Comp Elem Port I/ii-span Spkrs · Latin American And Iberian Cultures
Over the course of a semester, I learned a lot of Portuguese. Learned vocab but primarily focused on verb tenses, which are essential to speaking/understanding the language. I also learned about Brazilian culture!
I learned how to read, write, speak, and understand Portuguese. I feel comfortable conducting a conversation in Portuguese, writing multiple page essays, and watching movies in the language after taking this course. I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who knows Spanish and is hoping to gain a basic understanding of Portuguese. The class moves fast, but you learn SO much.
a LOT. 5 quizzes (each take about an hour), 1 midterm, 1 final, 1 in-class presentation, 1 video presentation, regular homework assignments (usually 3-5 hours, if you do them justice...which I would recommend, because if you don't, it will come back to haunt you on the quizzes/tests), etc.... Do not take this class unless you are willing to devote time to it.
Confusing but comparatively light. Typically 5 pages of exercises/material a night; Weekly vocab lists of 200+ words; Daily Twitter posts (typically one sentence) in Portuguese; Two group videos based on chapter materials; "Class notes" for 2 of the chapters; 3 Compositions; One quiz; Midterm; 20-minute presentation in Portuguese; Final. However, you're not really expected to do the bookwork or know most of the obscure words on the vocab lists--these are never checked.
I learned a good basis of Portuguese grammar, vocabulary, and conversational skills.
Portuguese grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary; Brazilian culture
I agree with all of the previous reviews that stress that with a large workload comes a lot of learning. I definitely learned a ton this semester, and I don't think I would have in a less intense class. One additional comment, though: do NOT take this class if you don't have a good background in Spanish. There were a few kids in my class for whom it was painfully obvious that they did not know enough Spanish coming in (only having taken 0-3 semesters of Spanish, with no in-country experience), and I don't think this class ended up well for them. I know one ended up dropping half-way through the semester (after the drop deadline) and a couple others stuck it out, but I don't think their grades are so good. So, really don't put yourself through this if you don't have the background in Spanish to make it work. Personally, while I've never spent an extensive amount of time in a Spanish-speaking country, I'd taken a few years of Spanish and even I felt myself behind the curve sometimes compared to all of the native speakers in the class. If you've taken Span 3300 or above, though, you should be fine. Oh, also, Jose is a super nice guy if you get to know him. He can seem a bit militant in class at times, but I honestly really enjoyed getting to know him. I'd also recommend going to do the Portuguese bate-popo (conversation) every Friday at Casa Hispanica while you're taking this cla…
Did I learn Portuguese? Yes. Was this class infinitely more stressful than it needed to be for absurd reasons? Yes! Do I recommend the course? Yes-- as long as you know what you're getting yourself into. Why? This course is extremely disorganized. We were told to buy 2 frequently erroneous books amounting to $75+ that we rarely used (Prof. Gualda himself said that he "didn't believe in books"...yet made us purchase them.) We were assigned lots of homework and vocab lists, but we weren't really expected to know them or do the work, and we rarely--if ever-- went over them in class. In class we skipped over some chapters completely-- but these were still on the exams (which he doesn't write himself). He told us to do daily Twitter posts in Portuguese, but these were never mentioned beyond the beginning of the course. We also had to do "class notes" for 2 of the chapters which couldn't be actual notes and had to be "creative" (?). Basically, I-- along with most of the other students-- had absolutely no idea what we were and weren't supposed to do and what was and was not expected of us. Fortunately, however, most of the students easily met these expectations. That being said, Prof. Gualda is from São Paolo, so he knows the language very well. He also has a very strong linguistics background, so he explains the grammar of the language clearly. Although we had some discussion activi…
Portuguese vocabulary for everyday use as well as grammar in all tenses. Learned about some Brasilian music and history.
Midterm, Final, Tests, Compositions, Presentations, Participation. The writing portions of this class are graded INCREDIBLY harshly.