Estoy Aprendiendo Espanol!

Tomorrow is my last day in Spanish school. I have had a busy week filling my brain with new vocabulary, verb conjugations and spending my evenings doing homework instead of reading novels.

I spent a week attending Spanish lessons 4 hours/day at the Samara Intercutura Language school. It is a completely immersive school meaning they only speak Spanish in the classes and student are only allowed to speak Spanish with the instructors and each other. If you want to speak your native language you need to leave campus. They believe people pickup languages faster and develop better skills this way.....and the students are from all over the world and the whole class doesn't speak the same language anyway. My class has two girls from Switzerland, one girl from Germany, one girl from Vancouver and a guy from England.

Samara Intercultura Language School

I took a "Spanish for Travelers" class in Calgary this Fall and thank goodness.....my teacher in Calgary was really excellent and since it was such small class we learned a lot. I would have been completely and utterly lost had I shown up at this school without a word of Spanish in my head other then cervesa and banos.  They interview you in Spanish on the first day and place you in a class based on your Spanish conversational skills...not your knowledge so much as your ability to actually use it. I understood a lot of what he was asking me but didn't have the skills to answer him very well so I was placed in the beginner class. I, surprisingly enough, understand about 90% of what the teacher is saying...more than enough to get by and figure it out. We all have a Spanish/English dictionaries to look up anything we don't understand.

View of the beach right outside the school campus

My Spanish has improved so so much, especially my vocabulary. You learn tons of words being in an immersion program that you wouldn't learn in one where the instructors speak English. My ability to use what I know has improved exponentially too. It's been a great experience and I'll get to keep practicing throughout the rest of my trip. Saturday is sadly my last day in Costa Rica as I fly into Guatemala on Sunday.

I'm sad to go. This place is right up my alley. It's really beautiful here: sunny, hot and humid! The ocean is warm, the food is good and the people are really friendly. Me gusta Costa Rica!

Walking home after school.

Sunset view from my balcony.