So, after reading my friends’ blogs lately, I’ve realized that I’ve almost completely neglected to talk about my classes. Probably because it’s one of the more normal things about this adventure, so other things have pushed it aside. Sometimes they feel like the least of my worries here, so I guess I need to start giving it a little more thought. Oy. In any case, I’ll give you a run-down of my schedule. Ready, go!
Grammar class – This has been pretty good so far. I’m in the level that’s one below the highest one, so not too shabby, I daresay. The stuff we’re doing right now is basically review for me, but since I still don’t have it down completely, that’s a good thing. We’ve actually had two different professors – the first one was really nice, but she’s new to teaching and is more accustomed to teaching a lower level of Spanish, so as I heard it, she didn’t feel confident that she was explaining things the way they ought to be. We were sorry to see her go, but the new professor that we got today seems really good, so whatever. I felt like I was understanding things better with her, so it all works out.
Conversación – This class is my favorite, much to my surprise – I almost didn’t take this one, but I’m so glad I did. The professor is great – he gives us really fun activities to do and makes the class interesting. For example, we played charades during a recent class period! I was a little apprehensive about this, but it was fun. I think it’s going to be a good class – I know I need the speaking practice, at any rate.
Civlización y Cultura – This one is pretty straightforward – history, country stats, geography, Spanish government, demographics, etc. Not the most interesting class so far, but it’s all good stuff to know. I was afraid it would be a lot of review since I took a similar class last semester, but thus far it’s been new information. And I think things will get more interesting as we go on. Maybe a little too interesting; one of our assignments is to create a survey and poll people on the street. Not my cup of tea, as you can imagine. But at least we get to work in pairs, so I guess it won’t be so bad. And there will be some fun things too – we get to take a day trip to Madrid to see some of the government buildings and a really old library (!!!), so that’ll be pretty sweet.
Literatura – This class has been a pretty good time so far. It’s been a lot of lecture, like C & C (which means that if I stop paying attention for like two seconds, I get lost and forget to think in Spanish), but it’s slightly more interactive. The prof asks us questions a lot, and has been teaching us a bunch of Spanish idioms, which is great. And I’ve loved getting some literature into my life; I have a feeling I’m going to really miss my English Lit. by the time this semester is over, so at least I get a little literary analysis and reading with this class.
Traduccion – Ah, the infamous class. We girls had high hopes for this one, since we all really enjoy translating and wanted to learn more about what it’s like. However, we soon found out that the professor doesn’t teach it in a way that helps us learn. He didn’t seem to understand our questions a lot of the time, and during classes we just do short little examples without really learning why something is right or wrong, or what the most correct answer is (since there are several ways to translate just one sentence). And so, we’re going to drop this one since none of us really need the credits. I mean, why waste our time when we’re not learning anything if we’re not required to take the class? We’re just gonna cut our losses and take Translation back home at Concordia. You win some, you lose some, I guess.
So there you have it! I think it’s going to be a good semester, class-wise. It’s a good variety, and everything is pretty laid back, which is nice. I just hope it all improves my Spanish skills a great deal, and then I’ll be a happy girl. :-)
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