I have been living in Costa Rica for over a year now (actually around a year and a half) and my Spanish skills are still pretty sad. I am able to hold conversations and discuss my research with Spanish-speaking scientists, but I am far from fluent. This makes sense since I spend most of my time on a station run by and populated mostly by English-speakers. English is the language of science and although researchers here come from many countries all over the globe (USA, England, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Colombia, Peru, Panama, to name a few), everyone is able to speak at least rudimentary English. It is really difficult to practice Spanish when I have a constant crutch of English to fall back on.
When I worked in Santa Rosa National Park for 2 months a while back, I became better in my Spanish speaking abilities. This was basically because no one there spoke English. I would converse with the cleaning ladies and over time got a bit better…until I came back to La Selva! Oh well, I am trying to get better now by practicing with a Rosetta Stone program (level 2!). I am not sure if it is working and I think the best way to learn is immersion, but that’s not going to ever happen here!
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You can join Livemocha.com free and practice anytime you can get on a computer. They offer live conversations with tutors, native speakers and other learners from all over the world! It would an immersion of convenience!! The lessons are great too if your interested. Hope this helps!
You made it!! Hard to believe the entire month of November is over. I completely understand your Spanish dilemma. I was getting close to fluency when I lived in Mexico but without practice I'm a little rusty now. The new job will allow my practice but it won't ever get me back to fluency.
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