back in Sevilla
Life is Sevilla is pretty good. My oldest sister, Alicia turned 27 two weeks ago. The older siblings, her fiancé and a bunch of their friends celebrated at a bar near our house. I met a lot of Spaniards and got free cake and drinks and then we went to a club until 5 am. The following night was the Super Bowl, which I watched (sort of) at bar with dozens of other American students so I was able to meet a lot of the new students. The game was shown live, from 1 - 4:30 AM. The broadcast in Europe had no commercials, during commercial breaks the camera showed bored fans and nothing else. And then the first day of class was the next day. Tuesday was my mom Alicia’s birthday. She got a ton of presents, I gave her a red fleece Wisconsin blanket that I intended to give away for Christmas but it was lost in my room.
So I have had two weeks of spring semester classes so far. After a couple schedule changes, I have my five classes and I really like all of them. I am taking two classes for Spanish culture credit and one Spanish literature class, which leaves me with one last Spanish class to take before earning a bachelor’s in Spanish. The class I’ll take next year in Madison is intro to Spanish literature and is mostly freshman and sophomores. I think it will be really easy. The first of my two culture classes is The Masterpieces of the Great Spanish Painters in which we look at slides of paintings for most of the class period. So far we’ve only gone through the basics of paintings, the Greek and Roman influence on Spanish art, and the earliest art found in Spain - prehistoric cave drawings.
The other culture class is The Social History of Spanish Colonization, which is the only class I have at the University of Sevilla with Spanish students. All of my other classes are through my study abroad program. This class at the University is small, only 20-25 students and about 1/3 of them are American students. The number of Americans was kind of disappointing, but avoiding other Americans is impossible in Sevilla. Some classes at the University of Sevilla are more than half American, I don’t know how, but there actually are several classes where Spanish students are the minority. And the class is very different from the way classes are taught at Wisconsin. The professor sits behind a table and talks for the entire period, no discussions, no visuals aids, no homework, and no feedback. There are some recommended readings and the student’s grade is determined entirely by the final exam. I am glad that I am taking this class for the experience but I am also relieved that I will never have to take a class taught this way ever again.
My literature class is Spanish Literature of the Margins and we read authors like Ruben Darío and Federico García Lorca which I am excited about. The other authors I have never heard of. The class is part sociology (studying why and how certain social groups are marginalized) and we read literature written by people who were marginalized for political or racial reasons. I am taking one class for political science credit, The Political Construction of the European Union. So far we have learned about the geography of Europe, international organizations in general, and the history of the formation of the EU. The professor is a great guy, an international relations professor at the U of Sevilla. So far its been really easy because its basic stuff that I know already but since I know nothing about the European Union itself I know it will be an interesting and informative class.
My last class is Professional Teaching Development, taught by a young and super nice Barbados-born Canadian guy who married a Spaniard and now teaches and lives in Sevilla. The class began with a thorough review of English grammar. Even though we all know English well, we have all forgotten the names of verb tenses and parts of speech and need to learn why English is written the way it is. We also learn teaching methods and how to teach English to non-native speakers using only English in the classroom. To prove us that it is possible to learn a foreign language using only that foreign language in the classroom, on the first day of class the professor brought in a young Chinese guy to teach us Chinese using only Chinese. It took lots of repetition, drawings, body language and patience, but we slowly picked it up and were able to learn how to say simple Chinese phrases. By the end of the class we were able to have simple conversations along the lines of “Hi, how are you? I’m good, thanks. My name is __. What’s your name? Goodbye.” Anyways, next week we will start teaching English to a small group of Spaniards twice a week for the rest of the semester. Local companies who want their employees to learn English arrange the classes. So I’ll find out more about it soon.
So I have had two weeks of spring semester classes so far. After a couple schedule changes, I have my five classes and I really like all of them. I am taking two classes for Spanish culture credit and one Spanish literature class, which leaves me with one last Spanish class to take before earning a bachelor’s in Spanish. The class I’ll take next year in Madison is intro to Spanish literature and is mostly freshman and sophomores. I think it will be really easy. The first of my two culture classes is The Masterpieces of the Great Spanish Painters in which we look at slides of paintings for most of the class period. So far we’ve only gone through the basics of paintings, the Greek and Roman influence on Spanish art, and the earliest art found in Spain - prehistoric cave drawings.
The other culture class is The Social History of Spanish Colonization, which is the only class I have at the University of Sevilla with Spanish students. All of my other classes are through my study abroad program. This class at the University is small, only 20-25 students and about 1/3 of them are American students. The number of Americans was kind of disappointing, but avoiding other Americans is impossible in Sevilla. Some classes at the University of Sevilla are more than half American, I don’t know how, but there actually are several classes where Spanish students are the minority. And the class is very different from the way classes are taught at Wisconsin. The professor sits behind a table and talks for the entire period, no discussions, no visuals aids, no homework, and no feedback. There are some recommended readings and the student’s grade is determined entirely by the final exam. I am glad that I am taking this class for the experience but I am also relieved that I will never have to take a class taught this way ever again.
My literature class is Spanish Literature of the Margins and we read authors like Ruben Darío and Federico García Lorca which I am excited about. The other authors I have never heard of. The class is part sociology (studying why and how certain social groups are marginalized) and we read literature written by people who were marginalized for political or racial reasons. I am taking one class for political science credit, The Political Construction of the European Union. So far we have learned about the geography of Europe, international organizations in general, and the history of the formation of the EU. The professor is a great guy, an international relations professor at the U of Sevilla. So far its been really easy because its basic stuff that I know already but since I know nothing about the European Union itself I know it will be an interesting and informative class.
My last class is Professional Teaching Development, taught by a young and super nice Barbados-born Canadian guy who married a Spaniard and now teaches and lives in Sevilla. The class began with a thorough review of English grammar. Even though we all know English well, we have all forgotten the names of verb tenses and parts of speech and need to learn why English is written the way it is. We also learn teaching methods and how to teach English to non-native speakers using only English in the classroom. To prove us that it is possible to learn a foreign language using only that foreign language in the classroom, on the first day of class the professor brought in a young Chinese guy to teach us Chinese using only Chinese. It took lots of repetition, drawings, body language and patience, but we slowly picked it up and were able to learn how to say simple Chinese phrases. By the end of the class we were able to have simple conversations along the lines of “Hi, how are you? I’m good, thanks. My name is __. What’s your name? Goodbye.” Anyways, next week we will start teaching English to a small group of Spaniards twice a week for the rest of the semester. Local companies who want their employees to learn English arrange the classes. So I’ll find out more about it soon.
posted by Sam at
9:06 PM
2 Comments:
Sam, you are becoming so smart about all aspects of Spain: history, art, culture,language, politics, etc. Good that you've been able to spend two semesters there. I saw Teri O'Brien last weekend. She flew in to see the trips also. She asked about you. She is still at LeHigh U. & would like to study abroad. Glad we're back in warm Florida. Love, Manor
By
Anonymous, at 7:37 AM, February 17, 2006
te quiero dejar una mensaje en espanol porque es muy CHACHI!!!! y guay.
pues, creo que estas aprendiendo mas que yo, porque mi instituto es una broma. pero mis clases tambien solo son lecturas (?) y poco interaccion (?) de los estudiantes.
bueno, hasta un mes y pico!
TQM!
-marta
By
martha, at 11:05 AM, February 17, 2006
Post a Comment
<< Home