Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The placement test is not very accurate. The majority of students are placed in level one classes. We played wayyyy too many games, I was held back by the structured curriculum that the teachers are told to follow, therefore not progressing at the pace I needed to. I was in a class with someone who knew significantly less Spanish than I did, therefore I had to go at the same slow pace as him. I kept telling the teacher I wanted to go faster, cover more material, I even requested to be moved up a level once I found out there would be no end to the games (scrabble, jinga, word searches, etc) and was promptly moved up a level thankfully. I still found myself catching up very quickly, then being held back because the instructor was reluctant to cover more material than he was told to in one day’s time. My last week there I was just telling my teacher the lesson plan I wanted to follow. As far as grading system, they keep secrets from you, and will never let you know about "grades". They give you these envelopes before you transfer to another campus, and you have to give it to the office and the next campus, but you cannot open it, they told me if the seal is broken, essentially I'm in big trouble. They wouldn’t tell me what was in the envelope, I still don’t know. I got one to take to my next campus every time. At the last campus I was told to take the envelope back with me to the US and give it to the study abroad office (because this program was to get university credit), I asked "what’s in the envelope?" and the academic coordinator got very defensive with me, and wouldn’t say. But I suppose the envelope is my transcript or grades probably. I should have the right to know my grades, but they didn’t make that a readily available option at CPI. Workload was super easy, homework was nothing, ps- you don’t even have to do the homework they assign you over the weekend, my weekend HW was never once gone over by the new teacher I had the following week. And I should mention another thing, don't expect English speaking teachers, the majority don’t know English (including the staff)! So, you use your Spanish or you don’t get anywhere. Some teachers are superb and some are lacking, but after 3 weeks, I figured out that the teachers will do pretty much whatever you ask. If you ask your teacher to learn something specific or a certain topic, they will usually accommodate you (as long as your classmate is cool with it too). Overall, the school has a very chill demeanor; it’s not very intense in the curriculum (I may be biased though because I was in easy classes the entire time, going over stuff I had seen in high school). Some advice: Don't bring too many things like binders, paper, index cards, etc...All you need is a spiral, a couple writing utensils, a folder (the paper ones fall apart in the humidity btw), and a spanish-engish translator. #1 thing to bring is an electronic Spanish English translator, its heavenly (but pack it in your carry on! the x-ray machines at the airport will fry it if it’s in your big luggage!). I bought the 105 Spanish Verbs book that the CPI website recommends, don't bother! It’s a huge book to lug around, and I never once used it. Like I said the class work was not very challenging. Besides you SURROUNDED by Spanish speaking experts! Including your host family, so there is defiantly not a lack of help when it comes to your studies. But if you are going to buy the book, its 0.99 cents on eBay vs. $16-$18 at the bookstore.

On-site administration of your program

Coming from NM and loving Mexican food, I liked CR food, gallo pinto mmmm I met a French girl there thought and she, on the other hand, was quite dissatisfied with the Costa Rican food. But heads up tacos are not tacos! Tacos there are rolled up and fried, not folded. You will see.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I think the key to having a good time, is making friends at the school. If you get a group of friends it is so much better because you will always have someone to tour with, and you can split taxi costs, and your combined Spanish will be way better than if you are alone or just with one other person. The school activities mainly leave at noon or one and if you have afternoon class (the 5.5 hrs a day vs. 4 hours) you will miss basically everything. I didn’t learn until the last week that you can do a library activity to get out of your afternoon class for one day!!! So good to know! With the weekend trips planned by the school, be careful, they give you a vague itinerary and description of the trip, but find out more. Ask what hotel you will be at and how much the hotel charges a night, how much for park entrance fee, etc because we went on a trip to Manuel Antonio beach but the school ripped us off big time. We stayed at this horrible hotel; the pool turned my hair green! And they didn’t have hot water and the next morning they didn’t have water at all! School prob paid around $20 a person for that hotel; they had us sharing rooms too. So we got a terrible hotel, a $10 park entrance fee, and transportation included in the trip and the school charged us $200!!! We put in a complaint and they gave us a ten dollar credit which is hardly anything. So yeah, just make sure the numbers add up, and you get your monies worth for the trips.

The school has these culture activities after class, and one of them is a dinner. So all the students go to one of the staff members, uncle’s restaurant and get dinner. But they tell you to meet at the school at 6:30 or 7:00 at night; it gets dark at 6pm. You do NOT want to be walking alone at night all the way back to the school from your host house! Especially females and they even sent out a notice at the school saying not to walk alone at night, esp females. But then that very night after sending out the notice they tell students that want to do this dinner cultural activity to met at the school past dark. On several occasions I took a taxi from the school to my homestay if I stayed at the school past dark (using the internet, the hot tub at monteverde, whatever). And everyone made fun of me, and the taxi drivers chuckled when I told them I only wanted to drive 3-5 mins away, but whatever, I didn’t care. Esp if its dark and raining! Ps- I brought pepper spray that I carried with me every day. A girl at our school was robbed on her walk home at like 2pm and they stole her back pack which had her laptop in it. Leave your laptop at the school!!! The faculty will let you leave your laptop in their offices.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

No matter what your Spanish will improve phenomenally. BUT when you get back to the states, and don't use your Spanish, you will lose it just as quickly. :( If you’re used to traveling, go for as long as possible, you won’t get homesick. Costa Rica is the most Americanized Latin country.