Careers, jobs and lifestyles

Costa Rica is one of the most popular retirement havens in Central America. Expats have been flocking here for more than 30 years. And when you are living in Costa Rica you will enjoy the country’s long stretches of deserted and undeveloped beaches, on the Caribbean and Pacific Coasts…dense jungles teeming with exotic wildlife…towering volcanoes, lush green valleys, mountain villages, bustling market towns, quiet rural areas, and hundreds of crystal-clear lakes, rivers, streams, and waterfalls. All these things, and much more, make living in Costa Rica such a draw for retirees and other expats.

Working in Costa Rica has become an option for numerous assignees, since multinationals discovered the benefits of setting up shop here. Are you one of these expats? Or are you interested in the ecotourism sector? Read on for info on the economy, permits, and business etiquette in Costa Rica.

Agriculture 
Traditionally, Costa Rica has been world-renowned for the quality of its produce. Coffee, pineapples, and bananas have helped to put Costa Rica on the map and provided a steady flow of income for the country. 

Tourism 
The nation profits greatly from its rich flora and fauna. The environmental protection agendas many nations contemplate are actually working in Costa Rica, blessing the country with a biodiversity that is almost unparalleled. Costa Rica was trailblazing in the introduction of the ecotourism concept, and it is the Central American country which attracts most tourists.

Activities:

A.INSTRUCTIONS: Answer the questions below. What are they?

1. Who repairs cars? ________________
   
2. Who drives a taxi? _______________.
   
3. Who is the guy who catches criminals? ___________________.
   
4. Who makes bread? _______________.
   
5. Who works in a newspaper? _____________
   
6. Who writes novels? __________________
   

B.Write a paragraph describing your dream job and its characteristics, and elements should have
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our democratic traditions

Civil elections have shown that Costa Rica’s democracy is beacon of stability for Central America. An article on its ‘Refreshing Electoral Process’ by QCostaRica’s Simone Shapiro, explains that “like the United States, Costa Rica is a constitutional republic and has been since 1949. Like the United States, Costa Rica holds presidential elections every four years. Costa Rica held its presidential election to customize this process.”

Civil elections show the benefits of the stability enjoyed by a country that has been without an army for half a century; it the only country without a military in the world. Costa Rica’s democracy and Costa Rica’s democratic tradition are the result. What is a better role model for the rest of Central America? Add your answers below! | Democracy, elections, and voting at Democracy Chronicles.

Vocabulary

•  Freedom of Speech
•  To elect
•  Law
•  Judge
•  Foreigners
•  Citizens
•  Campaing
•  Ideology
•  Reformer
•  Election
•  Opinion
•  Referendum
• Government
•  Right
•  Democracy

Activities:

Common illness and diseases

What is a disease?

A disease is a particular abnormal condition, a disorder of a structure or function, that affects part or all of an organism. 
Disease is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors such as pathogens or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions particularly of the immune system.

In humans, disease is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases can affect people not only physically, but also emotionally, as contracting and living with a disease can alter the affected person's perspective on life.


What is a illness?

Illness is generally used as a synonym for disease. However, this term is occasionally used to refer specifically to the patient's personal experience of his or her disease.

Examples of diseases and illnesses 

• Asthma
• Cancer
• Back pain 
•  Diahrrea 
• Fever
• Headache
• Stomachache
• Flu
• Cough
• Backache 

Activities:

Doctors don’t always know what causes high blood pressure which is also called hypertension, but we do know a few things about this disease. For example, more men than women have it, and it usually begins in middle or old aged persons. It sometimes runs in families.
Many people have high blood pressure without knowing it, because there are usually no clear symptoms. If you want to know whether you have high blood pressure, ask your doctor to check it with a blood pressure instrument.
If you have high blood pressure, what can you do about it? If you are heavy, losing weight will help. Some patient’s blood pressure goes down when they reduce eating over salted food. Other people can improve by learning how to relax and by doing the right kind of exercise. Fortunately, it is possible to control high blood pressure today with proper medicine. If not controlled, high blood pressure can lead to serious problems, like heart disease. 

1- What is hypertension?

2- Name four things a patient of high blood pressure should do?

Other home remedies
For a cold: eat hot chicken soup.
For a sore throat: drink hot lemon juice with honey. 
For insomnia: drink a glass of hot milk
For stress: exercise and find some free time to do what you enjoy the most.

1. What can you do when you have stress? _________________.
A) do exercise
B) don’t eat hot chicken soup
C) eat hot chicken soup
D) don’t do what you enjoy the most.

