How would you qualify or describe different aspects of your target culture? Reflect and your own experiences and expectations of the culture in question.
Unsurprisingly, the Spanish/Catalan culture is more similar to my Brazilian culture than American culture. First, our languages are more closely related. And – risking to fall too much into stereotypes – we generally tend to be Catholic raised, soccer loving, outgoing people with a very flexible notion of time…
Another reason I was interested in studying Catalan: during my freshman year, there were more than ten exchange students from Spain, but after a while, I noticed a few of them were closer to each other and spoke in a different tone. This was my first personal contact with Catalan people, language and culture. I was curious to how/why these guys related differently than the students from Madrid.
Interestingly, in this past year, my first personal connection with a student from Spain ended up being with a Catalan student. My international friends always meet the exchange students and that’s how I get to meet them early in the semester… I would strike up a conversation, not knowing where the person was from, and when that subject came up, Ta-dam: “I’m from Barcelona.”
Maybe my mind is playing tricks and looking for connections, but I would rather see these as signs I am meant to visit Barcelona soon :)
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