Learning from Costa Rica:
High school spanish class
travels to Central America
By Sarah Kirchner, Albert Lea
TribuneT
Imagine your classroom set in
the middle of the jungle where
the climate is always warm and
wild animals roam next to you as
you learn Spanish. Or maybe your
Spanish class is set on the
beach soaking up the sun or atop
a dormant volcano looking down
on the rest of the world.
These are some of the
experiences Spanish students
from Albert Lea High School had
during their trip to Costa Rica
earlier this month.
Students first set foot in Costa
Rica on June 12 and were
immediately immersed in the
culture and language. The first
three nights in the country were
spent with host families — most
of which spoke solely Spanish —
in the capital, San Jose.
The Spanish language skills of
the students ranged from two to
five years, so some students
struggled, but having the
opportunity to be completely
consumed by the culture and the
language is the best way to
learn.
“It’s completely different from
the classroom,” said junior
Jessica Malepsy.
Spanish instructor Gayle
Brownlow said students went into
the homes nervous but the
morning after their first night
they were excited about the new
people they had met. After a few
days she noticed more Spanish
being spoken casually among the
group.
“You had a lot that you wanted
to say, but you didn’t know the
words,” said recent ALHS
graduate Kyra Danneker of her
experience with the home stays.
She said staying with families
in San Jose was when she got the
most use out of her
Spanish-speaking skills.
Twenty-five students, eight
chaperones and three instructors
took the excursion to the
Central American country.
Events in San Jose included an
aerial tram excursion, a tour of
Cafe Britt, hiking to the
dormant Poas Volcano with a stop
at the La Paz Waterfall and then
a nature hike in the Tirimbina
Forest Reserve and a Sarapiqui
River wildlife watch. The
students also drove through the
Braulio Carrillo Cloud Forest
National Park and had lunch at
the Hotel Bambu in Puerto Viejo
De Sarapiqui.
That was only half their trip.
They then went to La Fortuna and
had the opportunity to take a
canopy tour of the rain forest
via a zip line. Students could
view different levels of the
rain forest while dangling from
a chord in the air. After a day
flying through the tropics, the
group took a relaxing dip in the
Baldi Thermal Baths.
Tom Delano, a recent ALHS
graduate, said one difference he
noticed between the United
States and Costa Rica was the
effort Costa Ricans put into
preserving their wildlife and
rain forest, with nearly 50
percent of their land preserved.
“Over there they have a
different sense of importance of
their land,” he said.
The group’s tour guide gave
tidbits about the environment
and preservation throughout the
entire trip, further emphasizing
the focus on conservation.
“It really helped knowing what
they have there so we can start
to learn what we have here,”
Malepsy said.
The fifth day the Spanish class
want to the Danaus Biological
Reserve and saw wild animals and
plants. They then continued on
to the Tarcoles River to see
crocodiles and finally arrived
at Manuel Antonio. The next day
the group visited the Manuel
Antonio National Park.
Danneker said she really enjoyed
visiting the rural areas of the
country to see how the people
lived.
On the seventh day students
visited the Carara National Park
for a nature walk. They then
traveled to Moravia, did some
shopping and ended up in San
Jose where they would end their
trip.
Delano said the country’s
shopping habits were interesting
and different from those in
Albert Lea.
“It’s not overrun by major
corporations yet,” he said.
“They had little distinct shops
for everything.”
Students had a scavenger hunt
one day where they were to go to
the market with the mission of
purchasing a piece of food. The
shopkeepers often did not speak
English, and the students had to
deal with Costa Rican money.
Students returned to Minnesota
June 19.
“We really came out with a lot
of information,” Brownlow said.
It was Delano’s first time
traveling out of the country and
one lesson he learned was that
we’re all just humans.
“Even though we look different
and speak different, people are
still the same ... The culture
was different but they’re still
humans,” he said.
Danneker had traveled the United
States before, but she said
going to a developing country
changed her view of her own
life.
“It really opened my eyes to how
fortunate we are here,” she
said.
Learning Spanish in Costa Rica
gave local students life lessons
in addition to a better
understanding of how to
conjugate a verb.
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