An Amazing Experience

Even though I was going to Costa Rica with 3 other people from my university, I was extremely anxious as I had not taken Spanish since I was 10. I was worried that my homestay would be awkward or I would resort to just speaking English while I was there.

When I arrived at my homestay, I already realized that I had nothing to be worried about. I lived with an absolutely amazing family who actively encouraged me to practice speaking Spanish. They spoke clearly and used vocabulary that was at my level. When I spoke, they waited patiently and only when I finished my sentence would they correct anything or figure out another way to express my thoughts. Without my host family, I absolutely would not have come out as confident as I am now with just trying to speak as much as I can, even if I am self-conscious about how I sound or how grammatically incorrect I am. I also shared the house with my fellow colleague and both of us worked together to figure out how to say things and it made the experience that much more meaningful.

My classes at Maximo Nivel were incredible. Not to say that it wasn't hard, at times it was incredibly frustrating as I only had 3 weeks and I was learning a ton of grammar in that short period of time. However, I put time into practicing whatever grammar I had just learned with short narratives about my day with my teacher, Alejandra, and she would patiently listen and work with me to correct anything that was blatantly wrong. This alone helped my confidence and my knowledge considerably. My teacher was incredibly patient with me and changed tactics to fit my learning style. While we did learn from the Medical Spanish book, she made sure that she spent time just conversing with me in Spanish because that was where I wanted to improve the most.

I cannot say enough about how much I loved this experience. If there is time in the future, I will absolutely come back to improve my Spanish more. Even now, I still continue to practice my Spanish with my teacher and my host family, and I think that speaks a lot to what kinds of people are a part of this program.