| Although many of Costa Rica's well-educated people speak
English, (and more than 30,000 English-speaking foreigners
live permanently in Costa Rica), Spanish is the official language.
Anyone who seriously plans to live or retire in Costa Rica
should know Spanish the more the better. Frankly, you
will be disadvantaged, handicapped and be considered a foreigner
to some degree without Spanish. Part of the fun of living
in another country is communicating with the local people,
making new friends and enjoying the culture. Speaking Spanish
will enable you to achieve these ends, have a more rewarding
life, and open the door for many new, interesting experiences.
Knowing some Spanish also saves you money when you're shopping
and, in some cases, keeps people from taking advantage of
you.
If you take our advice and choose to study Spanish, you can
enroll at one of Costa Rica's intensive conversational language
schools for a modest fee. Costa Rica has long been a destination
of choice for those wishing to learn Spanish. The majority
of the schools are located in the cities of San José,
Heredia and Alajuela. A few schools are located in beach areas.
Most schools offer programs to fit your specific needs. They
have classes for beginners as well as intermediate and advanced
students. Classes are also offered for business people, teenagers,
children, teachers and other professionals. Many of the schools
are affiliated with U.S. universities, so college students
can receive credit.
In addition to language instruction, most of these schools
offer exciting field trips, interesting activities and room
and board with local families, all of which are optional.
Living with a family that speaks little or preferably
no English is a wonderful way to improve your language
skills, make new friends and learn about Costa Rican culture
at the same time. Please check first with the school of your
choice for current prices.
Spanish is not a difficult language to learn. With a little
selfdiscipline and motivation, anyone can acquire a basic
Spanish survival vocabulary of between 200 and 3,000 words
in a relatively short time. Many Spanish words are similar
enough to English, so you can guess their meanings by just
looking at them. The Spanish alphabet is almost like the English
one, with a few minor exceptions. Pronunciation is easier
than in English because you say words as they look like they
should be said. Spanish grammar is somewhat complicated but
can be made easier if you are familiar with English grammar
and find a good Spanish teacher. Practicing with native speakers
improves your Spanish because you can hear how Spanish is
spoken in everyday conversation. You will learn many new words
and expressions not ordinarily found in your standard dictionary.
Watching Spanish television and listening to the radio and
language cassettes can also improve your Spanish. We suggest
that if you have little or no knowledge of spoken Spanish,
you purchase the one-of-a-kind Christopher Howard's Guide
to Costa Rican Spanish. It is designed especially for
people planning to retire or live in Costa Rica. It makes
learning easy because the student learns the natural way,
by listening and repeating as a child does, without the complications
of grammar. If you are interested in a deeper study of Spanish,
we include a list of language schools at the end of this section.
Need a little motivation to get started learning Spanish
as your second language? The following is from a June 2004
news report: Bilingualism may help keep certain brain functions
working better during normal aging, Canadian psychologists
say.
The researchers compared executive functions,'such as the
ability to ignore distracting information, in 104 monolingual
and bilingual adults aged 30 to 59, and 50 adults aged 60
to 88.
Bilingual adults performed better and the bilingual advantage
increased substantially in those over 60, the researchers
found. The study appears in the June 2004 issue of the Journal
Psychology and Aging.
It shows that a specific experience, bilingualism, has the
ability to modify a central aspect of cognitive functioning
and keep the brain functioning at a higher level as normal
aging inevitably slows us down, said psychology Professor
Ellen Bialystok of York University.
The Spanish spoken in Costa Rica is more or less the same
as standard Castilian Spanish except for one big difference
which confuses beginning students. Spanish has two forms for
addressing a person: usted and tú. However,
in Costa Rica, there is third form: vos. The verb form
used with vos is formed by changing the rat the end
of a verb infinitive to s and adding an accent to the last
syllable. This form is seldom taught because it is considered
a colloquial form, used only in some parts of Central America
and South America (Argentina and Uruguay, for example). It
is not found in most Spanish textbooks. The chart in this
chapter provides an explanation of the use of vos.
Don't worry! Once you live in Costa Rica for a while and
get used to the Costa Rican way of speaking, you will learn
to use the vos form almost automatically. Costa Ricans
appreciate any effort you make to speak their language.
You will notice that Costa Ricans frequently use local expressions
called tiquismos that are not used in other Latin American
countries. Some of these common expressions are pura vida
(fantastic, super, great), tuanis (very good),
buena nota (good, OK), salado (tough luck, too
bad), and many others. If Costa Rica were to have a national
motto, the choice would most certainly be, ¡Pura
Vida! This expression has become so popular you will see
it on T-shirts, in Spanish dictionaries to show appreciation
and mostly for greetings. When used as a greeting it can mean
hello or How are you doing? It can also be used to say good-bye.
When you say, pura vida a person will usually smile.
It can also be used to express joy. The expression is infectious.
Another Costa Rican trait is the common use of don (for
a man) and doña (for a woman) when addressing
a middle-aged or older person formally. These forms are used
with the first name, as in the case of the famous don Juan.
However, you will usually hear the more traditional señor
or señora used instead of don or
doña. Teachers in Costa Rica are addressed as
profesor or maestro, an engineer as ingeniero
and an attorney as licenciado. Using these titles
is a sign of respect, and not to do so is considered rude.
Anyone with a bachelor's degree is also entitled to be addressed
as licenciado.
In Costa Rica, as in the rest of Latin America, the father's
and mother's surname comes after a person's given name. For
example, if Carlos is born to José García López
and Marta Lara Pérez, his complete name would be followed
by his father's first surname and then by his mother's: Carlos
García Lara. All official documents must have both
surnames.
For some basic Spanish phrases and more tiquismos,
see Guide to
Costa Rica Spanish.
Language Schools - Costa
Rica´s Institutions of Higher Learning - Outstanding
Private Schools - Excellent
Books for Learning Spanish - Useful
reference Books - Business
Books
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