Language & Culture

Almost every day one of my classmates has a story of someone cool they met at the store or talked to on the bus. I feel so inspired to go meet people…until I realize they speak Spanish. It makes me so frustrated.

At first I was thinking that more people speak English in India than speak English in Costa Rica. I don’t know if that’s true. I think the real difference is that in India, none of my teammates spoke Hindi either, so we were all equally dependent on a translator.

I don’t think people here in Costa Rica even understand the concept of “I don’t speak Spanish." The same way we Americans expect everyone in the USA to speak English. They give me a funny look, and just keep talking. Where-as in India, every state has its own language and there are a bunch of different dialects too. Being that we are white Americans, people don’t expect us to understand their language, because we’re obviously not from their neighborhood.