5 Good Manners for Spanish Learners

These five behaviors are important good manners for kids learning Spanish.

Whether you are teaching an elementary Spanish class or passing on Spanish to your children, it is important to teach children good manners. We all teach kids to say gracias and por favor, but there are culturally appropriate behaviors that children need to know.

These five behaviors are considered good manners throughout Latin America. Of course, these are good manners in the U.S too, but they not given as much attention because the opposite behavior is not considered particularly rude. In Spanish-speaking countries, however, the opposite behavior is negative and can change the impression people have of children (and adults!).

All of these good manners can be practiced by children regardless of language level.

Good Manners to Teach Kids Learning Spanish

  1. When you hand something to someone, put it directly into her hand. Do not toss things at people.
  2. Keep your feet on the floor. Do not put your feet on chairs.
  3. When you move away from a group of people or leave a room, say con permiso. Do not just walk away.
  4. If someone sneezes, say salud. If you sneeze and someone says salud, say gracias.
  5. When you arrive, greet everyone. When you leave, say goodbye to everyone. In both cases, maintain eye contact and smile.

There are lots of resources for teaching children good manners in Spanish. Many polite behaviors also involve language. Here you will find resources for teaching polite expressions, including books and a song.  There are also YouTube videos that teach polite behavior. DisneyJuniorLA has a cute series of very short videos called ¿Educamos el cocodrilo? You can see an example about manners in class here and there are others available too.

In my experience, kids are interested in what is considered polite behavior in different cultures, and they want to learn to act appropriately. We work hard teaching them to use Spanish. It is important that they also know how to interact so that others are comfortable and they can make the most of the language they have learned.

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8 Comments

  • Elizabeth

    Nov 7, 2014

    I work for a sports organization. Once upon a time, there was a coach who made all of the players shake hands with the entire coaching staff when they arrived before going out to training. When the person was telling the story, he was so perplexed, but I started nodding and he asked, “why did he do that?” My response was simply: “It’s good manners. It’s definitely a Latino thing, but you’ll see, when you meet my kids, they’re going to immediately shake your hand.”

  • Sandra Rosero

    Nov 8, 2014

    Very useful post! I noticed by reading it how we think of people leaving a group conversation without saying, ya vuelvo, o con permiso being rude. Thanks for sharing such an insightful content!

  • Jenny

    Nov 8, 2014

    That is a great example! It is so important to acknowledge everyone.

  • Sarah @ Bringing up Baby Bilingual

    Nov 17, 2014

    This is very helpful to me as the American mom of two children in a Spanish-English dual immersion school–gracias!

    A related question: what is the most polite way for children to address adults? At the school, all the teachers, and even the principal, go by their first names. Is this typical?

  • Jenny

    Nov 17, 2014

    Such a good question! I would say that Señora or Maestra with a last name (or sometimes a first name) is probably more common. Fun for Spanish Teachers asked this question on her facebook page and got lots of different responses. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/FunforSpanishTeachers/posts/10152175154906792

  • Sarah @ Bringing up Baby Bilingual

    Nov 19, 2014

    Gracias, Jenny! It just strikes me as somewhat disrespectful to address a public school teacher by her first name, but everyone seems fine with it at school.

    That’s a fun link–I especially liked “Miss Señora Spanish Teacher”!

  • Jenny

    Nov 19, 2014

    I have to agree that using first names wouldn’t be my first choice. Do they teach them to address them with Ud? That would be a kind of strange combination linguistically.

  • Sarah @ Bringing up Baby Bilingual

    Nov 25, 2014

    No, I don’t think so–just the informal you.