Intercultura’s 2016 Feature in Southwest Magazine: A Must-Read Interview

1. Can you tell me the backstory of how and why Intercultura was founded?

This is a long story, I´ll try to give you the short version!

The Heredia campus was founded in 1993, and the Sámara campus in 2001, by myself and Adelita Jiménez, and we remain at the head of the school to this day.  We founded the school based on our own experiences studying at and working in schools and NGOs, taking the best ideas from each area and combining them with our own vision of what a language and cultural immersion program should look like and how it should relate to the community where it is hosted. Academic excellence, cultural integration, business transparency, social responsibility, integrity and sustainable development were some of the ideals that informed our thinking and the school along the way.

We began as a tiny enterprise, with four classrooms, the reception and a dance room.

Adelita was the Spanish teacher and homestay coordinator, while I was the activities planner, marketing coordinator and occasional teacher. We were both also receptionists, cleaning ladies, messengers and any other position that needed filling! We had a lot of great people help us out along the way, from our staff and various collaborators to the owners of both our current properties, who sold them to us purely on trust and the strength of an IOU. Ten years later, the school had grown organically from a one story house into a two-story centre comprising three buildings, gardens, a full staff, and hosting Spanish immersion programs for foreigners from around the world as well as low-cost English classes for the local community.

After running week-long beach programs in Dominical and Jacó, we decided in 2001 to look for our ideal beach setting;

one that offered a beautiful safe beach, a predominantly Tico community, and a place where we could make a positive impact with our sustainable development-orientated project model. Sámara was perfect, and we quickly integrated into the community, and by 2004 had expanded the one-week per month program into a permanent campus right on the beach, with the generosity of one of our homestay mothers and the community as a whole, who from the beginning believed in the project and the benefits it could bring the community. In 2005 we co-founded the non-profit association CREAR, offering free supplementary education to local children, and we continue to support the association, to participate on community development projects and serve actively in the social and communal activities that help shape the future of this beautiful area.

2. How many students a year attend your programs, and how many are American?

About 1000 students per year study with us, with a mix of nationalities including: the US, Germany, Australia, France, Canadá, Trinidad, the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan and Scandinavia.

3. For someone who doesn't know any Spanish whatsoever, which program would you recommend and why?

I would recommend starting off with a 3-4 week standard immersion program, living with a homestay family. This is what I did, and it changed my whole outlook on life and the world, ultimately sparking the decision to come back and live in Costa Rica (here I am 20+ years later!)

4. What are the benefits of attending Intercultura instead of an American-based class?

Absolutely the biggest benefit is the immersion experience, ie- putting everything you learn into practice both in and outside the classroom. In addition, the small class sizes (average 3-4 students); a program designed to be fun, dynamic and participatory; our wonderful professors; and homestay families that come to feel you your own family: all these combine to provide a once in a lifetime experience. And, the experience of being in a class with other people who want to be there (not because they have to be), really changes the whole experience. Students motivate each other and create strong classroom bonds between themselves and with the teachers.

5. How quickly do students learn Spanish there, would you say? How comfortable are they speaking and writing Spanish after their time there?

I think there are stages. After the first 3 days, complete beginners suddenly have their first breakthrough, and by the end of the week are having simple conversations. Then there is another big breakthrough sometime during the 3^rd week, when they start understanding what people are saying in a different way. Then after a month, all of a sudden you realize you are comfortably past the beginner stage, and you can start to develop deeper relationships with people. If you have the time to stay for two months, you will be ready to start the advanced level, and you won´t believe how fast you´ve moved from knowing only one language to learning a whole other language and way of communicating."

6. What tips or suggestions do you have for people to maximize their time?

Definitely pick the homestay option, and request a family where you are the only foreigner if you can. Participate in all the daily, free cultural activities and practice your Spanish there and around town, even if you feel like you sound ridiculous, every time you make your brain form a sentence you are helping cement the knowledge you have gained in class! Make friends: hundreds of studies show the link between increased learning capacity and emotional connection, so the more you interact with people and the culture, the your brain remembers vocabulary, structures and sounds related to the new language.

7. Anything else I should know?

Don´t only choose the beach. It´s tempting of course… Who wouldn´t want to be literally right on a beautiful, tropical beach? But, keep in mind that beaches attract more foreigners, so you will likely have more friends who speak your own language than those who don´t. When you study in Heredia, you will have a truly Latin American experience in a town with very little tourism, and you will have to put your Spanish into practice more. Whether in restaurants, stores, gyms, etc, you will have to push yourself, and you will see the difference! That said, don´t miss Sámara either. It´s a unique beach, beautiful, clean, and with a local community that can be hard to find these days in Costa Rica’s coastal communities. I would say do Heredia first, so that by the time you get to Sámara you already have a base, and it´s easier to make yourself speak in Spanish even if you don´t absolutely have to J