SPN506 BLOG

I think that the Indian and Spanish/Latin American cultures are very similar. Both cultures place a huge emphasis on the concept of respect and treating those who you do not know, or who are elder to you, with humility. In Hindi, an Indian language, verbs are conjugated according to whether you know the person, how old they are, and what position they hold in society. Similarly, in Spanish when you do not know somebody, when they are older than you, or when they hold a high position in society, we use the ‘usted’ form of every verb. However, what is different is the way that people interact with one another. Although in the Hispanic culture, it is considered rude to not acknowledge someone on the street, in India you might be looked at weird if you smiled at random people you did not know. This is not to show Indian people as aloof, but instead to point out the difference in the two cultures that is interesting to acknowledge.