Kyle Dobler

Mr. Campbell
UWRT 1101
9-28-14

Como Estas?

Ever since 8th grade, I have wanted to learn and speak Spanish. I remember in 7th grade,
my father began to talk about taking a trip to Costa Rica and possibly buying a third home there.
I knew very little about where it was, or what it is like there, but I knew it was tropical and
geologically diverse. Dad harped on the thought of Costa Rica for a couple months, then talk
about it died down. 8th grade came about, and I still hadn't heard a peep out of my parents
mouths about Costa Rica, or even a vacation in general. One day in December, right before our
Christmas break, my parents signed my brother and I out of school early. We were told it was a
trip to four cabin in Seneca, South Carolina. Once my brother, Karl, and I stepped into the car,
we were each handed a white cardboard box. The box looked like something you would get from
a bakery filled with cookies or brownies. I opened it, and what I found inside didn't make sense
at first.

Inside each box was a miniature maraca and sombrero. I was so excited, and the first
question that came out of my mouth was "Are we going to Mexico?!" My parents replied in
unison, "Not quite, but you're getting close!" Then I remembered about all the talk about a
vacation to Costa Rica, and I knew that had to be it. So I shouted "Is it Costa Rica?" and my
parents replied "Yes it is, and we're leaving for Atlanta now!" The drive to Atlanta from my
home town of Hendersonville took around 4 hours total. Before I knew it, we were boarding the

plane on a trip to another country. Once we landed, and got off of the plane, I saw that signs and
announcements were in both Spanish and English. This was my first time I had really been
introduced to Spanish in full sentences. I knew basic words like Hello,and Bye, alone with curse
words I learned from playing soccer with a team primarily made of hispanics. While we were
there, I attempted to understand the foundations of Spanish, but without high school classes or
Rosetta Stone, it was unlikely.

During that vacation, we had rented a house in

the middle of no where. It was a mansion compared to the little village next to us, in which none
of the residents spoke a lick of English. We were able to make simple talk with them and get our
point across but it still wasn't where I wanted it to be. We spent most of the trip in the car,
looking for property to buy. We found a few houses we liked but never made a final purchase
during the vacation. A week and a half later, we were on our way back to the states, back to
"civilization", back to English speaking people. Dad took a solo trip back to Costa Rica a few
months later to finalize the purchase on the house we wanted. At that point I knew my Spanish
had to improve, but I never made a move to expand my Spanish vocabulary until second
semester of my junior year when I enrolled in Spanish I. My teachers name was Sra. Kelly and I
had her for both Spanish I first semester junior year, and Spanish II during second semester
junior year. In Spanish one, we really didn't speak much. The class was more for learning the
basic conjugations of verbs and basic vocabulary. It wasn't until Spanish II that we worked on
the verbal aspect of Spanish. One day, mid-semester, we had to write sentences on the board of
an activity that we performed within the past week of class. At the time, I was dozing off in class
and the next thing I hear is "Kyle, why don't you write something on the board?" I opened my

heavy eyes, and waddled to the front of class with 3 or 4 other classmates already at the board.
My sentence said something like "Me gusta conducir mi coche a la escuela todos los das" which
translates to "I like to drive my car to school every day." After everyone wrote on the board, she
called out the sentences in order for the student to read aloud. Of course, my sentence was the
last one on the white board. Let me just give you some background information. The word
"coche" means car and is pronounced "coach-ay". Well in Spanish II, we learn how to pronounce
words. When it was my turn to say my sentence, I got wicked nervous. My teacher said "Ruben,
you're up!" Ruben was my Spanish name. I read my sentence out loud the class, but
mispronounced the word coche. Instead of saying "coach-ay" I said "choochie" and the whole
class broke out in laughter. From there on, I decided to take Spanish III and focus on speaking
Spanish.

A couple months later we took yet another trip to Costa Rica. This time, we already had
bought the house in Nuevo Arenal. Arenal is located in the north western part of the country
around the Arenal volcano and Lago Arenal. This alone attracts tons of tourists, a lot of
Americans that don't speak a word of english. One night during the trip we decided to go into a
bigger town on the other side of the lake with more restaurants. We found the best looking
restaurant, parked and sat down. Within a few minutes of being there, another american family
next to us As always, I ordered arroz con pollo, rice with chicken. Thats the national dish and
extremely tasty. Shortly after we ordered, the family next to us did as well. I remember hearing
the wife order a steak in Spanish, or at least attempted to. The waiter asked in simple english,
"How would you like that cooked?" The wife responded "Medium raro!" in the straightest manor

possible. She didn't even crack a smile. My mom and I instantly looked at each other and tried
our best not to laugh hysterically. I never wanted to sound like that when speaking Spanish.

To this day, Spanish is still somewhat difficult for me to both speak and write. I hope to further
learn Spanish throughout college and possibly take a class or two involving it. I continue to
travel to Costa Rica once or twice a year, and each time my Spanish gets better. As long as I
practice, I can succeed.