Well, that's not my experience. obviously I can't speak for every spanish child but for several years now we have been visitng an area where it's mainly spanish holidaymakers and residents and I have to say that I find adults and children alike to be very polite and friendly.

I think the spanish in general are quite loud in an enthusiastic way and I suppose if you don't understand what they're saying it could be misinterpreted and children are allowed to be children. They are positively welcomed everywhere rather than tolerated as i sometimes find in this country.

I think the spanish school holidays start around the middle of June but the peak month for holidays is August as many workplaces in the cities close for the whole of the month.

My experience is that the spanish tend to do alot as a family, so more often than not, the parents and grandparents will be there too and meals can last for hours.

As I say this is just my experience and maybe someone else has a different story to tell but you have to wonder at who writes reviews complaining about there being too many spanish when they're visitng Spain!

As a culture the Spanish don't tend to be as polite as the Brits. That's going by British standards. In Spanish its quite acceptable to say "I want....", no please or thank you. They also have a verb tense called the imperative, where they make commands, so, yes, there are differences. However Spanish children are brought up to have a lot of respect for others, and prticularly the elderly within their families. Its just that their ways may be a little different from ours.
Spanish children are indulged and are generally fairly noisy. I live here and have no difficulty in educating my children about the differences while at the same time, insisting that they follow the rules of manners that they have always been taught. I believe that its the differences between cultures that makes life interesting!

I've taught Spanish children here in primary school and while they may be different in many ways, they are are absolutely adorable! I certainly wouldn't worry about bringing your children to Spain to meet Spanish children. The Spanish dote on their kids and if you embrace that without judgment you may find that you learn a lot and make some very good friends into the bargain!

My spanish teacher tells me that the Spanish view our use of 'please and thank you' in much the same way as we Brits see the American's use of 'have a nice day'.

And the Germans regards us as being less polite than them because we say 'please' and 'thank you' less than they do. We tend to only use 'please' when we've asked for something - they also use please 'Bitte' when they give you something! As a 12 yr old on my first trip abroad with my school to Switzerland we got ourselves in right tangles because the waitress would would ask us if we'd like soup and we'd say 'Ja, bitte' and then she'd place it in front of us and say 'Bitte' and we'd say 'Danke' and she'd say something in the local dialect which we assumed was the equivalent of the the US 'You're welcome'. Every exchange seemd to take so much longer as a result

It's surely not that different nationalities are more or less polite than us but simply that there are different rules for what constitutes polite behaviour in different countries. In my experience, nobody in Spain expects children to be 'seen but not heard' - if the family is out to dinner the children join in the conversation and often the conversation revolves round them because they are included in everything. As others have said, they dote on children and make a fuss of them and sometimes interpret our behaviour eg the adults dining alone without them, as a sign that we mustn't like our children very much! And think that is why UK children are so often badly behaved - how can you expect them to know better when they spend so much time alone without adult company to act as roles models for civilised behaviour?

What brought it really home to me was being in Seville last year and Spanish colleagues being totally bemused by the McCann case because they couldn't understand why the children were put to bed on their own in the first place. For them, regardless of the age of the children, dinner is family occasion and they were adamant that such a thing would never have happened to a Spanish family because the whole family would have been together.

I wouldn't worry if I were you - go and enjoy the people watching and see how other families in other cultures interact.

SM

Fantastic post SMa, You've hit the nail on the head and you've put it so much better than I could!

Hi Kerrie

My experience at Port Aventura (which is I know where you are going) last year was somewhat different.

My children polietly got in line and waited their turn for the rides and shows only to have the Spanish Kids push in front of them all the time, (not every single Spanish kid, before people jump down my throat) but it was a trend shall we say.

In the end I said to my kids 'I know at home I would't ordinarily advise it, but stand your ground and try to block their way' otherwise it would have taken them twice as long to get on any ride.

In the water park you have to hire your rubber rings, they are expensive and you get your money back at the end of the day. Some (obvioulsy not all, before people jump down my throat) Spanish kids, tried to take them if you don't quard them, presumably so they dont have to fork out in the first place. Theft really. All the Brits were queueing up as we do at the start of the day to hire ours properly.

Doe

I think SMa's post about how different nations perceive politeness is pretty good apart from the one about Germans thinking the british are less polite than they because they use 'please' and 'thankyou' less often, I don't think this is correct. The word Bitte which to us means 'please' is used in the German language in situations in which we may in English use a phrase or another word (i.e. may I help you) and often sounds quite rude or abrupt to an English speaker, but after 37yrs of living in Germany this is the first time I have heard that we are thought of as less polite for not using these words more often. Of course I am not sure of what the Swiss think of us as even after all these years I still find Swiss German hard to understand.

