The first few days in Costa Rica has been similar to an Alice in Chains concert. If you have ever seen Alice in Chains live you would understand that it is a wall of sound that seems to come in never ending layers. It is information overload.
My relationship to everyday things has been significantly altered, it seems by all this new information. My relationship to many things has changed. My relationship with time, space, communication, food, water and other normal activities has undergone a paradigm shift.
Now, that I’ve regained some clarity and understand these new relationships and how they might affect a student who is not fluent in English. Even though I understand this, I still cannot fully comprehend what a student has to endure because I have an ace of spades in reserve, I can always retreat to the safety of my group of the privacy of my bedroom. These are advantages that some of my future students might not have.
For example right now I am sitting in a café high above the Pacific Ocean and I am comforted by the serenity of the moment, a student will not have this advantage. A student does not have the ability to escape the difficulties in order to put perspective on the changing relationships to everything that is familiar.
In a few minutes we will be leaving Manuel Antonio for Monte Verde. We will be staying with a new host family for the next two weeks. We will also be pressing on with trying to learn Spanish and I suspect that will be more challenging, but each day I take one more step in the shoes of an English language learner. Despite the advantages I might have over a 10 year old kid, in just one week my respect and empathy for my future English language learners has advanced miles beyond where it was when I arrived in Costa Rica.
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