Aero: Tiffany Bean – Costa Rica 2015 – Learning the Language

Aero: Tiffany Bean – Costa Rica 2015 – Learning the Language
Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

Aero: Tiffany Bean – Costa Rica 2015 – Learning the Language

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Tiffany Bean

Before Costa Rica my Spanish vocabulary was little to nothing. I have taken some Spanish classes before in high school and in college, but when I took those classes I would often feel discouraged and because of this I would not want to learn the language. I thought that when I got to Costa Rica everyone would fluently be speaking Spanish and I thought that I would be left in the dark and not talk to anyone. When I first got to Costa Rica I felt overwhelmed with everyone talking to me in Spanish and even when the Ticos would speak English there accents were hard to understand. The first couple of day I did not really talk much because I was scared to make a mistake and look dumb.

Luckily, I was put with a host family that could speak English and Spanish so they helped me learn new words and with my pronunciation. They taught me that if you pounce a word with a lack of emphasis on a single letter then it could mean something totally different. The first day when we were exploring the city we went in to Professor Kruger friend’s house to get a drink of water. Her friend started talking to me in Spanish and I did not know what she said so all I said was “lo siento” which means I’m sorry so Kruger reminded me to say “no entiendo” which means I do not understand. Learning how to say that was a huge help for the rest of the trip because people would reword things and then I could understand them better and figure out what they were saying. While on the trip I became really good friends with another student Alaiza who could fluently speak Spanish and she helped everyone a lot. Even if Alaiza did not teach me how to say something just listening to her speak in Spanish helped me remember words that I had learned in my past Spanish classes. When we would have a chance to explore the city I would meet new people and talk to them in Spanish and English and they would not really understand what I was saying and Alaiza would be able to jump in and help fill in any gaps in my vocabulary. I practiced a lot of my Spanish on taxi drivers, tour guides, and waiters. When talking to them I did not mind making mistakes because I would not see them again so if I looked dumb I did not have to worry about looking dumb the next time I saw them because there would not be a next time.

ML@FLCC Costa Rica
2015 Flickr Gallery

Once I got over my fear of making mistakes I was able to make great strides in learning Spanish. I learned that people were excited to talk to me and did not really mind that my Spanish was not at their level and they never expected it to be. People even liked talking to me so that they could practice their English. By the end of the trip I could speak more Spanish than before and I was able to understand what people were saying to me in Spanish. I got so used to speaking in Spanish that once I got home that switching back to “please”, “thank you”, and “you’re welcome” in English took some practice.

Tiffany Bean
LEAF Contributor