Comprehensive Intermediate Spanish

Perla is absolutely fantastic. If you are looking to take Spanish with someone who not only really cares about her students, but is also an expert in her field, you'll be in luck with Perla. It is so obvious that she loves teaching, and she makes an effort to make sure that all of her students stay on track with the course. If you need extra help, she's extremely accommodating. She's also super understanding if you need an extension. She grades fairly in my opinion. Participation is a large part of your grade, and she calls on people so essentially everyone participates which helps when final grades come out. If you get a chance to talk with her about Cuban politics or any politics really, definitely do so! She's a wealth of knowledge. If you're enthusiastic and put effort into the class, she won't over look it.

Pretty much, she's great. I definitely recommend any of her classes. (I've taken three with her.)

Perla's certainly very nice, but I must say this class turned me off to Spanish and Hispanic studies greatly. Classes were repetitive, which is typical with languages, but she rarely clearly explained the grammar we were studying. Had I not known most of the grammar beforehand I probably would have gone crazy. She definitely had favorites and didn't try to hide that, calling on the same few people over and over again. Her policy on compositions (she averages the grade between original and revised versions) was unnecessary since she rarely bumped the grade any more than from a B to a B+ even if all corrections were made. I also found it frustrating that she never responded to emails or made an effort to use Courseworks (or any technology) in this class.

Overall, she's a sweet woman but did not create an environment or class that I enjoyed or found to inspire interest in the language.

p.s. Don't get all of the books listed on courseworks (and DON'T buy the $80 online component), because we never used an expensive textbook or the online version. $115 wasted, $80 of which I can't get back.

I took Perla's Comprehensive Spanish class, which is a combination of Intermediate 1&2. It was the fastest and easiest way to get through the language requirement and it was so enjoyable. Perla is such a sweet woman and her class was my most enjoyable class during my first semester here at Columbia. The class is not that difficult. She calls on students alot in order to get everyone to participate (class was only 17 students). So, I recommend that you do the homework so that when she randomly calls on you, you can actually answer the question correctly instead of worrying because you're not prepared. The movies that she assigned for us to watch were really good. We discussed them in class, some much more than others. As long as you sometimes have one thing to say, your good. There were days when I would barely say one thing in class, but I guess I proved myself in other ways because I surprisingly got an A-. The final group project counted for a good amount. It was written and oral. I think it definitely helps your grade if you put the effort in. I definitely would recommend Perla because she's so amazing and reminded me of caring high-school teachers, which I don't think I'll find often around here.

cons: A little disorganized, especially when it comes to what she assigned for homework and from what books. A little confusion on the final project in terms what she expected for the first draft, but it didn't affect anyone's grades. We almost had an in class essay, which would have been kind of hard, but luckily, we ran out of time in class and we never had to do it. She taught alot of material in the last handful of classes, including several new verb tenses. Most of the multiple choice on the final was about verb tenses.