Reading between the lines

Considering miscommunications; Well I came into this country with one semester of spanish under my belt, so at first it was very hard to communicate. I have never had so many quiet dinners then during the first few weeks of homestay. There was a huge language barrier. As for intercultural differences and stereotypes, either I was extremely narrow-sighted or my situation was unique because I didn't notice any. In addition, unlike in the article "Stumbling blocks", the families here will smile and be friendly even to strangers. This could be because the Monteverde locals are so used to the heavy amount of tourist traffic that they have adapted to some of foreigners attitudes that they are immersed with each day. There is a large presence of tourism here with "rural tourism" and "hotel tourism" part of mandatory public high school curriculum's. I think the constant presence of foreigners here has made these ticos immune and actually maybe assimilating them to European and American culture.