We can address the elephant in the room first, this is a very controversial holiday but at the same time we can celebrate our cultural diversity and roots, and acknowledge that Christopher Columbus came to the continent many centuries ago. Several countries have also revamped the
Today is International Translation Day, so we wanted to celebrate and also bring some light to this topic since translation, and all that it encompasses, is sometimes misunderstood. The celebration was proposed by the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (Worldwide Federation of Translators) and the goal
Today's topic is a very personal one, in August we celebrate the Afro-descendants Heritage Month and the last day is dedicated to black people and Afro Costa Ricans. Before COVID there were parades and activities that you could attend everywhere, this year the events were online
Even our taxi driver was lost. “Where’s the mango tree?” he asked the person on the cell phone. The taxi sat idling on the side of the road as the driver spoke to the host of the party that we were going to somewhere in the
Have you ever tried ‘speckled rooster’? It’s the national dish of Costa Rica, and not what you’re possibly thinking. In Spanish, ‘speckled rooster’ is gallo pinto, and many Costa Ricans religiously eat it for breakfast. It is one of the many appetizing dishes on offer
When I’m asked about how I ended up in Costa Rica, the person asking is oftentimes surprised to find out that I never set out with a goal of ending up here and, in fact, it took me some time to even truly enjoy living
GATO (ga-to) And now, the time has come to talk about one of those strikingly polysemic words Costa Ricans have -and use- in a variety of situations. Chances are, if you do speak Spanish, even at a beginner level, that this word is probably one of the
GALLITO (ga-ʝi-to) Most Costa Ricans have a thing for diminutives and, you probably know this by now, right? And chances are some of these words have already been incorporated into your Spanish language arsenal. Words like “momentito” (jiffy), or the much used “toquecito” (jiffy), chiquito/a (little boy/girl), and/or
POLACO (po-la’-ko) So, in Spanish, we would use the words brasileño/brasileña to refer to a Brazilian national, for instance, -a male and a female in this case-. And the same word endings are used with most nationalities. So, it is no surprise that a national of,
NANDAYURE (nan-ða ʝu'-re) Being born and raised Costa Rican, my first Geography memories date back to elementary school, where our first Social Studies lessons would inevitably be linked to the country's administrative division into provinces, cantons, and districts. And then, I first learned about Guanacaste, its people, traditions,