Speaking the Language

5/27/14

Tonight I realized something I think I already knew, but let’s just call it an AHAH moment.  What I realized is that talking, or communicating is not solely verbally saying words.  Communicating includes verbal words, facial expressions, body language, hand gestures, and activating prior knowledge. 

The information, I had been given about my second host family stated that my papa tico works at the cheese factory, which is a major part of the success of Monte Verde.  I found this ironic, since my dad has worked at KRAFT cheese factory in Springfield for my entire life, and longer.  Tonight, at dinner, I decided to ask my papa tico, about his job at the cheese factory in Costa Rica.  I could not understand all of the words, but through body language, understanding key words, and gestures, I was able to understand that after 20 years working there, he had been laid off because the factory stopped making some of their products and sold the rights to the products to another company.  This all made since to me because I am aware that KRAFT has done similar business transactions in the past.  I was able to also use prior knowledge, to help me understand the situation, and I felt very embarrassed for bringing it up.  However, communication often includes negatives as well as positive, and communication is often the only way to learn new information.

For as long as I can remember, I have talked with my hands.  So much that when I was a little girl, I remember my grandmother telling me that if they cut off my hands, I would not be able to talk.  Today, I have become so grateful for this trait, because it has helped me communicate here in Costa Rica. 

In our studies, we are learning several stages of learning that apply to learning a new language.  One important stage is trust.  If you do not trust someone, it is hard to communicate.  Being put into a family I have never met, has proved difficult for the trust, because trust is something that has to be built and or earned.  A base level of trust has been here from the beginning, because through a chain of command, so to speak, there is trust.  I trust my professors, who trust the organization that arranges the homestays, who trust the families who participate, because they have all been hosting students with them for at least ten years.  So, the base trust is there and every day that I spend more time with my host family, and speak to them a little bit more Spanish every day, I begin to trust them more and more, and in return, I feel comfortable speaking more and more Spanish, as I learn it in the language school.

By the way, I so not have internet access at my home, so the blog posts have become few and far between, depending on the amount of free time we get at the language school.