1) Spanish - One thing I mentioned as a thing that Chile does well is slang, unfortunately this means that if you want to practise your nice formal Spanish, you've come to the wrong place. I've studied Spanish for a long time now, but even when I arrived I had literally no clue what people were talking about! At first, I thought that it was my poor level of Spanish, but was then told by many people not to worry, because it's actually the Chileans that can't speak Spanish. If you come here as a Spanish speaker you'll be confronted with all sorts of weird new vocab, verb endings, interjections, idioms, accents, not to mention that they talk ridiculously fast. However, after a couple of weeks of concentrating quite hard, I began to understand more and more of the lingo (better described as chileno than Spanish). Over 4 months in and whilst my formal Spanish went out the window a long time ago, my informal chileno has come on massively. It's definitely a challenge, but in a good way.
2) Punctuality - This is one thing that any English person who's been to Chile will be sure to mention. Chileans suck at arriving on time! It's a really laid-back and relaxed culture, which means that if you come from a time-obsessed place like the UK, you're gonna have some adjusting to do. Here are some tips to help you interpret what the Chileans really mean when they speak:
"Llego en 5" (I'll be there in 5) - "I'll be there in half an hour"
"Nos vemos mañana a las 8" (I'll cya tomorrow at 8) - "I'll cya tomorrow at 9"
"Voy en camino" (I'm on my way) - "I'm still at home, but I'll leave in a bit"
"Voy llegando" (I'm arriving now) - "I'm still at home, but I'll leave in a bit"
"Llego en 5" (I'll be there in 5) - "I'll be there in half an hour"
"Nos vemos mañana a las 8" (I'll cya tomorrow at 8) - "I'll cya tomorrow at 9"
"Voy en camino" (I'm on my way) - "I'm still at home, but I'll leave in a bit"
"Voy llegando" (I'm arriving now) - "I'm still at home, but I'll leave in a bit"
3) Bank opening times - I'm aware that this one is very specific, but this is one thing that drives me insane. Banks here open at 8am and close between midday and 2pm... If you work Monday-Friday, nine to five, how the hell are you supposed to do your banking?!?! Also, the fact you have to queue for ages every time you enter a bank doesn't help either.
4) Dairy - Food and drink are generally really good in Chile, there is one area however where it's lacking. Anything dairy based, cheese, milk, yoghurt etc. tends to be a bit rubbish out here. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of regional cheeses and stuff that are great, but I'm talking about the day-to-day stuff that you'd pop down to the local Tescos to get. Unless you can deal with only funny tasting UHT milk, and plastic laminate-style cheese, try and avoid the dairy section of Chilean supermarkets...
5) Machismo - For those unfamiliar with the term, machismo is the name given in Spanish to the macho culture that exists in many Latin American countries. For me directly this has not been so much of a problem, but does affect many of the girls I know in Chile. Some of the girls I know can't walk down the street without being cat-called or go to a club without being touched up. It's not that it makes them scared, Morocco for example is definitely a country where it becomes slightly dangerous, but it is unacceptable and uncomfortable.
6) Planning - Chileans in general are pretty poor planners, they don't really believe in it. It seems that the majority just believes that everything will work out in the end. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all, it's actually something that I've learnt to adopt. It's not always necessary to have a plan, things do seem to turn out OK in the end.
This post is mainly just to write the other half of the post I wrote such a long time ago, to not leave my blog unfinished. Chile is an amazing country and has loads of great attributes, if you are planning a trip here, these are some things to bear in mind though!
4) Dairy - Food and drink are generally really good in Chile, there is one area however where it's lacking. Anything dairy based, cheese, milk, yoghurt etc. tends to be a bit rubbish out here. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of regional cheeses and stuff that are great, but I'm talking about the day-to-day stuff that you'd pop down to the local Tescos to get. Unless you can deal with only funny tasting UHT milk, and plastic laminate-style cheese, try and avoid the dairy section of Chilean supermarkets...
5) Machismo - For those unfamiliar with the term, machismo is the name given in Spanish to the macho culture that exists in many Latin American countries. For me directly this has not been so much of a problem, but does affect many of the girls I know in Chile. Some of the girls I know can't walk down the street without being cat-called or go to a club without being touched up. It's not that it makes them scared, Morocco for example is definitely a country where it becomes slightly dangerous, but it is unacceptable and uncomfortable.
6) Planning - Chileans in general are pretty poor planners, they don't really believe in it. It seems that the majority just believes that everything will work out in the end. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all, it's actually something that I've learnt to adopt. It's not always necessary to have a plan, things do seem to turn out OK in the end.
This post is mainly just to write the other half of the post I wrote such a long time ago, to not leave my blog unfinished. Chile is an amazing country and has loads of great attributes, if you are planning a trip here, these are some things to bear in mind though!
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