POR T1301

Midterm, Final, 2 essays (1 pagers on movies), 2 oral presentations (on brazilian current events), and LOTS of busy work (which she never checks). Just be sure to turn in the big stuff and a few homeworks here and there. You'll be fine

The workload is very heavy; the textbook exercises can take hours based on sheer volume, but they are not hard whatsoever and you can 'check' the answers right away. I found the midterm difficult but that was my own fault because I was overly confident and did not study enough. The quizzes are fine if you can construct sentences and have a decent grasp of verb conjugations. The compositions are delightful! They are literally one page double spaced and Jose Antonio gives you an actual list of exactly what he wants in them, PLUS a revision. I think I put the most time and effort into writing these because I knew he was a harsh grader with them so I think thats the trick - just make sure your compositions are spotless (it's not that hard its like three paragraphs)

I have to agree with the comments from the person who called her a scatterbrained *CULPA CENSOR* She's nice, but nutty. Will spend class learning the most random things about Brazil and if there's time left, she whips out the index card vocab game....filled with useless idioms and words. One thing to keep in mind, that she assumes that because you speak spanish, portuguese should come in a snap. Oftentimes she explains grammar in seconds with the famous line "you know, it's like spanish." A very nice lady, a VERY easy grader, you love her first semester and hate her by the end of the second when you realize you learned very little portuguese. Just be nice, show up to class (every once in a while) and turn in an assignment or two.

I really don't understand why Jose Antonio doesn't have a silver nugget... the amount of effort he puts into his lectures, his willingness to slow down and answer questions for anyone who asks, and his ability to make two hours go by quickly warrant him a silver a nugget. I took this class a year ago and I am just writing this review in hopes of boosting him. That being said, the class is not easy. You basically learn an entire language in one semester which gets harder and harder as the semester moves on. I think there is a bit of a bump right after the midterm where it feels like you haven't learned anything because you're being taught too much and then it gets a little easier again as the semester ends. I would not recommend this class if you are not gifted in learning languages and lack the ability to process them without translating back and forth in English in your head... you need a certain level of aptitude to keep up with the speed of the class otherwise you will find yourself writing a Culpa review full of complaints about the workload. If you are truly good at romance languages (this does not mean that you must be fluent in hundreds, just that you know the patterns) then this class is not bad at all. I think I could have probably put a little more effort into learning the vocabulary and fully understanding the homework exercises, which might have led to less studyin…

Just enought to keep you honest and learning the material. Not so much as to drive you crazy.

This prof is a dream. She keeps the class going when everyone is about to die. She understands that there is more than one class students are taking. Entertaining, brilliant. Take the class if you have a chance.

Lots and lots of busywork (never checked or collected), a few essays (anally corrected), biweekly quizzes (covering the esoterica taught the prior week), 3 oral presentations, midterm, final. Pretty reasonable for a language class, though you get no language skills in return.

Yet another example of why Columbia's language programs are oft-criticized. Szoka's a friendly, though scatterbrained Polish Brazilianist, with a penchant for transmitting the most irrelevant knowlegde possible. Take her class, and you'll learn the name of every beach in Rio, plus random useless Brazilian idioms. Grammar was explained rarely and atrociously. I learned more from the textbook than I ever did in her class, that's for sure. An easy, easy class -- but boring as hell.