Spanish Business Etiquette

Who sits where at a dining table? — Students are taught how to arrange seating (Anglo-Saxon protocol has guests of honor at the head, Latin protocol has them in the middle), how to sit correctly (elbows off the table), when to smoke (not until the coffee arrives) and which knife and fork to use (start from the outside).

Minding Manners Abroad : A Finishing Touch for Businessmen in Spain

At Spain’s newest business school, young executives are learning how to peel oranges, choose French wines and greet Arab princes.

Management, marketing and accounting are out: The Academy of Manners, Customs and Behavior is strictly concerned with the social side of doing business abroad.

The academy is the brainchild of three young entrepreneurs in the northeastern region of Catalonia, who saw their foreign ventures stumble on non-commercial obstacles.

Jose Ramon Tobia, for example, could not understand why his Arab workers in Abu Dhabi would take a break every three hours and refused to work at his pace. Then someone explained about Moslem prayer schedules.

200 Students

“I knew nothing about their religion,” he said.

“I talked to my friends and we realized that there were lots of people in Spain who were not equipped to deal with the rest of the world.”

Since the businessman’s finishing school opened in May, about 200 people have taken classes. The basic course is 75,000 pesetas ($550) for 12 two-hour sessions, while specially tailored programs for executives visiting specific countries cost two or three times as much.

“Of course, joining the Common Market helped,” co-founder Mario Gargallo said. Spain entered the European Community at the start of the year.

“People are traveling more and receiving more foreign visitors, and they want to improve themselves,” he said.

The Catalans have considered themselves Spain’s most urbane citizens, drawn by culture and tradition to emulate French and Italian sophistication.

They are also Spain’s most successful and innovative business executives, and the combination has made the academy an instant hit.

The Business Lunch

“In Madrid, they do their business and then go out to celebrate,” said Gargallo. “But in Barcelona, a business lunch is for doing business.”

So the business lunch is at the heart of the syllabus.

Students are taught how to arrange seating (Anglo-Saxon protocol has guests of honor at the head, Latin protocol has them in the middle), how to sit correctly (elbows off the table), when to smoke (not until the coffee arrives) and which knife and fork to use (start from the outside).

Then they progress to trickier subjects: peeling unshelled prawns and choosing the right wines.

The academy’s wine instructor, writer and restaurateur Jose Maria Gotarda, spends much of his time correcting misconceptions.

“The most common mistake is thinking that because a wine is older, it must be better,” he said.

“In fact, a Rioja from 1981, which was one of the great years, is far superior to a 1973, which was very bad.”

Gargallo said the restaurants and hotels where they hold their courses confirmed that Spanish table manners leave a lot to be desired.

“Head waiters always tell us that at a reception, the English and the Germans wait to be offered hors d’oeuvres while the Spaniards throw themselves on the food,” he said.

Pupils also have to be prepared for different eating habits abroad. The prospective traveler to Britain, for instance, is told not to be surprised by a cooked breakfast and to eat it, or risk hunger later.

Punctuality

The academy has specialists on all major foreign countries and some companies have sent along groups of employees. One Japanese multinational firm this month ordered lessons for five of its Spanish staff members who will travel to Japan soon.

But can the academy succeed in making Spaniards what they evidently are not?

“We don’t want Spaniards to be punctual like the English,” said Tobia. “But when they go to a business meeting with an Englishman, we want them to get there on time.”

He and his partners now have ambitious plans for expansion. They intend to open branches next year in Madrid, Valencia, Seville and Oviedo, and are looking at buying their own restaurant in Barcelona to serve as a venue for classes.

They have even been approached by parents who would like courses in manners and etiquette for their children.

“Twenty years ago, we had to study manners at school,” said the academy’s Fernando Lizcano de la Rosa, head of protocol at the Barcelona town hall.

“People no longer know how to shake hands with the king and they want to learn how to do things properly,” he said. — From Reuter’s, Barcelona, Spain 1986

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette Observations in Spain

Artwork depicting clashes between the working classes and the Spanish elite – 1909 may not have been the best of years to travel to Spain. By late-July, a series of violent confrontations between members of the working classes of Barcelona and other cities of Catalonia (Spain) and the  Spanish army, during the last week of July 1909, is known as the “Tragic Week.” The clashes were the result of the calling-up of reserve troops by Premier Antonio Maura to be sent as reinforcements when Spain renewed military-colonial activity in Morocco on the 9th of July. Many of these reservists were the only breadwinners for their families, while the wealthy were able to hire substitutes. –image source, Pinterest

An Etiquette Travel Journal

From what we saw, and from what happened to us, I made up a page of Spanish etiquette. It is probably not correct, but I offer it as the result of our experiences. If you are of the female sex, never wear a short shirt, a sailor or English walking-hat unless yon are willing to have people stare at you and sometimes call after you. If you have red hair, dye it or be prepared to be saluted as “Rubia.” Never bow to a man unless he lifts his hat first. 

