Spanish classes at Coupeville High School had not prepared Kristen Tully and Sharlie Blouin for the size of tropical bugs they would see in Costa Rica; they did, however help the girls cross cultural and language barriers.

Tully, 17, and Blouin, 16, are two of the five students from Everett Winsberg’s Spanish class, who traveled to Costa Rica this past summer as part of an interactive culture and language experience.

Having returned home, and now in the middle of a new school year, Winsberg and his students agree that language classes equip students with more than just language skills, but they also agree that they would like to see less of an inoculation approach to language classes, and more of a mastery approach.

Winsberg said when he teaches Spanish, he not only hopes to get his students ready for university placement tests and good grades, he also strives to instill in his students a real grasp of Spanish and Latin cultures, a usable and workable grasp of language, and live examples as he tests his students’ language skills.

He also hopes that his students come away from their Spanish classes with a respect for the native and most basic purpose of language — the transfer of ideas, experiences and feelings from one individual to another; impacting one life with another.

This type of exchange between cultures was just what Robbert Sadesky, 17, another one of Winsberg’s students who went to Costa Rica, was seeking.

“I actually wanted to go there because I was interested in seeing a different culture,” Sadesky said. “I think most Americans have one view. They figure everything is like us, but I knew it’s not.”

The experience afforded Sadesky a number of differences. One of his favorites was a drink made from the tropical starfruit. Blending up the fresh fruit, they would then add water and sweeten to taste.

“He was pondering taking some through customs,” Winsberg said. “But he didn’t think it would fly.”

Sadesky said he appreciates the Spanish classes he has taken, but he thinks foreign language teachers could not only teach on giving the right answers for tests, but also incorporate curriculum or exercises that teach students to think on their feet, spur of the moment, without having any time to prepare, mark pages or write their answers out. He calls this “Spanish on the spot.”

Blouin said if she were to teach a language class, she would have students listen to more native speakers, so they could get used to hearing each language with their native accent and acquire an ear for the language’s stress points, rhythms, intonations and true pronunciation of words.

Blouin said, however, that she doesn’t know what she would have done in Costa Rica if she hadn’t taken any Spanish classes at Coupeville High.

Through home-stays, Winsberg said he and the students experienced Costa Rica from a rural perspective and saw a side of life which, he said, did not differ too far from Coupeville’s rural atmosphere. He said he wakes up and see cows and fields outside his window in Coupeville, and he woke up and saw cows and fields outside his window in Costa Rica. Except, Costa Rican fields are graced with palms instead of pines.

The group also got to see a volcano, hot springs, tour a coffee plantation, tropical beaches and experience the home life of a Costa Rican family.

“I really liked Costa Rica,” Blouin said. “The beaches are beautiful. The country — the people were friendly, and they were all ready to help you learn.”

And that is what the trip was about, learning.

“I think if anyone wants to truly understand, they need to go and live in that culture,” Winsberg said. “And I have to say, that is the only method to get that level of understanding.”

He said he believes his students came back from Costa Rica with a deeper appreciation for Spanish and each with a desire to travel again and expand their minds by attending the schools-of-life in other cultures.