The News Atenas, Costa Rica (CS)

For this blog I chose to focus on a local newspaper written in Spanish and website new source called the Tico Times written in English. I tried to follow the news every night between February 27th and March 4th. The Tico Times has a Facebook page that I followed and so getting updates from them every day was straight forward and simple. However, the newspaper is usually brought over by one of the guards before dinner and there were a couple nights where the paper either wasn't brought over or someone else had taken it home with them so I wasn't able to read it every night. Also because it was written in Spanish I often only skimmed the headlines and had another student who had a better grasp on Spanish help me read an article or two so I was never able to read the whole newspaper. That being said I still felt as though I understood enough to get a grasp of what types of reports were written.

Both the Tico Times and the newspaper placed a high emphasize on sports, the environment, and occasionally politics. Most nights the front page of the newspaper was covering a fútbol game that had just happened. Then the side panels were usually dedicated to laws that had been passed or elections. The Tico Times similarly had articles about sports but the majority of the articles were written about laws being passed or lighthearted stories about festivals or events happening around Costa Rica. The Tico Times definitely had a more global focus, likely because it is aimed at English speaking expats who live in Costa Rica. Many of the articles on the website involved events or politics in the U.S, Brazil, and Nicaragua. One article was written only about the U.S presidential primaries. Both sources seem to have almost daily articles about the Zika Virus.

Both of the news sources seem to have an overall optimistic feeling. I feel as though often news outlets in the U.S highlight negative things happening in the U.S and around the world. Costa Rica news however seems to be more evenly balanced, they don't ignore when bad things happen in Costa Rica but the headlines also seem more factual and less sensationalized when they are reporting on a death, or a natural disaster, or really anything particularly negative. I would say that U.S news and Costa Rica news are pretty equally prideful of their own countries. Something about the local newspaper did seem a bit more serious than the Tico Times, perhaps because the local newspaper didn't run as many human interest stories whereas about a third of the Tico Times articles seemed to be human interest stories. 

Overall U.S news and Costa Rican news didn't seem that different. As a noted earlier Costa Rica news is less sensationalized. As a part of that it also is written in a more straight forward manner so that was they are reporting on is told in a succinct way. It also seems generally more optimistic. However, other than that there doesn't appear to be too many striking differences between the news in the U.S and news in Costa Rica. 

Cultural Identity & Intercultural Communication, Costa Rica (CS)

I had to approach this blog a little differently as all of the students and faculty members in the program are American or have spent an extended amount of time in America. With that in mind I decided to interview Yendry Arguedas, the program coordinator and Graciella one of the cooks on campus. Yendry speaks fluent English so I was able to talk to her on my own and she responded pretty directly to the interview questions. Graciella however, speaks no English so I asked another student who is fluent in Spanish to help translate for me. However, because of the language barrier our interview got a little off track and Graciella spoke more broadly about Americans and the students she’s encountered rather than respond directly to my interview questions. Both of the interviews have been slightly paraphrased for the blog simply because they devolved into conversations and I didn’t write down everything we talked about.
Yendry Arguedas (Program Coordinator)

How do you view America and Americans?

I think Americans are a lot like Costa Ricans, or Costa Ricans are a lot like Americans? Both are friendly, although Costa Ricans are a little friendlier than Americans, and both seem to like to have fun and to talk. Americans aren’t as funny as Costa Ricans, and don’t seem to place as much value on family, not that they don’t love their families, but family has a stronger influence on Costa Ricans. But overall I really like Americans.

What do you base your opinions of American’s on?

I’ve worked this job for many many years and the majority of students who join our program are American. I interact with them daily and spend my time planning trips and accommodations for them so I feel like I have a good idea of what Americans are like. Even before I had this job my family has lived for generations right across from the center (that’s what we call campus) and I’ve seen Americans since I was a little kid. My family used to host students on family host day.

Then ask them to describe you personally and share a story about you.

Yendry hasn’t interacted with just me and didn’t have any specific stories about me. She did describe me though.
You seem quiet, but very kind. You’re always ready to laugh and smile and seem like a good friend.

Did I fit your image of what America and Americans are like and why or why not?

You are a little quieter than most of the Americans I know, but I’ve met Americans like you before. I’ve met a lot of American’s over the years so I think I have a pretty broad perception of what they’re like.

From left to right Trent, Scarlet, and Yendry laughing at lunch 

Graciella (Cook)

As I said earlier Graciella’s interview was more of a conversation where I mostly let her talk about Americans. I had another student Jenny translate for me, so she is referenced in the interview below. Also, since Graciella is the cook at the center and before that had cooked at a restaurant in town that served Costa Rican and American type food she referenced American food a lot while talking about Americans.

What is your perception of Americans?

They’re nice, a little bit more daring than Costa Ricans. Americans are less reserved but also more uptight. They really care about their schedule and about things happening on time. When I worked at the restaurant in town American customers tended to be more concerned about when their food was coming, and if it was coming quickly than any of the Costa Rican customers. I do like that American’s eat a wider variety of foods, although some of them are really strange. Soy Sauce is so salty… why do you like it? And pancakes! They’re so heavy and sweet how can they be good at breakfast? It's more like dessert. Lasagna though is really good, I’m glad I get to make that for the students.

Do I (or Jenny) fit your idea of America or Americans?

She nodded her head here and then did really have anything else to say so I had Jenny ask her if anyone in our group had surprised her. She said Travis (who is the student activities manager and from America) is Costa Rican at heart. He has the Costa Rican sense of humor. She also said we like our juice really sour and doesn’t understand why we don’t add more sugar to it.