Julie has been out of school for two decades, and Nicole has been out for more than a decade. So we were a bit apprehensive about Spanish classes. We needn’t have been.
We spent two nice weeks at Manuel Antonio Spanish School, colocated with Hostel Plinio, where we rented an apartment with a mini=kitchen. Our class ended up being just three people - Nicole, Julie and our new friend Mike. Our teacher Karen had moved from Nicaragua to Costa Rica about five years earlier and was a very good teacher.
We had class from 9 am to 1 pm every day with two fifteen minute breaks. We’d have about a half hour of homework per night. We focused more on vocabulary than on grammar, though we did learn both. Nicole’s vocabulary is bigger than Julie’s, probably because she watches many Spanish TikTok’s (with subtitles). Julie has always struggled to learn vocabulary in foreign languages, though seven years of Latin means that the grammar is more intuitive.
The focus was on conversation. If we got off-topic, it was fine; so long as we were telling a story or discussing something in Spanish, Karen would draw us out.
Rebecca runs the school. She came to Costa Rica from Ireland after college and never left. She started the school with her husband Daniel, who also teaches there. She arranged lots of cool tours for us — from visiting a bee keeper on his farm to kayaking in the mangroves and touring the national park.
We only got stung a couple of times at the bee farm…
Rebecca also organizes social activities and connects students to the community. We really got.a feel for Quepos and Manuel Antonio in a way most tourists don’t.
On Monday nights, Rebecca runs a board game evening for school students and community members for students to improve their Spanish and for community members to improve their English. Julie (a word-game affectionado) decimated everyone in the Boggle round where either English or Spanishh was allowed; but she struggled and the game was quite fair when only Spanish was allowed. The set was with Spanish letters (e.g. ñ and ll). We’re planning to get such a set for ourselves.
On Tuesdays, Rebecca leads a hike to one of two hidden beaches for students. See Nicole’s blog about this in particular.
On Wednesdays, Daniel goes to Latin dance lessons and encourages students to join. (We almost did both weeks but never made it.)
On Thursdays, Rebecca goes to trivia in English with the ex-pat community, and we’re all invited. The first week, our team (Rebecca, Julie and Nicole) “The Snuggling Sloths!!!!!” won the night, though only three teams attended. The first set of questions was Star Wars or Star Trek, so Nicole shone. The second week, there were more teams. We had a team of six (now called the Studios Sloths or Perisosos Estudiosos) including our teacher Karen, another student, and a college student who was doing an internship in the area. We did win one round but lost the evening.
On Fridays, Rebecca and Daniel brought the students to the local farmers market. We got to taste lots of local fruits that we’d never heard of and some we were more familiar with. Julie has loved rambutan (mamon chiné in Spanish) since her time in Thailand, and it was in season in Costa Rica. We each enjoyed our own young coconut to drink the water from -- a “pipa” Our bee farmer was there.. Julie attended both weeks, but Nicole only went the first week and then left with Mike (our classmate) and his wife Diana to go to arial yoga. She’s now hooked and wants to do it in Seattle.
We’d practiced Spanish a tiny bit before coming to Costa Rica, mostly playing our favorite game “Hanabi” in Spanish and calling it Spaniabi. Nicole also keeps her phone in Spanish mode. But in the week before we started the Spanish school, we barely used our limited Spanish Once we started school, we were using it when we could. Waiters and uber drivers would talk to us in English by default, but they were happy to help us practice our Spanish and would correct and teach us. We had guides our last week who spent 2/3 of their time talking in (slow, basic) Spanish and translating into English as needed. Reading bilingual signs in both languages its also a very good practice.
We questioned how much we’ve learned, sInce everyone in the tourists hubs speaks English and would usually default to It with us. We had already decided we’re going to do another week of Spanish lessons in Merida Mexico in November. We did a Zoom interview with one of their teachers on one of our last days win Costa Rica. It proved infinitely easier and flowed much better than our similar Zoom before our trip. We both have a ton still to learn (including past tense) but we’ve definitely come a long way.
We have just arrived in Mexico. They speak faster, so it’ll be more of a challenge. It’s hard enough to understand Costa Ricans when they talk amongst themelves. But it’ll be a good challenge. Hopefully they’ll be as patient and helpful with us. We’ll also be in less touristy places, so we should have more opportunities — and more of a need — to practice.