If you are a man, you may dress as an Englishman, an operatic tenor or a chorus singer from Carmen, without exciting remark. Never wear glasses if you are blind, take to a dog on a string. When you sit down at the table, or arise, always bow and say, “Buenas,” this is imperative. You may jostle people without apology, but never speak to any one without saying “your grace” be he noble, friend or beggar. “Will your grace do me the favor to bring me my coffee at nine o'clock tomorrow,” would strike an American bellboy with dismay. But it is the literal translation of the Spanish request. 

Never tell a beggar to clear out, but say that you have left your purse at home, and that you will remember him tomorrow; or, gently murmur that God will reward him, whereas he will smile, thank you and depart. These same beggars, which spring up on every side, seem to have a code of etiquette we could not fathom. After two or three days, there were a few who besought Jean. Evidently, we were understood to be the patrons of certain beggars who, out of a crowd of mendicants, were the only ones to approach us, who would take their dole with thanks, or if we said “tomorrow,” would smilingly back away at once. 

A trip into Spain ought to mean more than sketches of life, as we saw it in a single city. Yet it was our pleasure to linger on in Madrid—with the exception of three days spent in Toledo and the Escorial for the whole of our two months’ holiday, and to return direct to Paris without seeing any of the southern country so beloved by other tourism. So can any one wonder that, to us Spain means Madrid, the city of marvelous contrasts. – From “A Second-Class Trip into Spain.” in The Outing Magazine for February, 1909

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette and Spanish Brides

Traditional Spanish brides wear black dresses and lace mantillas.  Originally, worn for Catholic church services, mantillas are ornate veils worn for wedding ceremonies. Many times, these are passed down from one generation to the next.

There are no bridesmaids at a Spanish wedding, but instead a “madrina” (literally “godmother”) is present with the witnesses. There is no bride cake, but there is a reception and very often a feast after the ceremony. Before the wedding takes place, the bride’s new home is made ready for her reception, for the honeymooners do not start on their travels until the day after their marriage.

Before their departure they pay a polite visit to their respective parents. On their return, dainty sweetmeats in pretty boxes are sent round to their friends. No visits are paid until little cards have been sent, “offering their house.” – Amador Ledger, 1903

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Royal Wedding Etiquette Details

Ena, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, had irritated her Battenberg cousins by waving all too regally from the carriage at the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, so they were not at all surprised when Ena married the King of Spain. King Edward VII, thus needed to elevate her to the rank of Royal Highness prior to the ceremony. At the wedding, an assassin attempted to blow up the bridal carriage in which the newly wedded royal pair were returning to the palace. A bomb was lobbed from a third floor window, engulfing the carriage in smoke. The new Queen's bridal gown was spattered with the blood of a decapitated guardsman. Twenty-four men were killed, more than 100 wounded, and the future King George V noted ruefully in his diary that lunch was delayed until well after 3 pm.!

Alfonso's Wedding Plans
In Accordance With Spanish Etiquette

Will Send an Envoy to Ask the Hand

of Princess Ena of Battenberg

Special Cable to The Herald—

LONDON, Feb. 3.— Already interest is being manifested in the forthcoming marriage of King Alfonso and Princess Ena of Battenberg. The preliminaries, will, in accordance with Spanish etiquette, be as follows:

An ambassador extraordinary with plenary powers will come to England to demand the hand of the princess. The matrimonial contract will be drawn up, read and signed in London. It will be ratified by King Edward and King Alfonso.

It is practically certain that Princess Ena will enter Spain from the north at Iran, where she will be met  by the Chief Majordomo of the palace in behalf of King Alfonso, as well as municipal and military authorities and the British ambassador, who will first present Princess Ena and her mother, and then their suite, to the Spanish authorities.

The Princess and her mother will then proceed to the palace at El Pardo, seven miles from Madrid, where they will remain for six days before the wedding. They will then be met there by King Alfonso and the Queen mother. Two days before the wedding there will be a solemn reading of the marriage treaty, which is practically equivalent to a betrothal.

