Cultural differences at University and in Madrid

University Rey Juan Carlos

There was not really a culture shock when coming to the university. It was approximately the way I expected it to be. The only aspect that I perhaps would have expected differently, was the number of international students that I would have in my classes. I had very little international students and therefore very little contacts at school. Overall, the Spanish students were not particularly open and inviting towards internationals, but they were not excluding us. There were very few internationals in only some of my classes, with who I did projects and presentations. Furthermore, I had contact with two or three Spanish students, who were very nice. However, I didn’t meet many new friends in my class, I never saw any of my classmates after school. 

The city of Madrid 

In the city however, I did experience a minor culture shock. The first thing that I noticed instantly, was the crowded streets. I live in an apartment in the centre of the city and every street that is close to my house is always extremely busy. Especially in the weekends and around the holidays it was insane how many people were walking down the streets of Madrid. Also, the people in the city centre are overall quite rude, meaning they will bump into you if you don’t get out of their way in the streets. In hospitality as well, in both restaurants and supermarkets most personnel are plain rude and inconsiderate. I’ve never experienced something like this. There are some bars and cafés were the staff is friendly and I would always come back to these places, as this is very rare in the centre of the city. The way I dealt with this culture shock was simply just getting used to it with time and a small change in my mindset. I lowered my expectations from people and customer service in order to not be bothered by these differences, as much as I was in the beginning. It should be said that there are a few suburbs that are in fact better. The atmosphere is better, it’s less touristic, and the people are generally nicer. I’m talking about suburbs as Malasaña and La Latina.

Aside from culture shock in the city, I also experienced cultural differences in my house. I’ve stayed at an apartment with 11 other roommates, from all over the world. I’ve had roommates from New York, Miami, Canada, Mexico, Kenia, Spain, London, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. It’s interesting to meet people from different parts of the world and get to know their cultures a little. However, living together at sometimes was challenging. I’m sure this partially has to do with the number of people sharing a small kitchen and living room, but I think cultural aspects were also a factor in this. I noticed that not everyone was as comfortable talking with and being around each other, as I am used to in the Netherlands. Including myself, not that I was uncomfortable, but I experienced a few difficulties in talking with some people, in the sense that you have to actively be looking for a subject to discuss with them. Whereas in the Netherlands this often comes naturally, and it feels a lot more relaxed. Furthermore, many of my roommates lived in their rooms. Therefore, I did not know all the people with who I shared a house very well, which is not very relaxed. I dealt with this by simply respecting and accepting other people and their cultures, while clearly communicating each other’s expectations. In the end, I got to know the people who were often in the common areas, a lot better and became comfortable with most of them.