Hi, I’m Nay. You may be like me where solo travel seems simultaneously perfect and too risky. You may also be like me where the list of things you want to do “someday” just keeps growing without someday ever actually arriving.
Before I tell you about my trip, there are a couple of things you should know about me. First, I am a chronic worrier. I create doomsday scenarios from any vanilla task. All my back-up plans come with back-up plans. I am also insatiably curious; I love learning and new experiences.
After a carefully planned exit from the workforce for two years of graduate study in Statistics, it was time. Before I settled into a new job in a new place, I was going to tackle some things on the list. One—travel alone in a non-English speaking country, two—get certified to teach English, and three—push myself to speak Spanish outside of a classroom. My planning led me to Máximo Nivel in Costa Rica, which for me turned out to be a great balance between being supported and being pushed.
Below are a few reflections (and unsolicited advice) on my time with Máximo Nivel.
Arriving in Costa Rica
In the weeks leading up to my trip, my schedule was very intense and my preparation for Costa Rica only included the essentials. I was registered for a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) class, had housing for two weeks, and a flexible-date return flight six weeks out. I had just bought my first smartphone—which I didn’t know how to use—with no international calling or data. I knew nothing about Costa Rica other than what I watched in the promotional video from Máximo. For someone who called himself an over-planner two paragraphs ago, I guess I am starting to sound like an unreliable storyteller.
I was very relieved when I got off the plane and someone from Máximo was there waiting, as promised, to take me to the bus station. I was instructed to wait for the bus that said Quepos on the marquee, but as the departure time grew close, none arrived. Lucky for me, I remembered from the website that Máximo’s school wasn’t advertised as being in Quepos but the neighboring town of Manuel Antonio.
There were two identical buses labeled with Manuel Antonio. I approached the driver of the first bus and asked in clumsy Spanish if this was the bus to Quepos and he pointed to the other bus. The second driver glanced at my ticket and waved me on. Hopefully, I was going to the right place. I mentally kicked myself for not having a map or data on my phone. Also, the Costa Rican travel guide my friend got me as a gift was in the cargo hold of the bus. Nice planning, Nay.
After about 3 hours I did arrive in Quepos and was relieved once again to see that my host mom was waiting for me. I was able to get settled into my new temporary home as I prepared myself to start TEFL class the next day.
TEFL at Máximo Nivel is for the Committed
I completed my TEFL course at Máximo’s Manuel Antonio location, which relocated to Quepos, about 3 kilometers north of Manuel Antonio. I had the absolute privilege of studying with master teacher of teachers, Lewis. He is 110 percent committed to his craft and orchestrates a classroom with high expectations that both pushes us and entertains. Somehow, he is constantly delivering twice as much as he requires of us. (Lewis, if you are reading this, I imagine you are making grammar corrections and shaking your head. I promise I did learn a lot.)
Máximo offers on-site, online, and hybrid TEFL courses. For me, the hybrid option worked best. As a hybrid student, I completed the pedagogical and grammar portions of the course in my home country earlier and spent two weeks in the TEFL course in Costa Rica. During my first week on-site, I felt like I was playing catch-up with my peers who had already been at the school for two weeks.
However, the hybrid students join on-site having already completed more coursework than the fully on-site students, which levels the class in some way and gave us noobs a chance to get caught up. The second and final on-site week is all teaching—each day you are preparing to teach, teaching your class of actual ESL students, and getting feedback on your teaching.
This was a tough week. You know the intended level of the class and the topics you need to teach, but you don’t know the actual level and experience of the students who end up attending your class. I had to let go and come to terms with the fact that some of my lessons didn’t go well. Sometimes the best you have isn’t perfect.
As hard as the practical teaching week was, it was a real benefit of TEFL certification with Máximo. Earlier in my career, I was a special education teacher. No type of training prepared me for what it was actually like to teach in earnest. Even with prior teaching experience, teaching ESL using the methods taught at Máximo often felt like a brand-new skill. The ability to practice those skills in a real classroom is a key advantage of the program with Máximo.
If you want to speed run everything you never learned about English grammar, be immersed in what it is like to teach English abroad, and you are ready to work hard for it, I think it’s unlikely you will find a better program. But this is not a program for someone who just wants a prettier résumé. You will have long days studying, doing assignments, and preparing lessons. You will be standing in front of real students and teaching, sometimes in front of your peers. There will likely be times when you will feel embarrassed, unsure, and underprepared despite all your efforts. In other words, it prepares you for actually teaching.
Because Quepos is right on the coast, I assumed there would be an accessible beach, but this isn’t the case. However, there is a very nice beach and national park in Manuel Antonio that is only a short trip by bus and costs less than the equivalent of USD $2 round trip. The buses come all day, roughly every 30 minutes. The town of Quepos itself is quieter and less touristy with a small, very walkable downtown area that has restaurants and small shops.