2. What can you do when you have insomnia? __________________.
A) do exercise
B) drink hot chicken soup 
C) drink cold milk
D) drink boiled milk 

Tourism world wide and tourist attractions

Tourism in Costa Rica is one of the fastest growing economic sectors of the country and by 1995 became the largest foreign exchange earner. Costa Rica became a popular nature travel destination, and its main competitive advantage is its well-established system of national parks and protected areas, covering around 23.4% of the country's land area, the largest in the world as a percentage of the country's territory, and home to a rich variety of flora and fauna. 
The country also has plenty of beaches, both in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, within short travel distances, and also several volcanoes that can be visited with safety.
Costa Rica stands as the most visited nation in the Central American region.

Tourism is one of Costa Rica's most important businesses, and they are blessed to contain all the key ingredients of the perfect tourist destination. Eco-tourism is Costa Rica's #1 business and with good reason since Costa Rica is home to several pristine beaches, volcanoes, hot springs, caves, rainforests, mountains, waterfalls and more. Costa Rica's impressive biodiversity is what makes it a key destination.

Activities:

GET READY FOR A THRILLING ADVENTURE
Costa Rica’s topography provides excellent water all year long. Costa Sol Rafting runs tours of class II rivers (for beginners) through class IV rivers (for intermediates), like the Reventazon and Pacuare, and offers the highest quality trips available.

All tours include:  lunch  insurance  transportation  security kayak  typical breakfast

 rafting equipment  trained guides in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and First Aid  Be ready to get wet! During the rafting trip you should wear sneakers or river shoes, shorts and a T-shirt. Bring a change of clothing and a towel for after the trip.

1. Costa Sol offers tourists __________ trips. 
A) boring
B) unexciting
C) adventurous
D) overnight-stay

2. Costa Rican rivers __________ for rafting during the whole year. 
A) supply enough water
B) offer little excitement
C) show deficient conditions
D) have the lowest water level

1. Beginners must practice rafting only in class II rivers. 2. All participants provide their own the necessary equipment. 3. Intermediates are allowed to practice rafting in class IV Rivers. 4. Only intermediates are allowed to practice rafting in Costa Rican rivers. 3.From the options above, which statements are correct? __________  A) 1and2

B) 2and3  C) 3 and 1  D) 4 and 1 4.The rafting trip company has __________ for the tourists in case of accidents.  A) lunch B) breakfast C) insurance D) river shoes

Cause and effect of the missue of natural resource

The Environment influences an organism's life in many ways. It is everything that surrounds an organism and it includes physical and biological components. The physical components of the environment are soil, water, air, light and temperature. These are termed as abiotic components. The biological components are plants and animals, collectively referred to as biotic components. Air, water, soil, minerals, coal, petroleum, animals and plants are referred to as natural resources.

Types of natural resources:

Inexhaustible Natural Resource: the inexhaustible natural resources are unlimited in nature, and they are not likely to be exhausted by human activities. Example are solar radiation, air, water, precipitation (rainfall, snow fall, etc.,) and atomic power.

Exhaustible Natural Resource: the exhaustible natural resources are limited in nature and are liable to be degraded in quantity and quality by human activities. Examples are forests, soil, wild animals, minerals, fossil fuels etc.

Activities:

READ THE FOLLOWING READING AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE READING.

The only way to protect the rivers and oceans of Costa Rica is to have impact studies involving local community and scientific assessment; this is in order to give diagnostic credibility and to prevent more crimes against nature from industries and giant mega-projects that alter and damage the surrounding areas near water sources above and below the ground. Pollutants dumped into the river alter surrounding areas and fresh water supplies. This is as old as the industrial age.

The government of Costa Rica should punish those responsible with large fines and sanctions, such as cleaning up the mess and replacing all the fish and shrimp and other flora and fauna damaged before their operation license is returned.


QUESTIONS:
1. What is the best option to keep waters clean? _________________________________________________________

2. What does the construction of big commercial companies cause? _________________________________________________________

3. The author of the article considers that local authorities must __________________________________________________________


Enviromental Vocabulary

• acid rain 
• carbon dioxide
• chemicals 
• climate change 
• conservation 
• contamination
• deforestation 
• eco-friendly 
• ecological 
• ecologist 
• ecosystem 
• effluent 

 

Holidays and Celebrations

When considering a visit to Costa Rica, something important to take into consideration are the national holidays. It would be a shame to come when everything is closed. As mentioned before “Ticos” are rather religious people so most of their holidays are church related. For example, if plans include coming to visit the country during Holy Week, it is important to know that most of the countries offices, banks, courts, government offices, and many stores will be closed, and locals head for the beach and mountain spots to relax for an entire week. These mass migrations to the beach spots make finding a hotel very difficult and many times the rental car places will not have even a single car. This also happens during Christmas/New Year’s so plan ahead. These times of the year are also on record as the most expensive times to visit Costa Rica.

