Aero: Ashley Hager – Costa Rica 2014 – Life at School
Aero: Ashley Hager – Costa Rica 2014 – Life at School
Aero: Ashley Hager – Costa Rica 2014 – Life at School
Ashley Hager
From my experience with schools that I have attended in the United States I thought taking Spanish classes in Costa Rica was going to be similar. When I think of school I think of a big building with lots of classrooms, windows, and desks, and many teachers with lots of technology for teaching methods. However, when we arrived at the school in Alajuela for our first day of class my view of schools had changed. The school in Costa Rica was a small building with a few classrooms and we had one teacher named Jaxiny. The room had a white board and about ten desks for the students. Our Spanish class consisted of six students from Keuka College and our teacher Jaxiny who was a wonderful teacher. Jaxiny knew how to speak a little bit of English which was very helpful in being able to learn the Spanish language. The first day I was very nervous because it had been so long that I had practiced any type of Spanish except for the common words of Gracias, Si, No, and muy bonita. However, in class Jaxiny made learning Spanish very fun. She taught us new vocabulary by playing bingo, and a board game. During bingo we learned that in Costa Rica bingo is traditionally played with black beans, and we learned vocabulary words for clothes and animals. I thought this was a fun way to learn and recognize vocabulary instead of like the schools I have attended in the United States, where they put pictures and vocabulary on the board and we have to take notes all class. We also watched movie clips in Spanish like sleeping beauty and the magic school bus. In addition, we listened to Spanish songs and filled out worksheets with the lyrics. We also played games involving speaking in front of the class. I felt speaking in Spanish in front of the class definitely helped me remember words that I learned in high school four years ago and also helped me learn new words that could be useful throughout my time in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica 2014
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We also had class one day in the lawn of Zoo Ave, which is a rehabilitation zoo where animals are placed when they can no longer be released back into the wild due to injury or abuse. At Zoo Ave Jaxiny had us all sit in a circle in the lawn and we completed a few worksheets based on what we learned in the previous class at the school. This was similar to the teaching methods in the United States because it helped reinforce material that already had been taught. The worksheets taught us new verbs and where accents were in numerous words and where to place tildes. Jaxiny also had us play games in the lawn where we had a lemon race. During the race we had to place a spoon in our mouth and carry the lemon across the lawn. We also had a sac race, and a balloon race where we placed a balloon between our legs, and had to pass it to the next person without touching it with our hands or popping the balloon. I felt like school in Costa Rica was more laid back and it wasn’t a rush to learn material like in the United States. We could all learn at our own pace because we all were at different levels based on how much Spanish we already knew. Jaxiny was an excellent teacher and would correct us if we were wrong or help us when we didn’t know how to say certain words. Overall, life at school was not what I was expecting it was much more than sitting in a classroom and taking notes. I meet some wonderful people and learned a great deal about the Costa Rican culture and the Spanish language by learning inside and outside the classroom.
Learn More: Study abroad with Modern Languages @ FLCC: Costa Rica!
– Ashley Hager
The LEAF Project
www.leaflanguages.org
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