Stay with a host family (if you are a good guest and willing to be flexible)
Besides the quality of instruction at Máximo, there is a second aspect of my experience that I think is impossible to overstate, which is the number of incredible people I met—both Ticos (Costa Rican locals) and foreigners like me. I was a little hesitant to do a homestay at first because I thought I was too old (turns out, that’s not a thing) and I didn’t want to inconvenience a family with my dietary restrictions.
I am very glad that I took the advice of Máximo staff and went with the homestay. I stayed with two host families, one in Quepos and one in San José. Both have worked with Máximo for a long time and were great hosts. I learned a lot about daily life in Costa Rica and the local community that I would not have if I stayed in a hostel or an apartment. They were also gracious in providing advice and helping me with troubleshooting issues as they arose.
At a homestay, there are constantly people coming and going. It may sound chaotic but, quite honestly, it wasn’t. Máximo attracts program participants who are overall adventurous and kind, from different parts of the world, and with a wide range of life experience. Family meals had a mix of new faces, and I was constantly getting to know really interesting people, some of whom I stayed connected with.
That said—host families are opening their own homes to guests. You will not have the amenities of a resort. You are eating meals like a family, not ordering off a menu. Air conditioning and indoor heating is not common in private homes—Quepos is very warm and San José gets very cold at night. Wi-Fi may be inconsistent. If you have some non-negotiables that may not be available with a host family, such as temperature control, a homestay may not be best. But if you have the ability to be flexible and are a respectful guest, the homestay is a really amazing way to meet people and get to know a different side of Costa Rica.
Consider taking Spanish Classes
Regardless of your reason for traveling, if you ever wanted to learn Spanish—even if you “tried before but just can’t do it”—I’d recommend you consider taking classes. One of the more common regrets I heard expressed by others was that they wish they knew Spanish during their trip or that they wish they had taken classes during their time there. (Also, if you gave up learning Spanish because you can’t roll your R’s—Costa Rica is your place to learn because no one rolls their R’s in Costa Rica.)
For years, I have taken Spanish classes here and there, but it wasn’t consistent enough to sustain what I learned. I was really nervous at first about how much I would remember. There were definitely frustrating times where I was relearning grammar rules and vocabulary that I know I learned before, but a lot of things started to come back. I tested at pre-intermediate 1 and left with a High Intermediate certificate, which is a big jump in a short amount of time.
This was partly due to how poorly I performed on the initial test, but also a testament to Teddy and Wendy, my teachers. I studied with Teddy, my Spanish professor in San José, the longest. Teddy has a wealth of experience teaching Spanish and knows the places where students get stuck. After studying how to teach language, I was in awe of how he seemed to effortlessly know what to say and do to help us. His demeanor is very calm, and he creates an environment that is welcoming.
The tandem program in San José is also well-developed, with a lot of opportunities to converse with English language learners. If you are not familiar with tandem or cross-talk programs, they pair two language learners who are each trying to learn the native language of the other. At Máximo, this program pairs Tico English Language Learners with foreign Spanish Language Learners. For 30 minutes the pair speaks in Spanish and for 30 minutes they speak in English.
These are unstructured, casual conversations with each person having the opportunity to practice the language they are learning, as well as serve as a guide to their own native tongue. I had the privilege of talking with approximately a dozen different people this way about all types of topics, from music recommendations and local fauna to socio-political differences between Perú and Costa Rica.
I supplemented my classes with other online resources, especially the comprehensible input method used by the site Dreaming Spanish, after receiving an enthusiastic recommendation for it from another student (I’ll enthusiastically recommend it to you, too). Between the homestay, classes, watching content in Spanish, and navigating daily life, I was able to spend almost all my time in San José immersed in Spanish.
Pura Vida and Your Daily Planner
Without a doubt, the most common frustration or worry I heard (and experienced sometimes, too) was related to planning: not knowing the plan, not having all the details on the timeline, not knowing what to anticipate. This is, without a doubt, at least partly cultural.
If you’re familiar with Costa Rica, you’ve likely heard the saying “Pura Vida.” Things will get done, but they will get done at their own pace. Your 7:00 meeting may not start at the top of the hour. The end time is almost certainly TBD. Need to go to the bank? Any public institution? Bring a book and enjoy the respite from the heat while you wait. Relax, pura vida. You’re gonna be there a while.
Many visitors like me are accustomed to a structured approach to time and plans. In Costa Rica, you may not have the level of detail or communication you are comfortable with. It doesn’t mean that something is wrong or not organized; it may just be a difference of expectation and culture. If you have a concern that something is incorrect, of course, ask. But setting your internal clock to “Tico time” and relaxing your own expectations around managing an organized schedule will likely help you enjoy your experience more.
Bueno, if “someday” for you has arrived, ¡Nos vemos en Costa Rica!