When Spanish became Soulful
Language is a curious thing. It can be the fastest train to memory lane, to compel any hesitant heritage to speak out of the shadows. That’s why I claim it to be the soul of interning abroad.
Ever since I’ve come to Costa Rica, the Spanish language has washed over me like a majestic melody — something that stirs me at my biological roots. From purr of “Pura Vida” to recounting “las experiencias de mi Escuela Secundaria”(My high school experiences) with my Spanish tutor, I feel recollection piercing beyond distance in a million phrases worth a lifetime. A missing piece of my puzzle is gradually finding its fit.
To preface, I grew up amidst a diverse Hispanic-culture in Houston, Texas, for a few years before moving to Dubuque, Iowa. In Houston, I was surrounded by classmates and teachers who spoke the soothing tones of Spanish. In Dubuque, I learned Spanish through a jumble of online and in-school classes prior to this trip, but I never truly internalized it. I never truly connected it with my geographic journey experiences, even if vocabulary quizzes did jog my memory at times. So, when a surprise celebration cohort bursted into “Feliz Cumpleanos” to celebrate my fellow intern’s(Emma’s) birthday in Costa Rica, I was MOVED….
1.) The sincerity of the gesture left me soul struck. It’s one thing to create a transformative experience away from home, but it takes a whole another sense of understanding to create a “home away from home”. From that moment, I developed indescribable admiration for Sofíá Vargas, our facilitator, who planned Emma’s surprise party. Thoughtful, authentic kindness knows NO boundaries.
2.) Also, ringing crescendo of “Feliz Cumpleanos” carried me back thousands of miles to a classroom birthday celebration in Houston, Texas, where my Spanish class sang to me. The past was pulsing like a second heart(or maybe even the first heart). I was speechless. It was a definitive pang of memory unleashed by the power of language.
3.) Emma was ELATED — her expression of surprise was priceless to see.
This celebration is just one example of how imbibing Spanish has been a simultaneous array of infinite ideas and sensations. It’s also been a tool of survival, forcing me to communicate without the inhibition in the fear of grammatical inaccuracy. From the cafeteria meals to fieldwork, valiantly pushing myself to “speak my soul out” has triggered precious new (and old) worlds. As someone who once strung vowels and consonants together to pull together haphazard Spanish sentences, I now can have a conversation with my roommate(stay tuned for a future post!). I now can fluently order a guanabana smoothie at the local Aromas café. I now can pick out literature of interest on Sigatoka disease at EARTH University’s library to supplement my research. My language skills aren’t perfect, but what is perfect is subsisting on a path of discovery through Spanish.
Spanish is becoming a part of me — it’s as if I left the language but the language never left me. And I couldn’t have inhaled this concept had I not come to Costa Rica. Language is a bridge, not a barrier. Intern abroad to fully hug it, cherish it, love it, and SPEAK it. And it will speak to you.
