Immersion will be my next step in Spanish language acquisition.

 

I know just enough to be understood, not near enough to be truly fluent.

 

And I intend to become fluent.

 

I want to befriend ticos and to feel 100% comfortable chatting with them in their language.

 

I know that a lot of them speak and understand English, but I want to get as good with Spanish as they are with English.

 

Not looking for perfection, looking for connection as a Spanish speaker

 

Being a wordsmith by trade (en ingles), I will strive to become very conversant in Costa Rican espanol, too. There is just the right word with just the right meaning, and I want to be able to pick and choose palabras better than I can now.

 

I know, for example, that Costa Ricans (ticos) don’t use tu as often as Mexican speakers do. Ticos use Usted in nearly all cases (except with intimate partners) as a show of respect.  So, when someone asks, “Como esta Usted?” (“How are you?”) the common response (even if you’re feeling like crap) in CR Spanish is, “Muy bien, gracias, y Usted?”  (not “y tu?“)  (“Very well, thank you — and you?”)   That slight difference might trip me up a time or two, because I memorized “y tu?”  decades ago, so getting rid of it might take some time…

 

But two things that make me feel confident that I can get by upon arrival is that Duolingo says I’m speaking at about the 3rd or 4th grade level — so, I have the understanding of an 8 or 9 year old. By that age, kids are pretty darned fluent in their native tongues.

 

I don’t feel confident that I’m actually that far along, but I do know that when I chatted with a Hispanic custodian at Warner Bros decades ago, he said he could understand everything I wanted to convey but that I sometimes got my tenses wrong. If that’s the worst of my language sins, I’m satisfied that only immersion in situ will take me farther than I already am.

 

And I’m okay with that. I just have to get over feeling embarrassed or hesitant to try to speak Spanish.  I’ve been practicing in silence here for weeks in my head. And I chatted with Spanish speakers during the garage sales I had.  We managed to communicate well enough. They knew some English; I knew some Spanish. Between the two languages, we managed to get our points across and share friendliness and concern.  That’s what counts.

 

I’m excited to begin  immersion.  The closest general store (pulperia) is just 600 meters away from Villas Escondidas.  I will be there a lot pretty much right away because I will need to buy food and perhaps a few other necessities. VE is a hotel: I don’t know if it has refrigerators or stoves or anything like that.  The pulperia may become my refrigerator/stove/soda, if they offer actual meals there.

 

I’m gonna find out pretty soon!

 

I LOVE ADVENTURES!!!