Living & Learning in Barcelona – Jessica McCarty

While Barcelona was an absolute dream to explore, our time in Spain was based on our major entrepreneurship project. Essentially, we had the opportunity to partner with a small business in the area and give them an in-depth social media analysis and recommend some changes that might help them in their business endeavors.
My group got to work with a new restaurant right next to the girls’ apartments called Pacific Coffee & Brunch. Working with the owner and manager, Enric, was an excellent way to see exactly how businesses operate in Spain. We got to see firsthand how Enric?s cultural positioning made him different from us and how his company was unique to him. For example, upon our first meeting, we asked Enric if he wanted to have a big ?Grand Opening? sign to draw in new customers on his first day. He explained to us that he would rather do a ?soft opening? so that he could focus on the quality of his food and service. It made sense with the Spanish culture for him to take things slow and perfect his business model. We were glad he was open to change and eagerly wanted to work with him and give him all of the knowledge we could. While working on the project we got to use things we have learned from our classes at TAMU and combine them with the expertise that Enric provided us with.
We were also glad that Enric spoke English for us to work with us because another obvious yet well-founded challenge was the language barrier. Everyone on this trip had only a few weeks of Duolingo or memories of their high school Spanish classes. Most of us learned as we went and slowly started picking up common words that we frequently saw on menus or metro signs. I would look up phrases and repeat them to everyone as practice. Additionally, the use of nonverbal communication like pointing or gesturing made the biggest difference. The longer I was here the more I understood and utilized the language.
While I could go on about all that I learned and all of the amazing experiences in Barcelona I?ll stop my blog here. This trip will be something that I get to share with my friends and family for years to come and I can?t be more grateful to everyone that made it happen.