MOUNT VERNON — This school year, a group of students from Mount Vernon Nazarene University discovered that learning Spanish in a classroom in the United States is not quite the same as learning it a Spanish-speaking country. They spent four months in Costa Rica, polishing their language skills and learning about the Latin American culture.

Jeremy Ketterman of Toledo said he thought he knew what he was doing while learning Spanish in the classroom. Then he got to Costa Rica and “realized I didn’t know half of what I thought I did.”

“It’s really different telling your Spanish class about what you did over the weekend than trying to explain to your Costa Rican host family how the American government and economic systems work,” he said. “At first, there was a language barrier because I wasn’t used to having to speak and understand so much Spanish so quickly. But I got better, and once I learned some of their phrases and slang, it made things easier. I broke that barrier by talking to my host family as much as I could about as many different things as I could.”

Westerville’s Lindsay Brown has studied Spanish in school since eighth grade and thought she spoke Spanish pretty well. Then she arrived in Costa Rica.

“Once you get there and hear the native speakers,” she said, “ it’s a totally different feeling. It takes lots of listening practice everyday, and believe me there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t feel foolish at some point. I loved it.”

At the beginning, Melissa Shannon, Fredericktown, kept her Spanish dictionary at her side constantly, but rapidly gained confidence as she spoke to her Costa Rican host family.

“I know that I learned most of my Spanish just speaking to the people of Costa Rica,” she said. “Obviously you don’t want to just go up to anyone and start speaking, but my Tico (Costa Rican) parents would have people come over and I would speak with them. I also had neighbors that were willing to speak with me. It was really reassuring when they would speak to me because that made me feel like they really wanted to help me learn their language.”

The students also had to adjust to a diet without hamburgers and hot dogs. Brown said in Costa Rica they have rice and beans for lunch and beans and rice for dinner, and for breakfast they have gallo pinto — a traditional dish consisting of rice and beans. Although similar to Mexican food, the students said Costa Rican beans and rice are not as spicy. Arroz con pollo, rice with chicken, was another frequently encountered dish. Ketterman said the food was generally fresher than in the States.

“In my house, if it was cooked,” he said, “you ate it.”

Howard resident Enid Tidyman agreed.

“Whatever we ate for dinner, we ate the leftovers the next day for lunch. We always ate fresh food, and had little snacks in the house.”

Coffee is the favorite beverage in Costa Rica, Tidyman said.

“I miss the coffee a lot,” she said. “Our coffee here in Ohio is no where near as good as theirs. Everyday I would have cafecito with my host mom. This was a time in the afternoon when we would drink a cup of coffee together and have a snack. I loved this time of day. It helped to wake me up in the afternoons and my host mom and I were able to talk a lot. My 5-year--old Costa Rican brother even drank coffee with us and had a snack. Coffee was also served at breakfast. Coffee, in a way, helped bond us.”

Getting around in San Jose could be challenging. Taking a taxi or bus is the predominate means of transportation.

“Buses are everywhere,” Shannon said. “You have to be careful crossing the street. One of the first weeks we were down there, a Tica (a Costa Rican woman) was taking five of us across the main highway in San Jose. She just zoomed across the street, leaving us stranded in the middle of the city’s busiest highway. We were definitely scared, and eventually, a few cares stopped to let the gringos (white North Americas) cross the street. It was definitely a scary event.”

In spite of the speed demons on the highways, Shannon said the general life style is more laid back than the American pace of life.

“My Tica family did not take siestas,” she explained, “but they went to bed around 8 p.m. and would wake up really early in the morning. They told me I slept in, even though I would always get up by 7:30.”

Tidyman also found Costa Rica more relaxed.

“They are a much more laid back society,” she said. “They are not worried about being on time. They say that to show up on time is rude. They call the fact that they are late everywhere ‘Tico time.’ ( The Costa Ricans call themselves Ticos.) ... They weren’t too worried about being late somewhere, and plans were always changing. This drove us (MVNU students) crazy, because we are so used to being organized.”

Living in a predominately Catholic country was also a different experience for the students.

“The Costa Rican Catholic heritage and various religious beliefs are very evident in their culture,” Tidyman said. “For one thing, abortion is illegal, and they would never dream of making it legal. Also, small statues and various Catholic statues are evident in all Catholic homes. You would see people make the Sign of the Cross as they passed a Catholic church.”

The main thing that impacted Tidyman about their Catholicism, she said, was when the MVNU group went to La Basilica, a very large church in Cartago.

“There, they believe that the virgin who protects Costa Rica can be found. You would walk in and see people walking down the aisle on their knees, begging for the virgin to heal and protect them.”

The MVNU students also took part in a service learning project while they were in Costa Rica. They worked with Roblealto, a service organization focusing on impoverished Costa Rican children who live in high risk social conditions. (Children under the age of 15 make up 35.4 percent of Costa Rica’s population.) The MVNU students worked in three daycare centers, helping children who se parents couldn’t afford to feed them.

Ketterman said a lot of the children were also being abused in some way or another by someone in their family. Roblealto estimates there are 2,000 girl prostitutes between the ages of 10 and 12 years of age in San Jose alone. Boys also are sexually exploited. The Costa Rican Child Protection Agency said 80 percent of those children who prostitute themselves had been sexually abused by members of their own family. In addition to the sexual abuse, the extremely impoverished children are subject to work exploitation and the lack of educational and recreational resources.

Shannon didn’t work directly with the children, but worked in the offices translating Spanish to English.

“That was interesting,” she said, “because I could see the passion that these (Roblealto) people had for these children and it made my heart break. This is a third world country and these people probably have hardly anything, but they are doing whatever they can in order to make sure these kids have a home, food, and an education. It definitely made me feel that I take too much for granted here in the United States.”

Tidyman worked in a daycare center in one of the poorer, less safe parts of San Jose.

“Hearing the kids’ stories, all you want to do is to hug all of them — just to let them know that they are loved and that life can get better. ... Costa Rica is a beautiful country that has the ability to teach a person a great deal — not only through meeting the people, but also by viewing the gorgeous countryside.

“I think many times in the States we develop very egocentric attitudes and forget about the other countries of the world. Many people probably don’t even know where Costa Rica is, and many probably would tend to confuse it with Puerto Rico. I think that we, as Americans need to remember that there are other cultures in the world that have the ability to influence our lives positively. I think in the future, due to the large number of Latin Americans here in the U.S., their culture is going to begin to influence ours in an even larger way,” she said.

Other MVNU students included Chad Bolender, Jill Headly, Clay Tocheff, Halle Learned, Christina Brayton, Amber King, Amanda Watkins, Crystal Bidwell, Erika Edwards, Kristem Walter and Amy Williams.