Author: Anneliese

The dimensions of Hodstede’s 6 dimension model for national culture that I think differ the most between Costa Rica and the United States are the “Individualism-Collectivism”, “Achievement-Nurturance” (aka masculinity-femininity), and “Short & Long Term Time Orientation” dimensions. 

One of the first incidents—or more accurately, collection of incidents—that keyed me in to the difference in time orientation between Costa Rican culture and the US’s when I was introducing myself to others and engaging in small talk with strangers, they rarely ever asked me about what I was studying in University and even less what my future plans were or what I wanted to do with my degree. This was a bit of a shock to me, as in the US I found almost everyone asks each other about their jobs, career, and studies, especially since I’m currently a college student and thus it is a huge part of my life. However, even among other college students my age in Costa Rica the topic of what we were studying, our academic interests, and our career plans was rarely something the Ticos in the conversation brought up. This general lack of discussion about career in Costa Rica made me realize that Americans, in general, hold career and success as an important aspect of one’s identity. In contrast, when Ticos wanted to get to know me they asked more about where I was from and things that Americans may consider more “surface level”—where I had visited in Costa Rica, what I was doing there, what I liked about the country—that upon reflection were simply more pertaining to my interests and what I was doing in the present moment, or in the recent past. As such, I feel that overall Costa Ricans tend to have a more short-term time orientation that focuses on the past and present moments. This understanding helped me to adapt better to small talk conversations in the country, but also to really reflect on how I view myself and what I center my identity around. 

In a similar vein, I also found that, in general, Costa Ricans tended to learn more towards the “nurturing” side on the achievement-nurturing scale than the very strong “achievement” orientation of US culture. For example, in my internship there have been very few hard deadlines, specifically outlined tasks, and small assignments; the general expectation is more one of exploration of topics and being an assistant to other students as opposed to focusing on me achieving specific goals or producing a certain amount of work. Likewise, in my Spanish class my assignments tended to be more exploratory—I could pick what I wrote about or how I structured my work—as opposed to detailed instructions I needed to follow. While this lack of structure and organized productivity left me feeling a bit lost, disoriented, and disorganized, I feel it was also a good exercise for me to have to not only be a little bit more self driven, but to also recognize and appreciate the value in slowing down and placing less emphasis on constant and high quantities of productivity. I feel I had a better work-life balance during my time in Costa Rica; while this could be attributed to the fact that I had less coursework on my plate, I also believe it was due to the more laid-back attitude of my workplaces and a wider cultural tendency to focus on relationships, academic exploration, and collective collaboration as opposed to high levels of productivity at the expense of free time and humanistic priorities. 

Lastly, the collectivistic mindset of Ticos felt like the starkest difference between my host and home cultures. Overall, I’ve found that the structure of everyday life here in Costa Rica is more family-oriented than it is in the US—most families eat dinner together every night, young adults tend to live with their families through college and into their 20s while working in the workforce, I join my host family (and my friend’s host family) for meals with their extended relatives multiple times per week, many people get married and start families at younger ages than couples in the US, and it seems that most people tend to live very close to the areas where they grew up and where the rest of their family lives. This is a significant contrast to my life in the US, where I live at least 20 minutes from my aunts and uncles (while most live in other states or in another country), people stop living with their parents at 18 to go to school, living with parents during college or after is generally felt to be something somewhat strange and odd, most of my meals at home are prepared or bought and then everyone eats in their own time, and friend and family gatherings are usually planned on a monthly, not weekly, basis. At first the Tico tendency to always be around and with others in family life was a bit overwhelming, as I was not used to always being around people at home (except for when I live in my dorm at school). However, I’ve come to really appreciate the family-oriented nature of life here in Costa Rica; I’m a very social person at heart, and find myself generally more happy and with a higher level of mental clarity and motivation when I am around people and more active in my social networks. Being close to my host families’ family all of the time, going on excursions with other Costa Rican university students, and always having someone around to talk or sit with is, I believe, made possible and easier here in Costa Rica because more importance is placed on collective living and keeping familial relationships closer (both literally and figuratively). There are benefits and drawbacks to both more collective and more individualistic lifestyles, but after spending time in Costa Rica—which, I think in comparison with other cultures, could be said to be fairly moderate with a slight lean towards collectivism—I’ve realized just how intense individualism is in the American lifestyle. Although it may be more difficult for me to live this sort of collective lifestyle in the US because (a) family and friends tend to live geographically further away and (b) such collectivism isn’t built into the fabric of everyday American life, I hope to try to orient my life more towards community and the collective because I have found it results in a happier, more joyful, and overall more enjoyable quality of life for me. 

Although the Hofstede model of cultural dimension is not perfect, it has been interesting to reflect on my experience in Costa Rica through its framework and I think is helpful in orienting cultures relative to each other, if such a thing can be quantified. 

