Life in Spain
One of the things which attracts so many people to this country is the Spanish lifestyle which is so different from many other European countries (see reasons for living in Spain).
The CIS (Spain's Center for Sociological Research) has just published a survey which indicates that Spaniards themselves are very happy with the main differences between Spain and their European partners, especially when it comes to eating habits. According to the results of the survey, over 85 percent of Spaniards prefer Spanish eating times and have never considered eating lunch or dinner earlier at similar times used in the rest of Europe.
Over half the people interviewed eat lunch from two to three o'clock and 19.9 percent between three and four o'clock. Meanwhile over 48 percent have dinner between nine and ten, and 27 percent from ten to eleven o'clock. Spaniards sleep on average seven and a quarter hours during the week and eight and a half hours at weekends.
Spaniards consider health and family to be most important to them (86 and 81 percent respectively), followed by work (56.4), friends (46.5), money (27.7). Only 11 percent consider religion to be important, and even fewer politics (6.2 percent).
Over 54 percent of Spaniards are very satisfied with family life, but only 22 percent are very satisfied with their home. The majority are happy, very happy or quite happy with their job, and only 6.9 and 7 percent are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied at work. Over a third would like to have more free time to spend with their families.
Related:
Beautiful places in Spain
The CIS (Spain's Center for Sociological Research) has just published a survey which indicates that Spaniards themselves are very happy with the main differences between Spain and their European partners, especially when it comes to eating habits. According to the results of the survey, over 85 percent of Spaniards prefer Spanish eating times and have never considered eating lunch or dinner earlier at similar times used in the rest of Europe.
Over half the people interviewed eat lunch from two to three o'clock and 19.9 percent between three and four o'clock. Meanwhile over 48 percent have dinner between nine and ten, and 27 percent from ten to eleven o'clock. Spaniards sleep on average seven and a quarter hours during the week and eight and a half hours at weekends.
Spaniards consider health and family to be most important to them (86 and 81 percent respectively), followed by work (56.4), friends (46.5), money (27.7). Only 11 percent consider religion to be important, and even fewer politics (6.2 percent).
Over 54 percent of Spaniards are very satisfied with family life, but only 22 percent are very satisfied with their home. The majority are happy, very happy or quite happy with their job, and only 6.9 and 7 percent are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied at work. Over a third would like to have more free time to spend with their families.
Related:
Beautiful places in Spain
Labels: Spanish culture
8 Comments:
please post what time the spansh eat breakfast
Spainards eat breakfast at 8 or 9 in the morning, and it usually consists of something very light such as a piece of toast and juice or coffee.
what is the meaning of 'lamasa' a spanish craft?how did it originate?
why did people use it?
hi im going to spain with my family i just wanted to know what its like over there now ? weather/people ect
thanks heather
hi, i am going to barcelona next month. concerning the different eating time from other countries, could you tell me what time to go to work and what time to go off work everyday. thanks a lot
What is the typical family life like for a Spanish family? What chores must children do in their households? How would a typical Spanish family support themselves financially?
women do all the chores
Ok, I´m going to explain you..
I´m Spaniard and Spanish people are not that different from the rest in Europe..
It´s true that generally we are more cheerful and spend more time outside but we can´t generalise because culture in the North (Celtic in my case, for instance)is very different to that of the South.
People in other European countries think that Spanish people we are all the time clapping and dancing flamenco. Actually, flamenco music has its origins in the Gipsy Community in Andalusia which is just one of the 17 regions in Spain, so it´s not our most typical dance. In fact, the National Dance is the Pasodoble Español.
Another thing is that we do have our meals later than in most of the European countries but please, do not exagerate.. It obviously depends on your working times (which are not too different from those in Europe, by the way). The good thing about it if you want to go out for dinner (or lunch) is that you don´t need to worry about closing times because you are usually served until very late.. And then go for a drink or clubbing until the morning if you want without moving away from the town/city centre in most of the cases..
Small shops usually close for lunch time (and siesta time as well :) between 13/14h and 16/17h and then close between 19h-20h. But you will find many places open from 10am to 8pm (non stopping) and shopping centres times' are from 10am to 10pm.
On the other hand banks open few hours, usually only between 8 and 14h.
A typical Spanish family has 4 members: parents and two children (at most). Children usually live with their parents until they go to University when they move out if they have to study in another town but after their studies are finished, they often return home. So they emancipate quite late because, unfortunately, working conditions in Spain are not great so they can´t afford paying all the expenses by themselves. That´s why they normally help with the household duties because also more and more women work outside and they can´t cope with everything. But it´s true that, in general, fathers still don´t help much with these kind of tasks.
To sum up Spanish lifestyle is not that different, we were very isolated in the past with the Franco dictatorship but nowadays we are quite open-minded and our social life is pretty much the same that in the other developed European countries. Maybe the main difference is that we work to live and not live to work.. And I think that we actually enjoy more our free time.
I hope I´ve been helpful to answer most of your questions and sorry for the looong reading.
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