Welcome to Costa Rica!
May 14, 2009
Find out how broadening you knowledge, such as learning a second language, can enhance your performance at work, as well as help you become a more well rounded person.
One of the great benefits of traveling is the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people and to be exposed to a wide variety of ideas. On one recent trip I met a person who had his own unique situation for ensuring that he and his family continued to pursue their life-long learning.
Sitting opposite me on a flight back from California was a man studying a Spanish textbook. Since I’m also studying Spanish, I introduced myself and asked him what his motivation was to learn the language.
He said that he and his family had been living in Costa Rica for two years, and he figured that he shouldn’t squander the opportunity to learn a language in a “total immersion” environment.
Naturally, I asked what brought him to Costa Rica, expecting the standard answer that he was on a two-year expatriate assignment with his company. Not even close. What he had done was move his family to Costa Rica so that they could experience another culture and learn the language and customs first hand.
He was an acupuncturist with a practice in Orange County who spent two weeks a month in California and then returned to Costa Rica for the remainder of the month to be with his family. His five children spoke a total of seven different languages. In fact, his 16-year-old son spoke English, Spanish, Hebrew, and two different dialects of Chinese, which he could also read and write.
I was in awe that this family thought so much about providing opportunities for their children to learn that they consciously engineered their own “expatriate assignment” to make the concept a reality.
In our own busy lives, it’s often difficult to find time to enhance our own knowledge base. However, if we don’t make the effort, we end up recycling the same knowledge over and over again.
Try to find an opportunity (any opportunity) to add to your learning. Set aside time to read a magazine from outside of your field. Take up a hobby you’ve been thinking of trying for quite some time. Meet with someone who is a native speaker of a language you would like to learn. Or you may want to attend an evening seminar or class.
You’ll find that by expanding your learning, you will not only enhance your performance at work, but you’ll become a more well-rounded person. And you never know where your learning might take you…maybe even Costa Rica!
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