We’ve written before about how learning Spanish can make your move to Costa Rica much easier. (See here.)  But, if you’re anyone like me, learning a second language can languish for what seems forever.  Enter master linguistic Rosetta Stone. They’ve just announced TOTALe, which, according to John Biggs at TechCrunch, offers to change all that with live language lessons and activities. According to Biggs:

“Their new system, called TOTALe, adds two interactive ingredients to the mix. The first is the Rosetta Studio, a live lesson area where you and two other students at your skill level work one-on-one with a live, native speaker.

The second ingredient is Rosetta World, a matching service that connects a native speaker of one language with a learner of the other and, in some cases, vice versa. This means an Italian learning English would be connected with an American learning Italian. They then perform activities or play games related to the subject matter and can chat with each other in their native languages. The World portion also takes advantage of Rosetta Stone’s extensive network of students who have used other company products in the past, ensuring everyone can be paired up.”

Get the latest scoop on this remarkable new language learning software by visiting TechCrunch.

US expatriates who are struggling with expatriate tax will find the article written by Nick Hodges, President of NCH Wealth Advisors, very helpful. The article – 25 Questions US expatriates MUST Ask provides US expatriates with the best tools, strategies and planning techniques to help US expatriates to manage their tax and financial goals and dreams on a day-to-day basis regardless of their location.

The Internet super-highway opens up marvelous opportunities for US expatriates to harvest expat tax advice and information from some of the greatest minds at reasonable prices from anywhere in the world. But it also emphasizes a crucial question: How do you know whom to trust? Sharing your intimate, personal financial information with a stranger is problematic at best. The article’s 25 questions can help any expat choose a tax and financial professional you can trust. The original article can be found at: http://www.ExpatCFO.com.

Much interest continues to be shown about the rules and regulations regarding bringing pets into Costa Rica. The following from Livingabroadin.com will answer many questions and help clarify the procedure. In this case, dogs and cats.

For dogs and cats and other small pets, you’ll need to prove to both the airlines and Costa Rica customs officers that your animal is healthy. Schedule an exam with your local veterinarian a week or two before your departure date—the vet should fill out a health certificate stating that the animal is disease-free and has been vaccinated against distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus, and rabies. The rabies vaccination is supposed to be more than 30 days but less than a year old, and is necessary only for animals 4 months or older. The health certificate should then be endorsed by a Veterinary Service (VS) veterinarian, but need not be notarized. The Costa Rican consulate says the examination for the certificate must be conducted within the two weeks prior to travel to Costa Rica, though anecdotal evidence suggests that a certificate up to 30 days old will do the trick.

Pet owners also need to get authorization from the Costa Rican Health Ministry; go through your nearest Costa Rica consulate or embassy to obtain this permission.

When you arrive in Costa Rica, the customs officer will do a visual inspection of your pet (for which you will be charged US$1), and look over the health certificate and the authorization from the Costa Rican Health Ministry. If all is in order, you’re through, and can find a pet-friendly taxi (not an easy task) and stuff your Irish wolfhound in the backseat. Some people traveling with pets report that they weren’t even asked for their documents, but you can’t count on encountering such relaxed attitudes yourself.

If you’re missing any documents or the officer decides your pet looks ill and might transmit disease, the animal will either be temporarily released to your care (kind of like being out on bail) or (if the official decides there’s a real health risk) kept in a state kennel for up to 30 days, until you work out what to do next—arrange for the necessary paperwork, or contact a local vet if your animal needs care.

Photo By: Petteri Sulonen

Fox Network is making inroads in online video overseas with its new Latin American Video On Demand (VOD) property, MundoFox

Launched roughly a month ago, the site is getting a boost in the volume of long-form, HD quality programming, according to Forbes.com. Pablo Silva, vice-president of global online publishing at Fox International Channels, said the site has attracted 1.5 million unique visitors and “millions of streams” since its launch.

To view the new site and the various features of its programming, visit www.mundofox.com

mundofox.egg on Aviary.

Much has been written lately about the various scams taking place in Costa Rica. But, to be fair scams, both on the Internet and elsewhere, are running rampant in countries throughout the globe. Due, in a limited part, to the sagging global economy, and otherwise unscrupulous, unethical predators who seem to increasingly prey on expats who are blindsided by opportunities that appear to be too good to be true. I remember the old adage: there is no such thing as a free lunch. And it holds ever more true to this infectious, seemlingly pandemic of white collar and blue crime growing worldwide.

But the real issue here seems not in reliance on local, regional, or even international jurisdictions but, in fact, ourselves, and our need to create an ongoing social networking that not only reveals such lawlessness, but by its very existence, further aids in the elimination, or reduction, in such opportunistic travesties.

Never before has the Latin warning “Caveat Emptor” been more fitting than now. And with a global economy that seems to dwindle day by day, it seems that present-day consumers need not only stand careful watch over their budgets, but also their business dealings – foreign or domestic.

Costa Rica has captured another pleasurable title. This time, as home for the world’s happiest people. According to the New Economic Foundation,  the organization measured several  aspects of what it called a “Happy Planet Charter.”

In addition to Costa Rica, the rankings included, in order, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Vietnam, and Colombia. According to an article on its website, www.amcostarica.com, the results seem to be correlated highly with the size of the country, although Brazil is rated highly, too.