[SPAN V1101] Elementary Spanish I

Diana is the best language teacher I've ever had - period. She gives a lot of homework, but it's so helpful that when it comes time for the (somewhat challenging) biweekly quizzes, you realize that you don't really need to study as much. She'll spend a ton of time in class going over grammar, and, if you answer incorrectly when she calls on you, she'll spend time going over what you did wrong. Speaking of which, you better do your homework, because her way of going over the exercises is to randomly call on everyone in the class; she'll know when you're not keeping up with the work. Also, as far as vocabulary's concerned, you have to learn it on your own, because she doesn't really much time on it (they'll definitely show up on the quizzes).

If there are any negatives about Diana, it'd probably be her pace. She goes ridiculously fast, and as such, she has to assign the aforementioned piles of daily homework. This can be either a good or bad thing, depending on how well you learn languages.

I'd highly, highly, highly recommend her for Elementary I -- you're going to learn A LOT. She's SO nice and friendly, has tons of patience, and seems to enjoy teaching our class. She's awesome.

Raquel Diez-Diaz is one of the worst teachers that I have ever encountered. She in unable to convey the basic concepts of elementary Spanish in a clear and direct manner. She just whizzes from one chapter to another and you better sleep with your textbook and prepare to teach yourself.

Absences: You are only allowed to have 3 unexcused absences throughout the entire semester, for a class that meets everyday of the week, and the only way to get an absence excused is with a written note, not an email or phone call. It has to be a written note.
Homework: Homework is gone over at the beginning of each class and Raquel sits there, with her pen and attendance book, calling on students at random. If you don't have the homework she makes a little mark in her book and she is not subtle in doing this either.

Stretching/Yawning: If you stretch or yawn in Raquel’s class then she may/will kick you out. One freshman this semester was kicked out a few times for this and while it seems ridiculous, as yawning is not a reflection upon Raquel or her class, Raquel will not hesitate to lash out at you with a remark like: "This is my work and I don't come to your work and yawn do I? If you want to do that then go to your room."

Class Exercises: Even though the class was only Elementary Spanish 1 you could not speak any English at all. You are expected to learn the vocabulary outside of class and most of the class time is spent working in groups on exercises that Raquel speeds through, one after the other, never really explaining anything. She passes out more paper and spends more time talking about sex and other nonsense than she actually teaches.

Overall: While Raquel is not a mean person, her class was unbearable. Most of the time you are subjected to her mood swing of the day and you never know what to expect from her. She holds your grade above your head and makes it known if you are one of her favorites or not. As long as she has the most control, is the funniest, the loudest, and the most shocking then everything is alright. If you dare to EVER challenge her then your life will be miserable.

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND RAQUEL AS A TEACHER, AT LEAST NOT AT THE ELEMENTARY SPANISH I LEVEL. SHE IS TEMPERMENTAL, UNPROFESSIONAL, AND HER CLASS IS A PAIN TO GET THROUGH ON MOST DAYS.

Are there two Patricia Romero's?? I signed up for her based on the glowing reviews she got here and was totally disappointed. This is one moody lady--hard to predict or deal with at 8am. We did little to no actual speaking during class, mostly just listening (& watching!) her strut around class making big soap opera faces and "talking with her hands". She doesn't play favorites so much as she plays Least Favorites. There were a few students who clearly had had no prior Spanish. I'm not a fan of babying the stragglers but her method of waiting imperiously for the right answer after manymanymanymany failed attempts was unnecessarily humiliating and a total waste of time for the rest of us. She's also one of those control freaks who rails about being punctual but is frequently 10-15 minutes late to class herself. Take her if you miss your hot high school Spanish teacher and haven't figured out how to manage your own time and learning. But if you're an upperclassman and just finishing out your requirements, I'd say try somebody who cultivates interaction and conversation more than just having a captive audience. I'll end with something nice & say that she seems to like art & progressive politics....

What a nightmare! She seems to hate the males in the class, and throws them out as much as possible for stretching, yawning, slouching, anything at all.
She won't teach, so its a do-it-yourself class. Expect no help and a bad attitude from this woman.
Being paired off for conversation does nothing but reinforce bad pronounciation and mistakes.
She's the worst teacher I've ever had. Consider yourselves warned.

