SPAN W1120

I had read the overwhelmingly poor reviews of Professor Romero before taking Spanish 1120 but decided to go forward anyways- best decision. I'm so surprised at the amount of hate. First of all, she is generally one of the sweetest people and every single class it is so obvious how much enthusiasm she has for teaching and helping to improve the skills of aspiring Spanish speakers. Second, while she may not be the best technologically or as organized as perhaps some other professors, she tries her best and if you are able to look past these minuscule details, you will see that her interactive methods of teaching are truly invaluable. I took this class having had no formal education in Spanish, but knowing some French and speaking some other non-romance languages. In just one semester I have learned so much, and it didn't even for one moment feel overwhelming. I can now watch videos or Netflix shows in Spanish with Spanish subtitles and understand 80% of the dialogue. Simply being exposed to her speaking Spanish, even though you may not understand everything at first, will do wonders for your comprehension. Instead of being led by baby steps through the beginning, being immediately forced to navigate a faster paced class actually forces you to adjust and in my opinion pick the language up faster. Prof Romero does this in a spectacular way, she doesn't speak too fast, uses common…

Very fair for an intensive language class - daily exercises (very small), 4 short essays, one fairly large final project with an oral presentation. Midterm, final, and oral exam were all very reasonable.

Weekly workbook assignments, chapter tests, midterm, final, final oral exam, 3-4 written compositions. Really not that much work.

Very manageable: MySpanishLab assignments (easy), occasional worksheets, 2 quizzes, 1 midterm, 1 written final, 1 oral final, 1 oral presentation - Grading is very lenient for the orals and homework assignments are very easy (see note above).

Lighter than you'd expect.. She assigns homework, but NEVER checks it. We just went over the exercises and did them all in class, which means by the third week, you'll stop doing the homework at home. That was how much of class was spent. Department midterm and final, as well as a short, easy oral exam. Three compositions that she edits and allows you to rewrite for an average grade.

Quizzes (not difficult), Midterm (standard), final (standard) Papers on films you watch on your own time. (fun!)

Soooo much MSL and book problems 1 Midterm (I got a 92 because I knew most of it from high school, my peers who didn't know any Spanish going in bc they knew French/italian/etc didn't do so hot) oral exam, final project (a 5-8 min video), final exam (multiple choice, fill in the blanks, mini essay)

Professor Craig-Florez is a real gem. She is one of the kindest teachers I have had at this university, and it was clear from the beginning of the semester how much she wanted her students to learn and succeed. Part of her method of teaching the language was very practical, focusing on conversational comfort and fluency. In her class, if you put in the effort to be on top of the assignments and lessons, it was not difficult to learn and do well - especially if you were actually engaged with the material and showed any sort of enthusiasm for the language or culture. Like the other reviews below, it was true that we spent a lot of class time doing exercises from the book, but I found this to be helpful in really understanding concepts as she was actively helping us throughout. All in all, wonderful teacher and wonderful woman. If you do the work assigned and participate in class, it's very easy to receive a good grade and learn a lot.

Pepe was really fun. While admittedly not the best spanish teacher, he was really understanding when it came to grading. Because the class covers so much material soo fast (it's comprehensive!!) it can get kind of hectic, but if you didn't understand something, Pepe would try his best to help you out. Everyone gets called on to speak in class, and you have to take the class for a grade: no pass/fail. You also can't be TOO good at spanish, because he thinks that intimidates the other students and will make you register for a higher level. All in all, if your class is taught by Pepe, you're pretty lucky (especially because he'll let you throw an end of the year fiesta and he'll sing to you...)

To be Fair Before the beginning of each semester, Professor Borgman sends out an email to all of her students warning that the class will be fairly difficult and fast-paced. She also reminds us that the course is intended for those that have already been exposed to the language and have a decent grasp on it. Students that have had little to no exposure to the language, however, are focused on the "Beginning" part of the course title, instead of the "Comprehensive" and stay despite Borgman's warning. Or perhaps this may be their last year to complete Columbia's language requirement, and thus, have no choice. Despite the reason, these students are usually the ones that experience difficulty throughout the semester. Borgman speaks in Spanish a great deal of the time. She switches to English for students that have difficulty speaking/understanding the language, which is nothing negative on her part. She tries to cater to the students' needs, while at the same time encouraging them to speak in Spanish. Cons With that said, Professor Borgman is by no means perfect. She has great difficulty explaining grammatical concepts and rely on other students that excel within the class to explain the concepts for her. When confronted with grammatical inconsistencies in the language, she gives the right answer, but if you continue to push, she is very easily overwhelmed and instead validates th…