Spain is a very diverse, motley country; representatives of several peoples live in it and speak four national languages. Despite this, the Spanish people have a pronounced, single mentality, which is manifested in the behavior, habits, traditions of the Spaniards.
What is a mentality?
Each person has a unique character and individual characteristics that depend on many factors, including genetics, education, environmental conditions. But, living in the same territory, in the same conditions, interacting with each other, people develop common ideas about life, about the concepts of good and evil, about how to behave correctly in certain situations. This is how a mentality develops - a set of human properties and qualities that determine behavior, mentality, life position of a certain group of people. Each nationality has a unique mentality, but it cannot be said that the mentality of one nation is better than another.
Spanish mentality
In a few words, the Spanish mentality can be explained by one popular Spanish proverb: "Life is created for pleasure, not for suffering." Almost all Spaniards are true hedonists, they prefer to enjoy every moment of their life, and not care about possible suffering in the future or recall past failures. This can explain the passion of this nation for food and love - the two most significant physical pleasures. The Spaniards treat food no less reverently than the French, but differ from them in a simpler, less intricate taste: they love meat seasoned with aromatic herbs, eat all kinds of seafood and fish soups and love wine.
The desire for pleasure here and now has led to another Spanish habit - to put off many things until later, to lead an unhurried, measured lifestyle. On the one hand, it is a very hot, quick-tempered people with gusty movements, quick and emotional speech and deep feelings, and on the other, they like to live in a leisurely, quiet and peaceful way. In Spain, you can often hear the word "maniac", which means tomorrow - setting aside something for tomorrow, they do not mean tomorrow at all.
The Spaniards are very sociable and friendly, quickly make contact, kiss and hug from the first meeting, and immediately switch to "you." But they often seem rude to foreigners: close relationships do not imply the use of the words “thank you” and “please” (even in stores they aren’t used to say), people are straightforward and open, and when they meet they are too aggressive, screaming, clapping each other on the shoulders or back.
But Spaniards behave differently with women: they cannot help but compliment. Some insecure foreigners perceive this as disrespectful or sarcasm, but these people really treat all the girls as beauties: they know how to find beauty in everything.
In the Spanish mentality, family relations play a very important role, even in modern conditions often several generations live in the same house, and the tradition of gathering for the holidays is unchanged.
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