u/999avatar999

Basically what the title says. I'm currently in Spain as a tourist and have been here for about 2 weeks at this point (currently in Barcelona, yeah I know it's a dicey subject) and also have been self-learning Spanish for about 2 years or so. I'm at the point where I can understand pretty much any written text I encounter in public or what. It's my speaking though that is still very rusty, so I've been using this as an opportunity to practice a bit

So at restaurants/cafés etc. I try to do the order in Spanish (well, Castilian) but pretty often have to resort to English because I don't fully understand the person's accent or they automatically just talk to me in English from the beginning, because it must be obvious I'm a foreigner. So yeah, do you appreciate the effort or is it more of a bother to you for making the interaction more frustrating and/or take longer? Or would just coming in and approaching you in English be more inconsiderate, to assume everyone speaks my preferred language?

Basically what the title says. I'm currently in Spain and have been here for about 2 weeks at this point (currently in Barcelona, yeah I know as a tourist it's a dicey subject) and also have been self-learning Spanish for about 2 years or so. I'm at the point where I can understand pretty much any written text I encounter in public or what. It's my speaking though that is still very rusty, so I've been using this as an opportunity to practice a bit

So at restaurants/cafés etc. I try to do the order in Spanish (well, Castilian) but pretty often have to resort to English because I don't fully understand the person's accent or they automatically just talk to me in English from the beginning, because it must be obvious I'm a foreigner.

So yeah, do you appreciate the effort or is it more of a bother to you for making the interaction more frustrating and/or take longer? Or would just coming in and approaching you in English be more inconsiderate, to assume everyone speaks my preferred language?

Basically what the title says. I'm currently in Spain and have been here for about 2 weeks at this point (currently in Barcelona, yeah I know it's a dicey subject) and also have been self-learning Spanish for about 2 years or so. I'm at the point where I can understand pretty much any written text I encounter in public or what. It's my speaking though that is still very rusty, so I've been using this as an opportunity to practice a bit

So at restaurants/cafés etc. I try to do the order in Spanish (well, Castilian) but pretty often have to resort to English because I don't fully understand the person's accent or they automatically just talk to me in English from the beginning, because it must be obvious I'm a foreigner. So yeah, do you appreciate the effort or is it more of a bother to you for making the interaction more frustrating and/or take longer? Or would just coming in and approaching you in English be more inconsiderate, to assume everyone speaks my preferred language?

EDIT: as pointed out, I didn't word this very clearly. I'm not living/working here, just visiting as a tourist for 2-and-something weeks

To specify, I'm talking about Spanish used in Spain not latam (well I'm currently in Barcelona rn but encountered the same dilemma in Madrid and Burgos)

My question is, when do I use 'usted' when talking to strangers? Some situations I've encountered are:

1. Asking a barista (a guy who seemed to be of similar age as me - mid to late 20s) if they have a Cold brew

2. Asking a lady at a restaurant if a bag on a chair belongs to her or if someone might have forgotten it there.

3. Talking to a receptionist at my hotel, who looked to be my age or younger as well

4. Asking some gentleman at the bus stop if he knew which stop the bus ends at

etc.

In my language (Slovak) we have a way of similar formal speak too - we use the equivalent of 'ustedes' or 'vosotros' (plural form of the 2nd person) and in all of those situations it would be considered rude to use a singular second person pronoun (tú or just you in English). So what's the cultural norm in Spanish speaking countries, or different regions of Spain specifically?

I know my accent makes it super obvious that I'm a foreigner and that probably no one's going to be offended but - as someone who's been learning the language for about two years (this is my first time actually talking to locals thos) - I'm still interested in subtleties like that. So w?hat do you think

I just had a random but weird experience while waiting for a bus so I'm just curious if such sentiment is common in this country. Long story short, I'm a tourist from Slovakia coming to Spain to see the eclipse (as so many others are) and am staying in Madrid for a week in advance, just to hang out I guess.

So I was just sitting at a bus stop when an older lady came and said something to me in Spanish, with a rather thick accent. Now I know a bit of Spanish (have been casually learning for 2 years or so) to the point where I can read and understand most of the basic Spanish texts, but struggle with speaking or understanding spoken Spanish in specific accents. So I did my best to explain to her que lo siento, pero no hablo español tan bien y no le entendí lol.