Patricia is an extremely friendly teacher, who genuinely cares for her students. I found that throughout the semester she became more personable, which is sometimes lacking with teachers at columbia. Although this course covers much of the basics learned in high school, she does a great job of emphasizing them and is more than fair with her grading. By simply attening class and doing the work she assigns, you should be ready come grade time.

Diana is a very happy person and a great teacher- if you want to learn Spanish, this is the class for you. However, if you are thinking that Elem Span will be a breeze you're mistaken. She assigns homework every night and moves pretty quickly. The vocab you are resposible for learning on your own but the grammar she'll spend a lot of time in class on. Great class if taken seriously - you get out as much as you put in

Its hard to review Diana badly (she's a lovely person and very good teacher). I've heard horror stories about mean or just plain incompetant professors in the department. She is neither. However. Her class was very demanding. A little too much. The exercises she assigned only took an hour a night maybe a little more to do workbooks. But there was so much material covered that I easily spent at least another hour a day doing flashcards and struggled. She seems to test you on different skills without warning. (No vocabulary for three quizzes in a row and endless structure variations.) Then, change without warning. A test with only vocab. Its hard to figure out how to do well. At one point, I just wanted to cry during I test. And I looked up and saw that my study partner was actually bright red and silently crying. The frustrating part was that extra effort, extreme extra effort, didn't seem to help you do much better. At one point, I just got frustrated and gave up trying to learn the extra and grade dropped on the quizzes only marginally. That being said. I learned a lot. So much so I'm thinking of taking her again just because I don't want to risk wasting a semester with a bad prof and learning nothing. However, as the semester is about to start, I am literally waking up in the middle of the night with panic attacks wondering how I'll handle her workload. So, I may not...Very nice and available women though...so...maybe its just me? FYI, she does seem to pick favorites in the first week of class, so sit up straight.

Diana Romero is a great professor. She is young, fun, and sweet. She is very hard-working and very patient if she knows that you are doing your best. She does not like to waste time in class and I spent a considerable amount of time studying for this course but you will be rewarded for hard work. Make sure to attend and participate and you will surely do well. This was my first experience with Spanish and Professor Romero made it an absolute pleasure. I've heard that there are easier teachers, but if you want to be prepared for the departmental final (which is not that easy), take this teacher.

You'll learn a hell of a lot of Spanish in Diana's class... but that's just the problem--you learn too much! Diana's method of teaching involves heaping piles and piles of homework on her students. I expected about 15 minutes a day, but normally found myself doing at least 45 minutes worth of work (sometimes it took me 2 hours). On top of textbook work, there are hand outs, and in addition to those are the online workbook assignments, which are a pain in the ass to do (and you're never actually told how much they're worth, so you won't know whether or not to bother with them). By the end of the semester, we were already well into the imperfect tense to find that it wasn't even on the department final exam (probably because the other classes didn't even get to it by then).

That being said, Diana's a very kind lady who teaches very effectively. It's just that, with other classes to worry about, you might want to try an easier option

Raquel is a pretty good teacher, if you know what your doing this class is effortless. If you dont she seems to be bringing everyone around just fine. The work load is minamal, some book work that is never for a grade and a few comps that are graded easy.

She's cool, young, and hip and brings an energy to the class that is very comforting. She teaches the class mostly in Spanish which is cool. She's extremely pleasant and likeable and goes out of her way to accommodate students' needs. If you got her either by choice or default, consider yourself lucky.

A very good professor. In addition to being genial and cheerful, is able to come up with a variety of assignments that both exploit our knowledge of Spanish well and ensure that the class never drags.

Take spanish with Marissa, she is awesome!! I am so glad that I started a new language with such an ethusiastic teacher. She cares a lot about her students and has their best interests at heart. She is very patient and is always willing to meet outside of class for extra help.

