Comprehansive Beginners Spanish

This is not the typical Spanish class. Consider yourself warned. Two semesters are compressed into one – all frills (vocabulary lessons, games etc) have been removed. Essentially this is Spanish at its most straightforward. Little emphasis is put on vocabulary or Spanish culture. Heavy emphasis is put on the grammatical concepts, speaking, and listening skills. The pace of the class is very fast -- we covered about two chapters a week. If you have no previous Spanish experience, this class may not be the best fit. For those who have studied spanish (or latin), and want a fast-paced yet thorough review, this class is a good option -- especially because it only meets 3 days a week (and fridays aren't one of them).

You will be teaching the grammatical concepts to yourself outside of class. Class-time is for practicing those concepts. Much of the work in done in pairs and Raquel is simply there to correct you. Don't expect Raquel to teach you the fine points of Spanish grammar -- while she will do her best to clarify things if asked, all of the learning will come from reading the book (it's a fairly good book, although the content can be scattered around).

Don’t be scared away in the first week. Raquel can seem very intimidating and her teaching style comes across as very narrow minded: "don't ask me how to say a word in Spanish, just choose a different word." This is simply to shrink the class down, and weed out the people who won’t be able to keep up. Our class had only 9 or 10 people, and it was wonderful. If you have a choice, take the later section. Because it's after the working day ends, you'll get to meet some ridiculously interesting people.

Raquel is fun, but slightly eccentric (she has many interesting conspiracy theories). She’s not one of the best teachers i've had here at Columbia, but it really doesn’t matter for this teach-yourself class.

Spanish was one of my favorite classes this past semester, in no small part because of Raquel. While it is true that she expects you to memorize most of the finer points of Spanish grammar and new vocabulary words on your own at home, she makes sure that you use the grammar and vocab. in in-class exercises, thus ensuring loads of class participation. The class is interactive, and Raquel does not object to digressions in the conversation, so long as they are in Spanish. I found this method of learning Spanish far more interesting than sitting in the class room and being lectured at about grammar rules.

The first several weeks of this course may seem difficult to students who haven't taken spanish before. You are expected to teach yourself and the beginning of the semester goes quickly. I had taken one semester before and found the pace of the class to be perfect for me. The beginning was review and the rest of the semester went at a slower pace. Raquel is very nice and I enjoyed the class but some students complained because we were expected to learn from the hw and the book (not from Raquel). In class we reviewed the hw and did numerous activities using what we had already learned but Raquel doesn't lecture. I struggle greatly with languages and I still managed to keep up just fine. I'd take a class from Raquel again.