PORT W1220

3 or so presentations, 5/6 one page essays, weekly one-paragraph commentary on a video, regular homework, one midterm and one final

A huge variety of writing assignments, in class presentations, and a mid-term and final. MUCH LESS WORK THAT PORTUGUESE FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS and not to the detriment of learning Portuguese. At all.

Ana Paula is the best professor I've had at Columbia. She is super organized and lets you know the class schedule/assignments even up to 3 weeks in advance. She is also very intelligent and an excellent language teacher; by the end of the semester my Portuguese level had improved from basic to almost fluency. This class is however not an "easy A", it's not particularly hard but in order to get an A or A+ you need to put in quite a bit of effort. Ana Paula is a fair and very transparent grader and will give you the grade you deserve. That being said, the assignments are fun and varied and there is a lot of leeway to work on what interests you so putting in the effort shouldn't be difficult. All in all it was a great class and arguably the best I've taken at Columbia.

Ana Paula is a wonderful teacher and person. I looked forward to going to her course every time and always left in a good mood. She very clearly takes a strong interest in her students, she is kind, very patient, and a very good teacher of a foreign language. I never felt intimated in her class and was always comfortable to ask for things to be clarified, something that was definitely not true in Portuguese for Spanish Speakers with José Antonio Castellanos Pazos. I particularly thought it was effective how Ana Paula allowed the students in many ways drive the content of the course. The grammar and the things related to learning Portuguese, she of course totally managed (and managed effectively). However, when it came to using the things she taught us, she allowed us to choose the topics via a variety of creative ways. As an example, she had us put together folios on topics related to the Lusophone world that we then read for homework. The richness of the range of these topics--rap music in Brazil, natural resource politics in Angola, community policing efforts in the favelas of Rio, and more--was only made better by the fact that students actually were excited to talk about these things, because they were interested in them. Even having one student excited about a topic allowed for a lively discussion to take off between all of us. And because of this and all the other attrib…

weekly assignments (written or oral presentations) + nightly mini-assignments that take almost no time 1 midterm + 1 final

Ana Paula is the best language teacher I've ever had & one of the nicest professors at Columbia. She is understanding & helpful and crafts a comprehensive curriculum that might be overwhelming if she didn't structure it so well. She does a great job of creating an easy-going classroom environment. Despite the fact that I had this class 3 times a week, and it could easily have felt tenuous to attend so often, I enjoyed it immensely!

5 5-minute oral presentations, 3 10-minute oral presentations, 7 2-page essays, 5 1-page essays, weekly posts on wikipage, daily book assignments, midterm & final

Comprehensive Intermediate Portuguese Ana Paula is one of the best professors I've had while at Columbia. If you are looking to be fluent in Portuguese once you're done, she is the perfect professor. Her work can be challenging but she will go out of her way to help you if you are struggling. She does every thing in her power to help you succeed if you want to. If you are lazy this is not the class for you because she does move quickly and covers lots of material. Many people leave language classes able to read and write but struggle with speaking. If you take Portuguese with Ana Paula this will not be a problem for you.