A list of major national holidays year round and a brief description:

• January 1st: New Year’s Day is celebrated outside San José, and the ones that decide to stay at home meet their families or go out to bars and wait together for the New Year to come.
• February 14th: San Valentine's Day. is celebrated all around the world "Ticos" celebrate “El día  Del Amor y la Amistad” (love and friendship day) taking their partners to dinner, sending flowers or exchanging chocolates or cards.
• Between March and April Easter Holy Week, Semana Santa: Dates change annually but businesses often close from Holy Thursday to Sunday. Most Catholic Churches will made religious processions in which they re-create dramatizations of Jesus' final days before being crucified.
• April 11th: Juan Santamaria Day. commemorates Costa Rica’s national hero who fought at the battle of Rivas against the American invader, William Walker, in 1856. The International Airport is named after him.
• May 1st: Labor Day. Dia de los Trabajadores. is the same as Labor Day in North America and every public and private sector employee has the day off.
• July 25th: Guanacaste Day. is celebrated for the annexation of Guanacaste from Nicaragua in 1824. Highlights usually include bullfights, rodeos, dancing, topes, and other parades and parties all around the province.
• August 15th: Mother’s Day. is surprisingly a major national holiday where all the locals have off work to go and be with their mothers.
• September 15th: Independence Day. big patriotic parades celebrate Costa Rica’s independence from Spain in 1821. Everything is closed including some streets. High school bands commemorate marching and playing national songs, and the country is decorated with blue, red, and white hand-made crafts, little flags and “faroles” (kind of paper lanterns lighted with candles). It is a day of large community celebrations.

Activities:

Anna:
“I’m planning my holiday for next summer and I don’t know whether I should have a lazy holiday or an exciting one. Last year I went on holiday to southern Spain with my best friends, Joanna and Ling. We stayed in a brilliant four‐star hotel, which had three swimming pools. It was quite expensive but we really enjoyed ourselves and we all got great suntans! This year, Joanna is going away with her parents to Greece so it’ll be just Ling and me. Ling wants us to go on an adventure holiday in Africa, the type where you have to go walking in the desert and sleep out in the open. She said it would be interesting and better than having a lazy holiday because we would learn about the world around us and see some wild animals. I’m not sure whether I want to go to Africa. For me, a holiday means relaxing on a beach, not trekking across the middle of nowhere. Ling said that we’d see elephants and zebras and have some amazing experiences. I think she’s bored of lying in the sun all day and fancies a change. I’ve got to make up my mind by next Monday at the latest so that she can book the tickets. It would cost £1,400 each to go to Africa, but less than half that amount for two weeks in Portugal.”
Questions:
1. When is Anna going on holiday?
2. Name her two closest friends.
3. True or false – last year she went to northern Spain?
4. How many swimming pools did their hotel have?
5. Was the hotel expensive?
6. True or false – only Anna got a good suntan?
7. Where is Joanna going on holiday this year?
8. Who is she going with?
9. What type of holiday does Ling want this year?
10. Where does she want to go?



PUZZLE ACTIVITY

More about some holidays...

Typical food

Costa Rican cuisine is known for being fairly mild, with high reliance on fresh fruits and vegetables. Rice and black bean are a staple of most traditional Costa Rican meals, often served three times a day. Costa Rican fare is nutritionally well rounded, and nearly always cooked from scratch from fresh ingredients. Traditional meals have a home-cooked, comforting feel to them. Due to the tropical location of the country, there are many exotic fruits and vegetables readily available and included in the local cuisine.

Traditional dishes and beverages from Costa Rica:

• Gallo pinto 
• Rice of corn 
• Tamales
• Chorreadas
• Vigoron
• Tanela 
• Chicha
• Coyol
• Horchata

Activities:

Costarican art, music and handcraft

The Arts of Costa Rica are diverse. Visitors and locals alike can enjoy a day of Dance or Music at a local Theatre or perhaps enjoy a presentation of Paintings or Photography at a local gallery. There are also countless Museums to be appreciated in the San Jose area and around the country. A walk around downtown San Jose can open one's eyes to a variety of different styles of Architecture from colonial to modern.  From oil canvases to digital photography, to Literature Costa Rica has it all from national to international artists who call Costa Rica home.

