however they don't actually say it to me. It's amongst themselves, though I would be in earshot, trying to improve my tongue!