Here are some things that Spaniards do or don't do. The converse is that somebody else typically does do, or doesn't do, these things.
- Spanish men don't wear shorts once summer is over and until the summer weather comes back. A warm day in February doesn't count.
- Spaniards don't put butter on the bread - not on sandwiches and not on the plate to go with the bread roll at table. It is true that, in some parts of Spain, Spaniards put butter on toast, with jam.
- Spaniards do not drink warm drinks - tea, coffee type drinks - with food except with toast or the pastries at breakfast.
- Spaniards don't put milk in tea. This means getting a standard type British tea is a bit of a struggle - té clásico con una pizca de leche fría.
- Spaniards do not put pepper on the table to go with the salt, oil and vinegar.
- Spaniards do say hello as they enter a bar, a bank, a post office or the like. They greet everyone.
- Spaniards say goodbye as they leave a bar etc.
- Spaniards tend to speak quite loudly!
- Spaniards won't have a hissy fit if a stranger comments favourably on a baby, musses up the hair of a four year old or speaks to their child.
- Spaniards never sing along with their National Anthem. That's a bit of a trick really because the current Spanish National Anthem doesn't have any words. I can't remember what it is but there is some accepted version of tum tey tum, or hmm hmm hmm if a football crowd feels it needs to make a statement.
- Spaniards never eat paella in the evening; it's just for lunch.
- Spaniards do not put carpets in bathrooms and they think it's a disgustingly unhygienic thing to do so.
- Spaniards hardly ever drink anything alcoholic, until late at night, without eating a little of something alongside - nuts, crisps, olives etc.
- Spanish washbasins, baths and sinks hardly ever have two taps.
- Spanish queues don't usually involve a line of people. A person joining the virtual queue has to ask who is the last person there so they can take their turn accordingly.
- Spaniards take a start time as a rough indication of when to be at an appointed place. Punctuality has improved incredibly in the last few years but if the theatre performance is billed to start at 8pm then 8.15/8.20pm would be good going.
- Spaniards eat to quite a fixed timetable. 2pm to 3.30pm to start the main meal of the day and around 9pm to 10pm for the much less important evening meal.
- Spaniards would not consider going to a (normal) restaurant before 9pm in the evening.
- Spaniards do not care for spicy food.
- Spaniards do not consider tipping to be any sort of duty. The idea of a fixed percentage is very foreign to them. Spaniards do not tip when service is bad.
- Spaniards don't wait to be noticed by bar staff at the bar. They make their presence known.
- Spaniards, in this part of the world at least, do not heat their homes, offices or workplaces adequately. This is becoming less true.
- Spaniards let their children stay up very late and Spanish parents and carers include their children in lots of late night activities.
- Spaniards don't eat in the street - that is they don't eat a sandwich or other snack type food as they walk.
- Spaniards don't (generally) binge drink.
- Spaniards have power points in bathrooms.
- Spaniards talk to their families, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc. very, very regularly.
- Spaniards do not drink tepid beer or soft drinks.
- Spaniards don't, readily, invite people into their homes.
- Spaniards, when driving, do not, in my experience, acknowledge friendly gestures from other motorists. Let someone into a lane of near stationary traffic and there will be no upraised palm to say "thank you".
- Spaniards, most Spaniards, don't particularly like flamenco
There are tens more but that will do for now
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