Below is my process of using the DIVE model for reflecting on a critical incident I encountered here in Costa Rica.

Describe: I was sitting in the living room with my host parents, my host sister Camille (another student visiting from France), and myself, and we were talking with my host mom about her 25 years of hosting students. She started to explain that her husband didn’t go to college and so his job “doesn’t pay well,” and that to supplement their income they started taking in host students. She explained how this allows them to also travel more, as when a student wants to visit a city within the country they offer to drive and find accommodations, and then the students help them with gas money and it ends up being much more affordable. 

Interpret: At first, I was a bit taken aback by my host mom’s bluntness in describing the situation, as my host dad was sitting in the room with us in the conversation when she said very straightforwardly that his job doesn’t pay enough for them to uphold a certain lifestyle level. My initial assumption was that this was a bit rude and also embarrassing to (a) talk about private financial matters with people who—although familiar—are guests and not family members or close friends, and to (b) so blatantly say that the breadwinner’s job is inadequate for the family in front of them. 

However, looking back, later in the conversation my host dad also joined in to describe how they traveled with students, and it didn’t seem like he was phased by my host mom’s description. So, it could be possible that in Costa Rica people are generally more open about their finances and financial situations than in the US, or just in general talk more openly about personal matters. 

Verify: I didn’t have the chance to discuss this specific incident with my host mom or another Costa Rican friend, but by talking with other students in my SLA cohort and through my own observation it seems that, in general, we’ve found that people have more openly shared and discussed stories about personal matters, family events and/or finances than what I would consider to be a normal level of confidence between acquaintances or new friends. 

Evaluation: Upon reflection, I’ve realized that although I have grown in my ability to step outside of my cultural assumptions to help me process events and interactions in my host culture, my instinctual, initial gut reactions to events are still very much based in the US culture I’m used to. I also realized that my host mom likely meant no offense to her husband, and simply wanted to share with us more details about why and how much they appreciate their host students.

After reflecting on this particular critical incident, I feel I am better equipped to identify situations when perhaps my cultural assumptions may cause a compulsory instantaneous reaction of uncomfortableness or unease; especially in instances of oversharing or overstepping my culture’s normal boundaries in physical space or in conversation topics. Now that I’ve recognized this about myself, I can be more aware in observing my host culture’s natural boundaries so that I can know when I am simply experiencing a cultural difference or when my own personal boundaries of space and topic are being overstepped, not just the boundaries I may be accustomed to in social settings.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time with one of my friend’s Costa Rican host family, who have been hosting students for the past 6 years in their home. Both of the parents and their son are extremely friendly and welcoming—as well as insightful—and so I thought that a conversation about their perspective of Americans and U.S. University students would not only be based on personal experience but also honest and thoughtful. 

When I asked for their perceptions of Americans, they said that they have found people who visit from the US to fall into two main categories based on the host students they’ve housed and their general knowledge of tourists. The first involves tourists and visitors that, in their words, know ahead of time “that Costa Rica isn’t like the U.S., England, Germany, or wherever they´re hailing from.” They said that when people come in with an open mind and a genuine desire to learn about Costa Rica, that they (Costa Ricans) get along much better and are much more open and sharing with the foreigners. However, they said that the second group of foreigners—those who come expecting Costa Rica to be exactly like the US (or a European country) or those who imagine Costa Rica to be all jungle and all people who live their “indigenous people who live in the jungle” (they mentioned Costa Rica’s depiction in Jurassic Park as completely jungle and devoid of cities)—that they don’t feel like they and the realities and nuances of Costa Rica are being respected. They also mentioned multiple times that they couldn’t give me one heterostereotype of an American tourist because each person is different, and because they have encountered such a wide variety of types of students and how willing those students are to engage with their family and the wider Costa Rican culture.

I initially didn’t expect such an in-depth discussion (the family talked with me for around 20 minutes about their experiences), I was really grateful for the amount of nuance they brought to the discussion; it helped me reflect much more deeply than I would have with just one answer of a generalized heterostereotype. I suspected that there was a heterostereotype of Americans as not really wanting to engage with a local culture apart from visiting tourist spots—the “ignorant” or “obnoxious” American stereotype that I think a lot of American tourists, including myself, are afraid to be seen as. However, I found it interesting that they saw this stereotype not as Americans being stupid or unintelligent, but instead as just unwilling to be open to the idea that life in a place they visit is either (a) structured differently in both subtle and more obvious ways from their home cultures, or (b) that a place can be different than their prior perceptions of it. Likewise, I found it relieving that they also had a strong positive perception of some Americans as willing and eager to learn about a place, and that Costa Ricans greatly appreciate those types of visitors. Although the majority of tourists the family has encountered are students who visit anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months, which skews the sample population a bit, I overall was very relieved by their nuanced generalizations in lieu of the negative heterostereotypes I always fear one or two obnoxious tourists have solidified into the widespread perception of people from the US.

