Studying abroad has provided its host of challenges, but the most alienating is being surrounded by native students who also attend Veritas Universidad. The language barrier makes communication difficult, and sometimes scary, but every single time I've taken the leap of faith into a conversation with a Tico, I've emerged on the other side with a feeling of friendship and accomplishment.
One Thursday, I noticed a girl standing alone smoking a cigarette outside Veritas. I approached her timidly, using my little Spanish to ask her name and if maybe I could also have a cigarette. She surprised me by answering in English, and my surprise took the best of me as I began rambling sentences filled with English spoken way too fast. I thought about how I felt when Ticos spoke Spanish ridiculously fast and I was only able to catch the first couple of words, but lost the idea entirely because my translating mind could not keep up with the rapid pace. I immediately slowed my speech and started asking Emy a few basic questions.
My first was how long she had been studying language, because she was extremely talented in her sentence structure and in listening to me when I finally slowed down. She told me she had been studying since she was a young girl, and that when she was a teenager she got a job working as a phone call center receiver in Leon where she had ample opportunity to practice her English. Now, a young woman studying digital animation at Veritas, she was working as a customer service call center receiver for Amazon in San Jose. Her language skills opened doors of opportunity to jobs only available to a knowledgable speaker of English and Spanish, and was very present in her conversation with me.
I asked what was the best tip possible when learning a language, and she answered with, "Practice, practice, practice! Nothing is more important than using what your learning with a native speaker." I smiled and thought back to all the struggles I've had thus far in Costa Rica, and my achievements in applying what I learned in class to my reality.
We left the topic of language, and I learned that Emy was into heavy metal music and we shared some of our favorite artists before she told me she was about to take a taxi home and prepare for her night at work. I thanked her for her time and her cigarette.
My time with Emy filled me with a sense of gratitude for the opportunities available to me. Walking home, I was washed away by my deeper inspiration to become fluent in a foreign language so that one day I would be able to clearly communicate my ideas to a different culture as Emy did with me.
