Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

By the University of Chicago news service
A foreign accent undermines a person’s credibility in ways that the speaker and the listener don’t consciously realize, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
Because an accent makes a person harder to understand, listeners are less likely to find what the person says as truthful, researchers found. The [...]

Most people think English is Costa Rica’s second language, but surprisingly that is not the case. In Costa Rica the word pachuco refers to a person who has manners that are socially unacceptable and often uses shocking language when speaking. Pachuco is also a pejorative name given to certain colloquial words and expressions. Some [...]

Being a former Spanish teacher at all levels with two graduate degrees in the subject, I am always looking for good programs for learning the language. About two months ago I took a group of potential retirees to Conversa’s campus in Río Oro de Santa Ana for lunch and to view a demonstration of their [...]

A telenovela or novela is a Spanish language soap opera. Telenovelas seem to be the opiate of the masses in Latin America. The first telenovelas were produced in Brazil, Cuba and Mexico in the 1950s. The most popular ones last about an hour and appear Monday through Friday evenings (7 to 10 PM) on most [...]

Special to A.M. Costa Rica
With the World Cup just 18 days away the interest in soccer here is really heating up. The Cup is contested every four years and is the Super Bowl of soccer. This year’s edition of the cup will be held in South Africa. Retirees in Costa Rica are bound to become [...]