Yvonne Vidal is well suited to understanding the issues that foreigners can encounter when coming to live or work in Spain. A daughter of Spanish parents, yet born and educated in the UK, during her 40-year career, she has worked for Spanish administration, the British Embassy as well as in private industry.
During the interview, Yvonne points out that Spain is a fantastic country that welcomes people from all countries to come and live or use as their base work to work from; however, for foreigners, the practicality of doing so can seem overwhelming.
This is not only because of the language disparity but also due to the inherent cultural differences.
One simple example relates to working hours; for example, in Spain, the morning is generally considered to last until 2 p.m. and the afternoon to 8 p.m., whereas generally, the morning in northern Europe only lasts until 12 a.m. and the afternoon until 6 p.m. This can cause havoc if you are a northern European trying to organise your daily schedule.