On the wedding day, the Princess will leave El Pardo early, in strict incognito, without escort of any kind. King Alfonso and two adjutants on horseback will join her in the neighborhood of El Pardo and accompany her to the entrance of the city. The Princess will then be robed in a building which has not yet been selected, where the trousseau will have been exhibited. She will preserve her incognito until she enters the gala carriage to go to the church.

According to the etiquette of the Spanish court, all the articles of the trousseau will be exhibited, even to the most minute details of the household linen. The dresses will be on lay figures and the jewelry and other articles in glass cases under the care of halberdiers. Entrance to the exhibition will be free to all classes. — The Los Angeles Herald, Feb. 1906

Etiquette Enthusiast Maura J Graber is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette of French, British and Spanish Beverages

What is it about the French coffee?  The coffee sweetened with that sparkling beet-root sugar which ornaments a French table, is the celebrated café-au-lait, the name of which has gone round the world. 

We are not about to enter into the merits of the great tea-and-coffee controversy, further than in our general caution concerning them in the chapter on Healthful Drinks; but we now proceed to treat of them as actual existences, and speak only of the modes of making the best of them. The French coffee is reputed the best in the world; and a thousand voices have asked, What is it about the French coffee?

In the first place, then, the French coffee is coffee, and not chickory, or rye, or beans, or peas. In the second place, it is freshly roasted, whenever made—roasted with great care and eveness in a little revolving cylinder which makes part of the furniture of every kitchen, and which keeps in the aroma of the berry. 

It is never overdone, so as to destroy the coffee-flavor, which is in nine cases out of ten the fault of the coffee we meet with. Then it is ground, and placed in a coffee-pot with a filter through which, when it has yielded up its life to the boiling water poured upon it, the delicious extract percolates in clear drops, the coffee-pot standing on a heated stove to maintain the temperature. The nose of the coffee-pot is stopped up to prevent the escape of the aroma during this process. The extract thus obtained is a perfectly clear, dark fluid, known as café noir, or black coffee. 

It is black only because of its strength, being in fact almost the very essential oil of coffee. A table-spoonful of this in boiled milk would make what is ordinarily called a strong cup of coffee. The boiled milk is prepared with no less care. It must be fresh and new, not merely warmed or even brought to the boiling-point, but slowly simmered till it attains a thick, creamy richness. The coffee mixed with this, and sweetened with that sparkling beet-root sugar which ornaments a French table, is the celebrated café-au-lait, the name of which has gone round the world. 

From 1869: "Chocolate is a French and Spanish article, and one seldom served on American tables." ··· In 1502, Christopher Columbus was the first European to taste cocoa on his fourth voyage to the New World, returned to Europe with the first cocoa beans. Records from the time suggest that recognizing its potential, he took a load of cocoa beans back to Spain.

As we look to France for the best coffee, so we must look to England for the perfection of tea. The tea-kettle is as much an English institution as aristocracy or the Prayer-Book; and when one wants to know exactly how tea should he made, one has only to ask how a fine old English house-keeper makes it. 

The first article of her faith is, that the water must not merely be hot, not merely have boiled a few moments since, but be actually boiling at the moment it touches the tea. Hence, though servants in England are vastly better trained than with us, this delicate mystery is seldom left to their hands. Tea-making belongs to the drawing-room, and high-born ladies preside at the bubbling and loud hissing urn, and see that all due rites and solemnities are properly performed—that the cups are hot, and that the infused tea waits the exact time before the libations commence.

Of late, the introduction of English breakfast-tea has raised a new sect among the tea-drinkers, reversing some of the old canons. Breakfast-tea must be boiled! Unlike the delicate article of olden time, which required only a momentary infusion to develop its richness, this requires a longer and severer treatment to bring out its strength—thus confusing all the established usages, and throwing the work into the hands of the cook in the kitchen. 

The faults of tea, as too commonly found at our hotels and boarding-houses, are, that it is made in every way the reverse of what it should be. The water is hot, perhaps, but not boiling; the tea has a general flat, stale, smoky taste, devoid of life or spirit; and it is served usually with thin milk, instead of cream. Cream is an essential to the richness of tea as of coffee. Lacking cream, boiled milk is better than cold.

Chocolate is a French and Spanish article, and one seldom served on American tables. We in America, however, make an article every way equal to any which can be imported from Paris, and he who buys the best vanilla-chocolate may rest assured that no foreign land can furnish anything better. A very rich and delicious beverage may be made by dissolving this in milk, slowly boiled down after the French fashion. –From Catharine Beecher's and Harriet Beecher Stowe's, 1869, “American Woman's Home"

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia