Ahorita

In Costa Rica means “in a little while” or “in a bit”. Which—as we were taught in the 45 minutes of Tico (Costa Ricans are called “Ticos” or “Ticas”) Culture 101 that we received our first day of Orientation—can be any time up to 24 hours. Ahora means later (ie, within the next few days). It’s rather strange getting used to using these words this way when I’ve been taught that ahora means “now” and ahorita means “right now.” If you actually want something “right now,” you use ya (or ja, in some places). The problem is, ya also means “already,” “soon,” and “later.” You can also use it to form present progressive: ¡Ya voy!: I’m coming! I usually hear my students say this when they’re being called in from recreo (recess). They also use ya to mean “done.” As soon as they finish anything, they put their pencils (or gel pens—as one of our Field Staff put it, the gel pen business is alive and thriving in Costa Rica) down, they yell out to their teacher, “¡Ya, Don!” (for a male) or “¡Ya, Niña” (for a female).

I don’t quite understand the custom of referring to male teachers as “mister” but female teachers as “girl,” rather than Doña. Even outside of school (and by adults) the female teacher at our school, Shirley, is referred to as niña. I’m sure (assume) it must mean something different to them in that context, but the literal translation makes me feel a bit odd. I try to refer to her as Doña Shirley when I can. I hope that’s okay... I made sure to break my students of that habit when I first started teaching them. No Niña. No Muchacha. Only Teacher or Kyra. I hope they don’t think that “teacher” means “niña”… At any rate, now they say:

¡Ya, Teacher!

“Done, Teacher!” Is my next step.