Hi Judith,

I can see that I didn't really express myself very well and should perhaps have sprinkled a few more exclamation marks around! I was trying to be ironic - if one applies the logic that the Spanish are less polite than us because they don't use 'please' so much as the British, then we must be less polite than the Germans because they use it even more than us

As for actual experience I was referring to, I'm not too sure what she thought of us! I think it's best summed-up as mutual incomprehension! I'm not sure that she knew what to make of 12 English school girls and their two Miss Jean Brodie lookalike schoolmistresses (and referring to them that way rather gives my age away doesn't it!). And staying in a small family-run pension in Interlaken was a totally new expereince for all of us kids - none of whom had been away on holiday without our families before and 10 out of the 12 of us had never been out of the UK before. The rest of us were in awe of the two sisters who'd actually been to France with their parents the previous summer. They counted as worldly travellers compared to the rest of us - how times change!

It was a crash course in so many things - German wasn't on the timetable at school (it being a Jewish one), most of us had never shared a bedroom before, half of us all came 'on' like 9 pins after the first one to do so and few of us had such unparrallelled access to boys before!

SM

We were at Salou last year and did all the usual things, Port Aventura, Water Parks, Barcelona etc. While we found that some (very few) Spanish people did jump queues if you let them and were quite rude so were some of our British Holiday makers. I was appalled at the behaviour of some of the children at the Hotel and at the Aquopolis but these were British children and their parents tended to turn a blind eye to most of what their offspring were up to. In some instances it was a case of do what you want but don't bother me. I have to say that the majority of people on holiday were polite and patient and did not bother us in the least. You get good and bad in all nationalities and the Spanish are no worse than any other. Yes, they are noisy and you will really notice this at the fireworks displays at Port Aventura but after years of holidaying in Spanish resorts I have not had much to complain about with regards to the behaviour of their children. Stop worrying and enjoy your holiday.

I think Kayley has said everything that I would have said"¦..that Imperative verb tense is so misunderstood.
The lack of understanding the Spanish culture and speaking the language can clearly give off the wrong impressions.

The Spanish are a very family orientated race and their philosophy is such that children are only children once and they should be allowed to be "children". They are taught manners but maybe in comparison to other children, they seem to be allowed to get away with far more things before being chastised "¦that's probably because they are adored by their entire family members and the Spanish philosophy on life in general.

The Spanish use the term "por favor and "gracias" (please/thankyou) less than the British because the Spanish language incorporates politeness into the tense/s.

For example: if you said I want a cup of coffee with milk, then you would say "Quiero un café c0n leche", but because you have used the word "Quiero" which means "I want", then you could say "Gracias" on the arrival of the coffee and the reply will probably be "de nada" no problem/don't mention it "¦.this will be determined by the situation and whether you are annoyed at waiting a long time for the waiter to come for your order and what is it that you particularly are wanting and whether you are giving a command.

If you said "Quisiera un café c0n leche", then you have already asked in a polite way for a cup of coffee with milk because the word "Quisiera" means "I would like".

So when the waiter rushes to your table to take your order and there's more than one person, they will most likely say ¿Qué va a tomar.? which means "what will you have"? and the reply would be in that situation, "quisiera"

So basically, the difference between saying "I want" and "I would like", plus the tone of your voice/body gestures and whether it's a command, would determine whether you add please on the end"¦..and to someone not familiar with the language, then it appears rude and abrupt.

There's good and bad in all people of all Nations, but if some of us understood their culture more, then I think you'll find what a lovely race the Spanish are...on the whole.
They must be, they've put up with us Brits long enough and our antics.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiii

Cheers
Ta
Nice One
Sorted
Sound
wicked
Right ON
Jobs a good un'
The dogs b*******

I wonder how these go across to people who've not learned them when learning the English language!

I mean I'm from Walsall in the Midlands and slang over here is very bad! E R means Here You Are (which is why the Queen had so many children, cos she had ER on her knickers)

chivas your posts always make me laugh.

When i asked this question i didnt think it would get so much response, Thankyou for your replies and i have taken them on board.

I must say i totally disagree with sma, I also dote on my children as does any parent no matter what part of the world they come from and they also come out to dinner with us and are included in all conversations. I certainly never expect my children to be seen and not heard. I know that we all have different cultures and are brought up differently but i was just stating that mine have very good manners in my last post.

I was simply asking because of the reviews i have read and most of them are from people who have been to salou and gone to port adventura for a day out. As Doe pointed out like so many people have is that the spanish children do not wait their turn in line, to me this is not aceptable as other children have to wait there turn.

As i said in my first post the question was not meant to affend anyone.
Thanks for your replies
Kerrie