English language learning in Costa Rica has become a priority for many Ticos who want to broaden their financial and cultural horizons. Foreigners visiting and relocating to Costa Rica find out that although about 10 percent of the population speaks English (mostly in the Central Valley, Limon and tourist areas), learning Spanish is key in terms of assimilation.

For many of us raised in a mostly monolingual society, learning a second language is a difficult task. There are various linguistic theories that attempt to explain why some people struggle with the process of language acquisition, particularly as adults. Acquiring a language is an incredibly complex affair, even our native language; we just don’t remember how difficult it was since we were so young when we accomplished it.

For young American polyglot Timothy Doner, English and Spanish are simply not enough. Doner speaks 23 languages, and he started with two languages that share little in common with his native English: Hebrew and Arabic. Speaking to BBC News Europe, Doner explained that becoming a polyglot “kind of grew on me.”

Doner says that most self-learning material marketed to the masses on foreign languages tends to focus on tourism activities. His autodidactic approach to learning is from the top down: due to his interest in linguistics –the scientific study of languages- he tackles grammar and structure first. Morphology, syntax and syllabic formation come first in Doner’s strategy.

The young polyglot admits that some languages are harder than others to learn. For native English speakers, Russian is a real challenge due to grammar and pronunciation.

Native languages of the Americas, such as Navajo in the United States and Bribri in Costa Rica are far removed from the Indo-European languages many of us are used to, and these languages are challenging even to Doner.  This is why the United States Marine Corps enlisted young Navajo speakers as code-talkers during World War II: to transmit Allied secret messages in their native language, something that baffled enemy linguists and cryptographers.  The 2002 film Windtalkers, directed by Hong Kong action master John Woo, fictionalized code talkers serving in Japan.

Language learners in Costa Rica have many choices. There is Costa Rica Multilingue, a government-sponsored initiative that aims to advance language learning in our country. Online resources like the Internet Polyglot come in handy for language learners who wish to improve their vocabulary. If you know of other resources, or if you wish to share your language learning approach, please let us know.