Culture Shock

And advice that we could give to foreigners is to be friendly, try to get used to the culture, it is important to adapt to our foods so if a foreigner wants to come to Costa Rica he/ she should try our foods, I mean start eating different. Another important advice is to get informed about our laws our behavior. In addition is common in Cost Rica to greet someone with a kiss the firs time, only for women jaja, because in another countries people use to kiss men too, so for men you shake hands.

To prevent culture shock you need to seem friendly, kind, normal, and pretend that everything is going to be right. I think that the most important part is to get informed about Costa Ricans traditions, customs, culture in general. If you practice this recommendations you will be well adapted to our country in this case, and also it will be easier to prevent culture shock.

My opinion about what is the most severe aspect is asking for addresses because we don´t have avenues, and the name of the streets or blocks, we give strange addresses and when is to a foreigner is so difficult and strange.

An aspect that I concider less severe is to socialize because ticos are supposed to be very kind, so we give a good treat to the foreigners so they wouldn´t worry about that.

Classs Homework- Week 2- Culture

The cultural values of a community give it and identify of its own. A community gains a character and a personality of its own because of the culture of its people. Culture is shared by the members of a community. It is learned and passed from the older generations to the newer ones. For an effective transfer of culture from one generation to another, it has to be translated into symbols, language, art and religion. And also is good to know other cultures because you can obtain experience in that country and it´s going to be easier to learn if we know another cultures.
I think that foreigners are interested in our culture because of our traditions like " Gallo Pinto ", that it´s one of our traditional foods, also is good to mention our slangs like " Pura Vida" or " mae", so the foreigners like that, also the weather and the nature we have.
My oppinion about what is challenging for foreigners is that they have some troubles to pronounce some words, and also I think that our slangs confuse them.
I concider that sports in USA are the best things in that country like football, soccer is not so important as in our country but they like to try it, also the basquetball have lots of fans. And one of the least things is that sometimes they are serious and lordly.
One of the things that I like from Costa Rica is the food and also the slangs and what I don´t like is the culture of the people to treat each other, sometimes we become disrespectful.
I like Costa Rica and I don´t want to change anything, I guess, because I like how it is.

Journal Entry Questions- Week 1

What I like the most about English is that this language make a change in our lives, English is a great opportunity to get a good new job in my case, another important point is that English is an universal language so it´s really interesting to study it. I like the vocabulary and the pronunciation of each word because the sound of the words is really interesting for me, also the linking words are really helpful because when we are talking with somebody we need to apply this linking words rules.
What I don´t like about this universal language is some kind of grammar, because sometimes becomes boring but it´s really neccesary to improve our English Skills. Grammar contains lots of important material that people concider that sometimes we don´t need that but I think that each word, phrase, structure it´s really neccesary to speak well. Another reason what I don´t like grammar is because some parts of grammar are so hard to understand what I´m learning.
Some stronger skills of mine are the pronunciaton ´cuz I think that I have good skills to pronounce words, some words are easier to pronounce but others are not so easy. Another stronger skill is that I like to write in English and I think that I´m doing it well, I mean that I write well the words, not always but I try to do it better everyday.
My weakest skills are in grammar, sometimes I have troubles to use time expressions, I need to work on that and not all in cases but sometimes in the structure of a phrase.So in summary I need to improve the grammar including time expressions, phrases structure because each little detail it´s neccesary and important to improve my English level.Some activities that we can do to perfect our English skills are:

• Try to pronounce the words only with the movements of our tongues.
• Make roll plays with grammar
• Work in groups to help each other.

I expect for this course to improve my language skills, also to increase the vocabulary level, and I want to get a good knowledge about what English means and it bases.