My knowledge of Costa Rica prior to this trip was mainly based on the tourist pulls I had heard about and what had been mentioned in school prior to arriving—that it had a ton of natural beauty in the form of mountains, beaches, volcanoes, and wildlife, and that it was a country that was eco-conscious and dedicated to natural conservation. Because I didn’t know much beyond this, I didn’t really come in with any set expectations of how similar or dissimilar the cities, daily life, and family structures were from my own experiences in the US. As such, I think I was pretty much a dry sponge ready to absorb and immerse in whatever I encountered in Costa Rica, and I’ve been very grateful to be able to learn about and adapt to the smaller and larger differences in life here without having to break down previous incorrect assumptions, since I didn’t really come in with any.  As such, I think (and hope) that I’ve fallen into the “open and willing to learn about Costa Rica” category, as almost everyone I’ve encountered has been happy to talk with me, excited that I’m trying to practice my Spanish, and more than willing to help me with language or cultural barriers I struggle with. Although I know that there will always be some American tourists/students who are unwilling to change their perceptions and expectations of a place (as there are people like this from every culture and country), it makes me proud of my home country that there is also acknowledgment that some Americans have a genuine desire to learn about and respect the local way of life in all of its complexity. Furthermore, I am very grateful that Ticos are willing and excited to share their lives and make connections with those of us who want to experience the reality of a different country in its entirety.

One of the first critical incidents that I encountered in Costa Rica was with my host mom. We were sitting down at dinner, and I was a bit quiet—I had been in Costa Rica for a few days by that point and was starting to feel a bit fatigued by speaking in Spanish all the time and meeting a ton of new people. I had eaten a few meals with my host family & their extended family, and tended to be somewhat quiet just because I was trying to listen and absorb and because I felt a bit self-conscious about my Spanish speaking skills as well. At this meal and the few before, she kept repeatedly asking me if the food was okay and I always responded that it was great—I genuinely liked all of the food, and always made sure to finish my plate both because it was delicious and as a signal of respect/gratitude for the meal. However, after the dinner with just the two of us, before I went to bed she came up and asked me if I was really happy there and if everything was okay. I felt a bit confused and somewhat taken aback at that moment, because I hadn’t thought I’d behaved rudely or in any way to signal that I wasn’t enjoying my time with them. I animatedly reassured her that they were wonderful hosts and that I was very happy, but that strange feeling followed me back to my room. Upon a bit of reflecting, I realized I probably had not been actively voicing my thanks and appreciation for the meals of the house as much as she was used to hearing; I felt guilty and ashamed about it, and from that point on I’ve tried to voice multiple times during a meal how delicious it is and to thank her often for all of the other things around the house she does. 

In my life both at school and at home, I tend to spend a good amount of time alone and do many activities independently, so my tendency to be quieter at meals and interact in smaller spans of time did not seem out of the ordinary to me. I also tend to show my appreciation for my own parents’ caring for me with equal parts verbal expression and doing tasks around the house (like doing dishes) that don’t involve direct conversation. However, after a couple of weeks here I get the sense that spending the majority of one’s day with family (even seeing extended family on a daily basis) and in active conversation is common—and occurs significantly more than what I am used to in my daily life in the US. I think my host mom felt that I was disappointed because she didn’t see me talking as much or spending as much time with the family, when in reality I was simply not used to spending that much time around other people and was feeling some of the fatiguing effects of navigating a new environment and language. I think the metaphor that describes this critical incident (and a majority of similar ones I’ve encountered) would be the “fish in a bowl” cultural metaphor. Just like a fish swimming in the same tank with the same plants, obstacles, and water for its whole life, someone may not be consciously aware of the specifics of their home cultural environment—the boundaries (both physical and personal) we maintain with other people, the ways we comport ourselves in interactions, and the expectations we have for other people’s behavior towards ourselves. However, when placed in a new environment, we suddenly become aware that our “bowl” has bred habits of thought and behavior that are indeed not universal, and to which we must adapt. 

From these first few weeks I’ve learned that it’s important to not only try to observe my new cultural landscape but to really try and actively engage in it. The visits to historical sites, museums, and churches, eating local food, and learning about history is an important part of understanding Costa Rica, and one I quite enjoy. But, I think it is equally important to simply talk and engage with everyone around me that I can. It is through this active engagement—especially conversations with people in a variety of social relationships to me, such as my host parents, other kids my age, uber drivers, grandkids, etc.—that I have become familiar with what daily life in Costa Rica is actually like, and how concepts like respect, friendship, and responsibility are manifested. And that familiarity with behavioral customs which will help me understand the underlying layers (or fabric, or fish bowl composition) of Costa Rican culture.