Crossing the Tico Cultural Threshold

[crhomebuilder]

As many committed residents have discovered from years of communicating with your Spanish-speaking friends, the art of being understood by the locals, when your Spanish is less than fluent, is YOUR level of patience.

I have seen many a foreigner become frustrated and angry with Latinos because they did not understand what he/she was saying.

The most significant breakthrough in my Tico cultural adaption has been; sentimental acceptance by the locals. In other words, my Latino friends accept my Spanish for what it is, which is not perfect. The fact that they exercise some patience in order to understand me, is an indication of their acceptance and desire to communicate with me.

I know quite a few Spanish speaking Venezuelanos, Columbianos and Cubanos. Even though they speak Spanish, they all have their own manners of speaking their native language. I have seen and heard several Ticos who refuse to accept other Latinos based on their pronunciation of Spanish. Kind of a prejudice of those outsiders who don’t speak Tico Spanish. So to be a native English speaker, accepted by the Ticos, is quite an honor.

Once you have several Ticos tell you ” Yo lo quiero porque usted es simpático,” then you’ll know you have crossed the communication and cultural threshold into Ticolandia.

Edited on Apr 01, 2008 06:30

[sprite]

“I have seen and heard several Ticos who refuse to accept other Latinos based on their pronunciation of Spanish. Kind of a prejudice of those outsiders who don’t speak Tico Spanish.”

The above observation you made is new to me. I have lived amongst Latinos for the last 3 and a half decades here in the U.S. (Miami). While there is always a certain amount of national pride, it hasn’t seemed to keep any of these different nationalities apart in any meaningful way. We all have Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and Colombian friends. We all speak spanish with our own accents and colloquialisms and we all hang out together. It may well be a function of finding ourselves in a society filled with immigrants from everywhere. Since nobody is in his homeland, everybody may feel the need to make an extra effort. The only exceptions to this are a minority of north americans who do not speak or understand spanish. Most do not speak spanish but there is some resentment on the part of a small minority there. Otherwise, this is a Latino community.
Is Costa Rica different? So far, just brushing the surface of Tico culture hasn’t shown me any stand-offish attitude on the part of Ticos towards other spanish speakers who have not mastered the accent. I speak with a definite Cuban accent and have been told so but never as a criticism..at least , not that I could tell.

Edited on Apr 02, 2008 10:18

Edited on Apr 02, 2008 12:28

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