Are you the last one?

One of the nicer traits of Spanish (or is it just Catalan, don't really know...) society is .... politenesss. And a certain kind of civil behavior. Now, I am writing this from a German point of view, and while I would say that there are many things that are nice about my country and the people, one thing definitely isn't: They don't know how to queue. Even worse, many (even the younger, well-travelled and well-educated ones) will take pride in how they queue-jump. Worst of all examples is the classic case of a new checkout opening in the supermarket. Certainly people will come running from behind, ramming their carts into your heels, making a total fool of themselves and even turning around with a grin on their face:"Ah, so you weren't fast enough then?" It really makes me want to hit them with their frozen fish fingers.

In Barcelona once a new checkout opens, the cashier will usually shout with a firm voice:"Proceden en orden.": "Come to the checkout according to your position" (really don't know how to translate that better...) So people from the different queues line up for the new queue, first the ones that were first in line, then the ones that were more behind and so on...Of course, there will be the occasional queue-jumper, but in general it works in an educated and respectful way, nothing of the frantic scramble you would experience in other places. I really like that, it just reminds of what I like about this place, there is some inherent sense of "fair play" and "common sense" ("sentido comun" is one of the more commonly used phrases actually...) and real friendliness.

When there is no queue, as in a pharmacy or a bakery, sometimes they will have you pick a number, if not, you just step in and ask for the last one in the "queue": ("Quien es) el último? or in Catalan: L'ultim? Usually the last one will already have waited for you to ask, and sometimes before you can even ask, will wave at you or raise a finger, so you know, ok, it will be my turn after that person. Of course, you will do the some, once another person comes in, as now you will be "El ultimo". So while waiting you can just stand anywhere, browsing around or just daydreaming, your turn will come. It's so easy and so educated, that I really don't know why it is only possible here....