The Culture of Costa Rica

Music and dance in Costa Rica:

Ticos love to dance. By night San José gets into the mood with discos hotter than the tropical night. On weekends rural folks flock to small-town dance halls, and the Ticos' celebrated reserve gives way to outrageously flirtatious dancing. Says National Geographic: "To watch the viselike clutching of Ticos and Ticas dancing, whether at a San José discotheque or a crossroads cantina, is to marvel that the birthrate in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation is among Central America's lowest." Outside the dance hall, the young prefer to listen to Anglo-American rock, like their counterparts the world over. When it comes to dancing, however, they prefer the hypnotic Latin and rhythmic Caribbean beat and bewildering cadences of cumbia, lambada, marcado, merengue, salsa, soca, and the Costa Rican swing, danced with sure-footed erotic grace. 

• Folkloric music
• Classical music

Activities:

Reading Comprehension:

MUSEUM CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY
The Children’s Museum is holding a one-week celebration starting April 25. On the opening day of the celebration, they will have an “Intelligent Light Show”, where the lights will dance to a mix of music at 3, 4, and 5 p.m. Admission is free. On April 26, a Latin American Culture Night will feature dances, music videos, and paintings of various Latin American countries at the Museum. The ticket price is ₡ 1,500. A rock concert with the groups Gandhi, Evolution and Stigma will be held at 9 p.m. April 30 at the museum. The ticket price is ₡ 2,000.
On May 2, the final day of celebrations, the museum will hold a carnival starting at 10 a.m. and lasting to 3 p.m. 

1. What celebration starts on April 25? The __________ birthday of the Children’s Museum.
a. twenty-fifth
b. fourth
c. Tenth d. Fifth

2. What time will the rock concert be? At __________. a. nine at night
b. ten in the morning
c. nine in the morning
d. three in the afternoon

3. What will the last activity be? A (n) __________.painting exhibition a. intelligence
b. show
c. carnival
d. dance 

4. What will the Latin Night include? It will include __________. a. dances and music
b. paintings and a light show
c. videos and rock music performers
d.a presentation by the groups Evolution and Stigma

5.How long will the celebrations for the anniversary last? They will last __________. a. two months
b. one month
c. two weeks
d. one week 

Miguel· Brenes is one Costa Rica’s living master sculptors. f-Iisworks
celebrate the "Eternal Feminine'' in wood, stone, and bronze. Inaddition to holding a degree in Fine Art from the University of Costa Rica (U.C.R.), he studied extensively at the National School of Painting and Sculpture of Mexico.Brenes' sculptures have been widely shown in Central America and Mexico in individual and group exhibitions. A native of Heredia, Miguel Brenes has obtained numerous awards and honors for bis work, including a meda! in the First Fine Arts Salon of the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, the Acquisition Prize in.the Second Biennial of Fine Arts in El Salvador, and the first prize far Central American Sculpture in Guatemala.

Answer the following questions based on the previous reading.

1. What’s Brenes nationality? _______________________________________
   
2. Where did Brenes first study arts? __________________________________
   
3. Why is Brenes mainly famous for? _________________________________
   
4. Where did he get his first prize? ___________________________________ 

Achievements of our national athletes, sports

Sports  are all forms of usually competitive physical activity or games which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators. Usually the contest or game is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a tie game; others provide tie-breaking methods, to ensure one winner and one loser. A number of such two-sided contests may be arranged in a tournament producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports seasons, followed in some cases by playof. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as racing  contestants may compete, each against all with one winner.

Different types of sports:
-soccer
-tennis
-volleyball 
-baseball 
-basketball 
-football
-badminton 
     

Reading comprehension activity

Triathlon is a sport that consists of three parts, swimming, cycling and running. Athletes race against each other. They swim first, cycle second and run last. Triathlon became an Olympic Sport in 2000 at the Sydney Summer Olympics in Australia. In the Olympics athletes swim for 1.5 km, cycle for 40 km and then run for 10 km. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China the women’s gold medal in triathlon was won by an Australian, Emma , who completed the race in just under two hours. Jan Frodeno from Germany won the men’s gold medal; he finished the race in one hour and 48 minutes.
A popular triathlon event is the Sprint Triathlon. It is a shorter race. It is half the distance of the triathlon of the Olympics. In the Sprint Triathlon athletes swim for 750 metres, cycle for 20 km and run for 5 km. If you think that this is too short for you, you can try the Ironman Triathlon. In the Ironman competition athletes swim for 3.86 km, cycle for 180 km and then run for 42.2 km! The fastest athletes can finish an Ironman Triathlon in just over eight hours!

Fill in the blanks:

1. The Sprint Triathlon is ___________________ than an Olympic Triathlon.

2. The fastest athletes finish an Ironman Triathlon in just over ______________ hours.

3. A triathlon has _________ parts, cycling, ________________ and swimming.

4. The 2008 summer Olympics were held in ________________________________.

Video about sports:
What are sports?