Spain Cross-Cultural 2019

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Individual Reflection

On Monday, we got to experience a tour of Sagrada Familia, a massive cathedral in the city of Barcelona. In the end of the tour, we stopped in a gift shop to view a finished model of the cathedral before heading over to a pleasant buffet.

I was in awe during the tour of the Sagrada Familia because of the beautiful windows and artwork within the cathedral, the thought and effort that went into each little detail, and even just the overwhelming size of the cathedral. Other parts of this tour included viewing a park and some other areas of the city. I felt amazed during this as well due to the almost perfect layout of the city and overall cleanliness and care put into the park and city.

Cultural Evaluation/Comparison

Relating back to the Sagrada Familia tour, something that stood out for me was how direct the tour guide was when interacting with others. The guide’s direct-context style of communication seems to be present in how other Spaniards also interact with one another. This is different from most Americans since Americans tend to be more passive and use an indirect context in their communication. This is described as one of ten main “cultural value dimensions” in “Leading with Cultural Intelligence” by David Livermore (2015).

Social Implications

A social component that could have larger implications could be that approximately 68%!o(MISSING)f Spaniards identify as Catholic which dates far back in Spain’s history to the marriage of the Catholic monarchs Fernando and Isabel (Insight Guides, 2017). This could have either positive or negative implications. For example, this could become a problem if alternate religious views continue to rise in popularity and as secularization increases. On the other hand, this prominent faith could help preserve the culture and history of Spain.





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