If I see someone I know in the street and neither of
us feels like stopping to talk, we nod pleasantly, murmur adiós in
unison and continue on our way. There's
something eerie about taking your leave of someone you’ve not yet greeted, and
it seems more logical if, as often happens, one of us says hola while the
other calls out adiós.
Hasta luego is
an alternative to adios for brief
exchanges like these and means until later, implying a subsequent
meeting. There is also ¿qué tal? which
amounts to how’s things? Although
we might enjoy explaining at considerable length how things are, enumerating
woes, cataloguing joys and trotting out a complaint or two, this does not require
a detailed reply. The correct response is muy bien, gracias ¿y usted? (or tú, depending on the relationship)
- very well, thanks,
and you? This gives others the chance to wedge a toe in the conversational
door by enumerating woes, cataloguing joys and trotting out the odd complaint.
¿Qué hay? is
tricky. It means what is there? and implies what’s new? You won’t get out of this one with muy
bien, gracias ¿y usted? and all you
can do is cover every option by simultaneously smiling, shaking your head and
nodding. Once again, lengthy details are
not appreciated.
The Spanish once claimed to be irritated by our abuse
and over-use of please and thank you. I can’t be the only person who has had a
tentative por favor shot down in flames with a stern and almost threatening
SIN favor.
This is said with kindness and is polite in its own
way, but I was never grateful for being exempted from saying it. Now, of course, the Spanish use both please
and thank you as much as we do, possibly in response to hearing
it on all sides from huge numbers of English-speaking tourists and foreign residents
and not wishing to appear discourteous by failing to reciprocate.
What these same
English-speakers often overlook, though, is the importance attached by the Spanish to greetings.
On entering any non-self service shop, office or
waiting room in Málaga, Murcia, Madrid or Medina del Campo good manners require
you to look round the assembled company.
Then you verbally embrace them with a collective buenos días, buenas
tardes or buenas noches.
 |
| greetings are expected on entering |
Some answer, some grunt and others only nod but no-one
ignores you. Greetings are expected, as
are farewells when departing.
This also applies to entering and leaving lifts where
reserved English-speakers can earn themselves a reputation for surliness.
Often the
ritual appears to be too much effort even for the Spanish and they limit
themselves to a truncated buenas… on entering and another buenas… on
exiting.
 |
| ... and leaving |
Before everybody had television, DVDs and computers
and males began spending the evening with their families, pavements were less
deserted late at night than they are now. People went out on the town, men
returned from dominoes, cards or less innocent pastimes at their local bar or el
casino, when thiswas still basically a gentlemen’s club and not somewhere
to lose money. They all greeted everyone
who crossed their paths and murmured buenas noches or simply adiós.
Dog-walkers in urban areas still observe the niceties
but the most you can expect from a dog-less pedestrian is a sideways glance and
a hastening of the step. Notwithstanding a growing lack of faith in the outcome
of late-night encounters, the Spanish continue to regard greetings and leave-takings
as an important aspect of social intercourse.
Earlier this year their continuing importance surfaced
in La Toba, a very small village in the province of Guadalajara. A mayoral order advised villagers not to
spit, slurp their soup or fart in public.
And yes, this exactly the verb he used: tirar pedos. Had the mayor
wished to be more mealy-mouthed, he would have used the polite term of soltar ventosidades – to break
wind.
Another injunction was to “greet those present on
entering and leaving closed premises”.
So be warned: not saying hallo and goodbye in Spain is
as heinous a social shortcoming as farting in public.
