I love Spain. To be fair, I've never been anywhere other than Barcelona but the people are just wonderful. Very warm, forgiving of my awful Spanish, and very often look like they just heard a great joke and are about to burst out laughing (or perhaps they're just laughing at my awful Spanish, who knows). That said, there are a few things that we Americans say which don't work when you use them in conversation over here.
The first is the standard business school question, "Where do you/did you work?” In America, it is understood that this question is asked to find out what company/kind of company you worked for and in some mercenary cases, to determine if you're of any help as a contact. In Spain, if you ask this question, you get the very sensible response "I work in Spain".
The second saying that just doesn't work here is the expression "No kidding". Americans understand that this phrase is basically meaningless. It shows that you're following the flow of the conversation and perhaps that something you just heard is mildly surprising to you. In Spain if you use this expression, the conversation stops abruptly and your counterpart says almost invariably "No, I am not kidding". Usually with a mildly offended look on their face. Getting this response from my professor for the second time today gave me a mild case of the giggles in the middle of our class on business in the EU. I love learning the nuances of life in different cultures and these little things are what make me appreciate both where I am and where I have been even more than usual.
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