Submitted by Racquel Joseph on the 2016 winter session program in Costa Rica sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
Upon visiting a new country, there are many expected social and cultural differences within the nation. Before traveling to Costa Rica, even though it was my first time leaving the United States, I knew that there would be differences between the two countries. In my first few days in Costa Rica, there were definitely dissimilarities, but not the dissimilarities that I had anticipated. Clearly, the meals are not like meals in the United States; however, many products that are used here are the same products in the United States and even have English words on them. Personally, I was not expecting to recognize any products in Costa Rica and never anticipated seeing English on specific products. For example, my host family has a large jar of Planter’s peanut butter on the kitchen table that is written in English. The description of the product is in English as “creamy peanut butter.” I find this somewhat strange because I cannot imagine going to the grocery store and buying a product solely based on its appearance, instead of reading it in my language. On the back of the product, there is a sticker placed on it that describes the ingredients, calorie count, and other nutrition facts in Spanish; it seems that this is their way of compromising.
I imagine that it is cheaper to import items as they are usually packaged instead of converting the whole label into Spanish. Not only are there products that have English, but there are also billboards and restaurants that have English writing. American restaurants like Hooters and Chili’s also exist here, which I did not expect. While in restaurants, I also hear music from the United States, which again surprised me. When discussing this information with my host brother, he said that Costa Rica is very Americanized, which I did not expect.
Before coming to Costa Rica, I knew that their driving would be different, but I had no idea that it would be the way that it is. For example, drivers go very fast throughout the streets and rarely let pedestrians cross in front of them. They also often drive in the middle of the road, which would definitely be a major violation in the U.S. Again, after discussing this with my host brother, he stated that there are actually a very large amount of traffic regulations in Costa Rica, but many of them are not enforced.
For the most part, the differences in culture and habitual differences have not been too far from what I expected, but the few distinct differences described above have been the most surprising to me. I have not felt particularly shocked by the culture, but I have felt more exhausted here than I thought I would. Not only do we walk to class and around the city, but we also must constantly be thinking about how to speak in Spanish in order to talk with our host families and get around in the city. My first night in Costa Rica, I was afraid that I was never going to be able to talk with my host family. Over time, I am getting more and more comfortable speaking with them and learning more vocabulary. I hope that by the end of the trip I can have full-length conversations with my family.