Joaquin Lizano who studies interracial communication opened our eyes to a whole new side of the Costa Rican culture today. He spoke with us about how equality differs for everyone whom was enlightening to hear after all of our talk about race within our group and classes. Joaquin believes that we are equal in front of the law but historical rooting’s can make things less clear. Some of the objectives he talked about were differences, cultural adjustment and Costa Rican norms.
Some of the norms in Costa Rica that we are not used to are personal space, driving and sense of time. Personal space in Costa Rica is much smaller than what we are used to. Joaquin gave us an example of a local man from Costa Rican giving directions to an American. He said it is very likely for the Costa Rican to be touching your arms in order to make a statement while giving the directions which we are not used to. The touching of our arm causes our attention to go from the directions to the fact that some strange person is touching us. Driving is very different here as well. Joaquin explained their driving habits and it made a lot more sense to us. While in San Jose, we have realized that the drivers are very crazy and honk their horns non-stop. Joaquin told us that honking a horn here is a way of communicating, they will honk to say please let me over, honk to say thank you or even honk as a compliment to a beautiful women. Costa Rican sense of time is something our group realized was a huge difference after Joaquin explained how Costa Ricans are about it. Costa Rica is considered polychromic which is more relaxed about time whereas, the U.S. is monochromic which is more industrialized and more efficient with time. For example, we would be frustrated with someone being 5 minutes late where a Costa Rican could be an hour late and not be considered rude or late. We are not used to this culture but being uncomfortable is part of immersing ourselves in the culture
Joaquin ended with talking to us about the benefits of studying abroad. He talked about the greater confidence and assertiveness that comes from being part of a collective culture, having better listening abilities, better sensitivity to other cultures and more tolerance and patience. Confidence comes from putting yourself in a spot where you feel uncomfortable and overcoming it, that is how we learn about the differences.
Identity plays a major role in the comfort levels between races. We must understand how people perceive us and how we perceive them. The subject of identity negotiation goes back to what Joaquin said about crossing our comfort zones in order to conquer our confidence in new or different cultures.
Defining culture has become very relevant not only in Costa Rica but within our group as well. Being a split group of race, we have tried defining our cultures to one another in order to help the others understand where we come from and why we are the way we are. Through this defining process, we are able to open our eyes to see the new, different culture in an entirely new light.
Danielle (one of the girls in my group) led us in a hands-on activity in order to insist our identity shaping process. We all wrote down 5 I AM statements and 5 THEY THINK I AM statements. There is so much of our identity that we over analyze and this exercise made it very prevalent. It was interesting to see the things that were obvious to others about us and some things that were news to others about that individual.
Through our group conversations/interactions we are crossing the uncomfortable racial barrier and seeing ourselves, our lives and others through new eyes. Breaking the racial barrier and understanding other cultures give you a peace about opening yourself to new adventures and situations.
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