Conversa News - March 2010
Conversa's 35th Anniversary Celebration!
Así es! This year marks the 35th year Conversa has been providing Spanish to students from around the world. So how did all of this get started? Jack Sadler and Dave Kaufman were former Peace Corps Volunteers (Bolivia and Dominican Republic), and Kathy Brown was a recent college graduate with a year of experience in Argentina. They rented the first floor of a former residence on Calle 38 in San José and started teaching Spanish and English as foreign languages.
Jack left the following year to pursue a career in Linguistics. Dave and Kathy worked together for another four years, until Kathy left to take a sales rep job for a publishing company. Dave took over the reins at that time. 
He bought a dairy farm in Santa Ana and started building what today is Conversa's six-acre campus. Barns and stables gave way to classrooms and offices, a swimming pool, a lodge, a dining hall. Dave's younger son, Andy took over the overall administration of the school about seven years ago and has played a very large role in helping his Dad to make Conversa what it is today - a great place to learn Spanish. Left: Dave with Otto Minera - retired Language Coordinator - 1980.
NOTE: As part of the year long celebration and remembrance activities we want to hear from ALL our former and current students and ask that you participate with us by taking time to reflect on the experiences you shared with students, teachers and host families. Share and update us on what's new in your life. We encourage you to send us your thoughts and comments and look forward to your participation in our new projects and initiatives.
What's New on Campus?
In March we'll be beginning a new project to develop a hydroponics system on campus. We're in the planning stage, but hope for the system to be capable of supplying most of the lettuce and tomato we eat on campus every day. Edgar, Fabricio and Rudy will be leading this effort - we hope to get off the ground very soon! (no pun intended)
Host Family Profile
Amira Hernández
Hola! Soy Amira Hernández y soy anfitriona de Conversa desde hace 15 años. Soy de la ciudad de las flores (Heredia) pero tengo 30 años de vivir en Santa Ana. Tengo tres hijos: dos mujeres y un hombre (Kristian de 28 años, Maricruz de 21 años y Maria Endrika de 19 años). También tengo un nieto. Mi esposo murió hace mucho tiempo.
Soy profesora de Conversa desde hace 17 años y uno de mis pasatiempos es la lectura. Mis hijas estudian en la universidad y les gusta bailar mucho. Kristian trabaja. Derecha: Amira (derecha) con su estudiante Judy en la escuela.
Anécdota
En tantos años de recibir estudiantes de diferentes edades y nacionalidades es difícil seleccionar una anécdota entre tantas, pero recuerdo una vez que vino una señora muy blanca y ella viajó a Arenal el primer fin de semana. Cuando regresó venía morena, morena, con la piel más oscura que la mía. El siguiente lunes después de la clase en Conversa, mientras caminábamos a la casa, de repente empezó a llover y no teníamos sombrilla. Cuál fue la sorpresa que su piel al tener contacto con el agua se empezó a decolorar. En ese momento me di cuenta que el bronceado era a base de un químico. Luego nos reíamos ella y yo como locas al ver que el colorante se desprendía por partes…
Employee Profile
Say hello to Ana María Podio. Most of our instructors are from Costa Rica, but Ana María is an exception to the rule. She was born in Córdoba, Argentina and obtained the degree of Profesora en Ciencias de la Educación from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. She also holds the degree of Profesora de Español Como Lengua Extranjera from the Instituto Hemingway in Bilbao, Spain.
Ana and her husband lived in Miami for fourteen years before coming to Costa Rica. She's worked with us for the past six years, and has become one of our stalwarts in teaching Spanish on-line (ConversaConmigo). If you've been checking out the micro-lessons on our website, you will probably recognize her as the one with the curly blond hair.
Her hobbies include walking and listening to classical music and audio-books. While not a big fan of the beaches down here, she tells us, “Me apasionan los volcanes”. The person Ana María admires the most is her mother, and she loves spending time with her, as well as with her brother and his family every year back in Córdoba.
We're fortunate to have Ana María Podio on our staff, and we hope that many more of our students will have the opportunity to learn Spanish with her.
Un poquito de humor
A Language for the European Union
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).
In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.There will be growing public enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 persent shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v".During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "0" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud, of kors, be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German lik zey vunted in ze forst plas...
Top Story in Costa Rica
Laura Chinchilla, a social conservative became Costa Rica's first female president after a convincing election triumph. Her main opponents conceded very shortly after the polls closed on Sunday, February 7th. The 50-year-old ruling party candidate joined thousands of supporters celebrating in San Jose early Monday. First results showed she won 47 percent of the vote, way ahead of her rivals and above the 40 percent needed to avoid a run-off. Latin America now has five women leaders.
"Thank you, Costa Rica," Chinchilla said in an address in a hotel in the capital. "It's certainly a moment of happiness, but above all of humility... I won't betray that confidence."
Social Notes
Conversa welcomes Sarah Jane Hanson to the Conversa family. She is the newborn daughter and third child of Steve Hanson, Conversa's Academic Administrator. Sarah was born on January 15th, 2010 and weighed 6.28 pounds, 45cms long. Congratulations to Steve and his wife, Lorena.
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