For our second meeting, we had planned to have lunch at the Mensa (the cafeteria at school). However, we had initially agreed to schedule a meeting at least every week, but due to busy schedules, we had to be flexible, and now it is two weeks after our first meeting. We will have to make up for this another week by scheduling an extra meeting and paying attention to it.
Before the meeting, we had planned to learn about the mealtimes in each other’s countries. So, when do we have breakfast, dinner, etc., so that we could learn more about each other’s cultures. Furthermore, we also wanted to brush up on our basic vocabulary, so we had planned to translate the different mealtime moments for each other. Since you also eat with your family, we decided to teach each other the names of family members. We also wanted to learn some words related to food from each other, so we translated what was on our plates. From tableware to food. Finally, we taught each other a few short sentences related to our meeting.
I found it interesting to discover during the meeting that the mealtimes only differ significantly in the evening. In Spain, they have dinner between 9:00 PM and 11:00 PM, whereas in the Netherlands, it’s around 6:00 PM. However, the other mealtimes are not that different, which I really didn’t expect. I already knew that they dine late in Spain, but I thought all other meals would also be much later and would differ significantly from the times in the Netherlands, but that wasn’t the case. They just have a late snack between lunch and dinner. Also, they have dessert immediately after dinner, whereas in the Netherlands, we always wait at least 30 minutes. We do this to let the food settle a bit. In terms of eating the different meals with family, the culture between Spain and the Netherlands was actually quite similar. However, I didn’t expect this, as I thought that in Spain, they would have all meals together as a family and make time for it. However, it turned out that Sandra has the same experience as I do, namely that you generally always have dinner together, but it all depends on the schedules of the family members. So, you do have meals together quite often, but it doesn’t have to be. It also happens more often that they eat separately due to school, work, and other activities. The meals they have in Spain also differ compared to the Netherlands. For example, in the afternoon, they have a large meal. An example Sandra gave is that they sometimes have two plates, one with a vegetable dish with potatoes and the other with meat, or a large plate with beans or pasta, for example. In the Netherlands, we hardly ever eat a hot meal in the afternoon and eat something much smaller, like yogurt, a salad, or bread. I found it remarkable to see this difference. On the other hand, I expected their dinner to be smaller because of this, but this is not the case. Sandra mentioned examples such as pizza, eggs with sausages, fish with salad, etc. The snacks are somewhat similar to those in the Netherlands. For example, for them, it’s also cookies, fruit, juice, etc.
During the second meeting, I noticed that it really helped that I had written down the rules last time. This way, when pronouncing the different words, I only had to scroll back, and my pronunciation of the words was already slightly better. I must say that I had some trouble again with pronouncing the words this time because they also have different symbols in their letters compared to what we commonly use in the Netherlands. For example, they have the ‘ñ’ and use much more: ‘í’, ‘á’, etc. I particularly struggled with these words as I wasn’t familiar with them yet. After practicing a few times, pronouncing them, and with Sandra’s teaching and help, it got better and better.
After the meeting, we concluded that we actually want to maintain a kind of structure during each meeting. For example, we want to learn more about each other’s culture, words for our basic vocabulary, and a few short sentences. This way, we can achieve our set learning goals.
Comments