More Spanish

Mandala design in the Costa Rica ox cart

This blog entry is especially written for my art colleagues.  The typical symbol of Costa Rica is the ox cart.  Before buses and trucks, coffee would travel for trade in ox carts.  Now they are decorative in nature, and are a symbol of Costa Rica’s cultural heritage.  We visited the Alfaro Factory in Sarchi, where the craftsmen make these carts by hand with the help of a water mill.   We were able to see several wood pieces at different stages in creation.  A gentleman was painting one of the ox carts, and told us that the painting would take a couple weeks to complete.  I was enthralled with the intricate decorations, and wondered out loud how he was able to keep such perfect symmetry with the execution of his design.  Hannah, one of our traveling students, told me that this was possible because it was a Mandala pattern.  She went on to explain how a portion of the design is created and then repeated over, and over so that the pattern is duplicated in a seamless manner.  Thanks to our great Art Department for that teachable moment!  A true cross-curricular moment :)  

Costa Rica, part two

Las Nubes Primary School

The fourth day of our trip took us to a rural school in the community of Las Nubes, Costa Rica.  Our guide, Alonso explained to our students about the free compulsory educational system in Costa Rica on the bus ride to the school visit.  All children have access to a primary school from grades 1-6 in their town (no matter how small).  The students will then move on to 3 more years of high school.  Depending on where the students live, there could be some travel to reach the school.  At the end of the 3rd year, students may chose to work full time or continue on with their education.

The town of Las Nubes has 40 families and 20 of the families have children in school.  There is one teacher, Alexander, at this school.  The school’s roof had been damaged due to a natural disaster last year, so classes were being held in a large hall.  The Costa Rican children prepared four traditional dances that they presented to our traveling students.  After the presentation, our kids taught them a couple of cheers.  All students had free time after that, and the interaction between the primary students and our high school kids was so much fun to watch.  At first, our students were shy and tongue-tied.  By the end of the visit, they were talking, playing soccer and volleyball, teaching each other circle and clapping games and using Spanish without any adult help to make themselves understood. 

From an educational point of view, this was one of the highlights of the trip.  Our students, who attend a very nice & large public school in the suburbs had a first hand experience with a small rural school system.  Students practiced using the language in a fairly non-threatening environment. Several of the circle and clapping games that the Costa Rican children taught our students were similar to the games our high schoolers played in elementary school or in camp except, of course, for the rhyming verses. All this opportunity to play provided our students with a sense of kinship to these Costa Rican children. 

Costa Rica, part one

Student Use of Spanish for Commerce

We just got back from a ten day trip to Costa Rica.  To say it was a good trip would be an understatement.  My colleague and Department Chair John English organized this yearly event.  This was his 10th trip to Costa Rica, and he has traveling with students down to a science.  I have encouraged him to put together a guide book and try to market it to a company like EF tours or Teacher’s Discovery.  I believe a first time traveling teacher would benefit from his organizational procedures and tips.

John requested Alonso Madrigal, Vice-President of Elemento Natural, to be our guide.  Alonso has worked with John for the last 5 tours, and I certainly understand why John keeps requesting him.  Alonso is great with teens, has an incredible knowledge about the flora and fauna of his country and navigated the administrative components to this tour seamlessly. 

There is really so much to share that I will need to write a couple of posts to cover the experience.  Today I want to share my excitement upon seeing my students use the language for commerce.  Most students were fairly comfortable using expressions of general courtesy from the start. In order to increase their comfort level and challenge them to use the language, John and Alonso organized a scavenger hunt the first afternoon in San José.  As a group we walked four or five blocks down to a large market place that sold a wide range of goods from handicrafts to beef.  The students organized themselves in groups of 3 to 5 and each group was given an item to find, purchase and bring back to share with the others at dinner time.  They were on their own to ask the vendors what the item was (fruit? vegetable? pastry?), where they could buy the item and then to negotiate the purchase.  All students found their foods and many of them tried these after eating their typical meal of rice and bean that night.  By the end of the scavenger hunt, students were confident enough to shop on their own.  A couple of the boys bought soccer jerseys, some of the girls bought some souvenirs for friends, and others bought snacks.  Needless to say, the students didn’t really need any help with shopping the rest of the tour.

Depending on where you live a similar experience could be replicated.  Cincinnati has  several small markets that specialize in traditional Mexican and Central American foods. With the manager’s help, I believe you could create a similar scavenger hunt.  The success of the activity would depend on the employees willingness to only use Spanish with the students as they searched for specific items that the store carries.

Do you have other ideas along these lines?  Have you tried a field trip to a Hispanic market?  Any tips?