She then kept asking me where I'm from (in Spanish which I mostly understood), how long I have been in the country and etc. I did my best to talk to her in Spanish as well, though I assume it sounded rather butchered lol. But then she told me that I need to have my "papeles arreglados" - I had to explain to her that you don't need a visa inside the Schengen area lol - and that I should know the language of the country before coming etc. That as well as telling me that there are too many Maruecos (using the slur) etc., despite me explaining that I'm only a tourist.

Anyway, I am aware that the anti-tourism movement is a thing and that their arguments about overtourism are valid but is the specific distaste for tourists who don't speak the language fully a thing? I've always been told that Spaniards are generally happy to see a foreigner doing their best to use the language, which I've been doing in like restaurants or cafés and stuff. Or is this just the normal instance of xenophobia that's present in every country?

EDIT: oh and I forgot to mention that - despite usually passing as one - I'm not the whitest looking guy out there. So idk maybe that played a part?

So, I've had my (almost) 2 years old dude for over a year at this point, and despite me living with other family members I think he's bonded to me the most - probably because it's me who feeds him, plays with him and he sleeps in the room with me at night. No saying he doesn't love the others or dislikes spending time with them tho.

Anyways, over the time I've had him I've gone away a couple of times, for travel/work/whatever other reason, but only for a few days to a week at most iirc. What I've been told is that he becomes unusually cuddly when I'm gone (he isn't really a lap cat at all normally) and doesn't want to play as much. And most of the times after I've come home he goes into super-zoomies mode after seeing me, or yells at me for some time lol.

As I said though, I'll be leaving for a 17 days long vacation starting tomorrow, which is far more than I've ever been away from him if I recall correctly. I know he'll be taken care of and loved - while also acting sorta depressed - but idk what to expect from him after coming back home.

Should I expect him to be mad and/or distant for being away that long? Has anyone here had a similar experience?

For some reason I've been having this tune stuck in my mind today but I'm not able to pinpoint what it is. It is not in English or any other real language (I think) and something tells me it's OST from a movie/TV show. I'm really not sure but it's giving me GOT/HOTD vibes, possibly being in High Valyrian.

I can't fully recall the "lyrics" but I remember the opening word/hum to be something that sounds like "Vaaahle...". I might be totally off tho and it might not even really be from anything ASOIAF related, or even any OST in general.

So here's the vocaroo of me humming it, hope anyone knows it

Vy čo využívate leteckú dopravu zo/na Slovensko určite viete o čom hovorím. Aj minulý týždeň som napríklad letel z Cypru na Slovensko takže lietadlo bolo plné slovenských dovolenkárov a keď sme pristávali tlieskalo celé lietadlo, pár ľudí dokonca vykrikovalo a pískalo lol.

Inde vo svete som si to vôbec nevšimol, vy áno? Alebo je to len slovenská vec? Ak hej, kde to podľa vás vzniklo?

This is a discussion I've had with a friend lately. Is the probability of the sun rising tomorrow technically not 100%? I'm not talking about it being plausible on any timescale but is it physically possible for quantum tunneling to happen in such a way that all of the Earth just find itself outside of the solar system?

What I mean is, in an infinite time (disregard all the practicalities like the cooling/expansion of the universe, the sun dying, Andromeda crashing into the Milky Way etc.), is the chance of such an event happening mathematically exactly 0 - meaning there's some limitation to how physics works that'd prevent it - or technically non-zero?

Yeah, can cats understand that humans have emotional states and how we express pain? I know they shouldn't have a full-on theory of mind capability but I've noticed that my man seems to react somewhat to me expressing pain? Like the other day I stubbed my toe under a door like an idiot so I did the thing of jumping around, cursing and all the other ways one would express pain lol.

Anyway, he immediately got up from his perch where he was taking a nap, ran down to me and started meowing. So do they have enough capacity for empathy/emotional reflection to understand how a human in pain looks like? Or is that just us anthropomorphising them?

I know it is normal for cats to sleep the majority of their lives by default lol, but I've noticed that my dude seems to get extra lazy/sleepy on hot days. Like past 2 or 3 days have been pretty disgustingly warm, relative to what's normal for my area at this time of the year (around 26C, so 80F according to google) and he definitely seems a lot lazier than normal.

He will play with me for a bit in the morning, then go to sleep only to wake up at noon for lunch, and then sleep for the whole afternoon. He will play with me for some time in the evening, but not as much as during colder days. And he is a very energetic and active fella (around 18 months old so still young and active), but not on days like these.

Is he just sluggish and lazy from the heat? Cus if so I definitely feel for him, as it has the exact same effect on me these days haha