I just spent the last two weeks in Costa Rica and had an amazing time visiting all the businesses, learning about the culture, and trying new activities. While there, I learned about some of the similarities and differences between the culture and ways of doing business in the United States.
One of the similarities, at least in the South, is the welcomeness of the people. Costa Ricans live by the saying pura vida, which means many things, including living life pure, enjoying life, being kind, and having fun. They also show their love and appreciation with food similar to some places in the south opening up their homes and helping those they can. Their kindness is seen in every conversation and interesting and everyone is willing to give a hand. During our free time, we wanted to find activities to do, and many activities like hiking a volcano and seeing interesting parts of towns we got from having conversations with locals and our Uber drivers. One difference that I learned with the business is that over two-thirds of their business has less than ten employees. Most companies are small local businesses whereas, in the United States, most companies are big corporations and even most small businesses have more than ten people. Even our company visit with Britt one of their main companies only had about 20 people in their factory, which means that they can be more efficient and save costs on labor. Something interesting about Britt and other companies is they all have conservation efforts for wildlife and the rainforest. Preserving the rainforest and wildlife is a main concern of many Costa Ricans. Our lecture at Sibo Chocolate mentioned many ways he has tried to help the environment as well as assist women and those local to the shop with finding jobs. Additionally, there is laws protecting wildlife and promoting good practices with wildlife. For example, you can’t take selfies or touch wildlife without fines and possible jail time. On some more cultural aspects, my time with my homestay and mamatica was unforgettable. Getting to have conversations about their way of life, the importance of family, as well as eating authentic meals was very interesting. I found it interesting how we had gallopinto (rice and beans) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In America, I feel like we have a variety of food daily, so it was interesting to have the same thing be part of each meal of the day. My family also was right next door to their grandparents, siblings, and cousins as family is highly important to many Costa Ricans. My time abroad has changed my perspectives and shown me to be grateful for everything that I have the opportunity to do. I don’t know what I was fully expecting leaving for this trip but my impressions of Costa Rica are about how kind and welcoming the country is and living the life of pura vida. This trip has taught me a lot about myself and how I enjoy trying new things and learning about people and how they live. I feel like this experience will also help me in my future as I plan to work for a big four accounting firm that will have some international clients with different cultures and ways of doing business. I enjoyed my time and am thankful I had the opportunity to go. I hope there will be more travel in the future! |