Ms. Amaral is an excellent Spanish instructor for those who want a structured learning environment. She is extremely competent and always well-prepared. For those anal people like myself who have studied other languages, her knowledge of the finer points of grammar is very helpful. She speaks mostly Spanish in class, but will explain more difficult things in English when necessary. She keeps things interesting without resorting to a lot of silly, juvenile games that waste everybody’s time. If you have the maturity of a high school student, don’t take her class. I took Spanish not just because of the language requirement, but because I actually wanted to learn. Thanks to her class, I have learned a lot and feel confident about the next semester of Spanish. She grades very fairly, and takes off small increments of points, but doesn't hand everything to you on a silver platter. If you want to do really well and learn, you'll have to do the required work (see below).

Although it was a 9 AM class, I absolutely loved it. Marissa kept the class varied and interesting, and I learned a lot more than I would have expected from one semester. I hated missing class because it was so much fun, and woke me up for the rest of the day.

Patricia is a good teacher, and i would say most of the reviews of her are accurate. You don't ever get bored in her class, and she definately knows when to joke and when to be serious. Also, this class is a pretty easy one if you simply do the work. If you do ALL the work, it is not difficult to get an A. I would definately reccomend her, and I want to take her again.

Valerie is a great teacher for beginning Spanish. She is funny, calm, and really makes you learn. She was able to combine her youthfulness and intuition with pop culture with her ability to really drive the points home. She was confident in teaching, which is really important for young grad students and much appreciated. Our class ended up being really fun and had a joking atmosphere. Consider yourself extremely lucky if you get Valerie -- she's a gem!

I really liked Prof. Castillo. He is friendly and flexible as a teacher. It's elementary Spanish, so there's really no surprises as to what will be taught. He speaks predominantly Spanish during class time, which bothered me at the start of the year, but I think it really helped speed up my understanding of the language. All in all, I really enjoyed this class and the professor.

She seems like a really tough professor to begin with. She is incedibly strict and dont think twice about speaking english in her class, stretching, yawning, etc... Honestly even though she comes across as mean, she actually really cares about her students. If you just suck it up for 50 minutes each day and follow the rigid guidelines, you are sure to do well in her class. Her class is hands on and all about practicing speaking and understanding the language so make sure you learn the material on your own time, you come to class to practice it. If you are someone who can follow strict guidelines, be humble and avoid an attitude the class will be fine. I personally enjoyed the class and recommend it, I had a good time and learned a lot, but it is certainly not for everyone.

Viviana is really nice, but she doesn't help you learn Spanish. We rarely do excercises in class, and almost all of the work is from the workbook which you do at home and have to teach yourself anyway. As a native speaker, she seems to only know grammar rules because they SOUND right, but not why or how they do, and is completely unable to explain these things. She also is astonishingly poor in English for someone from Puerto Rico. All in all she's very friendly, and wants to help you, but not a very good instructor, and I would highly recommend taking someone else if you want to learn.

Theresa is an amazing teacher. She is so enthusiastic and funny it's infectious. Everyone in my class looked forward to Spanish everyday because it was actually fun. She's very warm and easily approachable after class with questions. She's organized and her quizzes are fair and announced almost a week in advance.
I'm taking her class again next semester. In fact I organized my schedule around it because she was so great.

A+ to Professor Valero for his competent teaching, friendly attitude, screwball sense of humor, and impeccable taste in shoes. Getting to know the Spanish language was a great deal of fun under the leadership of this man (who, by the way, insists that you call him by his first name). He's a fair and objective grader who keeps regular office hours and is able, despite a sometimes-shaky grasp of English, to dissect and explain the more complicated aspects of Spanish so that even the more blockheaded students (such as I) can understand them. He's just the right combination of the serious and the lighthearted: at different points in the semester, he employed calisthenic exercises, Blue's Clues, and Broadway acting techniques in his attempt to teach us his native language. My recommendation is unqualified -- I'm signing up for another of his courses in Spring 2004.

This was the best spanish class ever. He's patient yet focused and for those who are not comfortable speaking (like me) he makes it easy. You will come out this class knowing basic spanish... but you NEED to go to class because he will tell you exactly what you need to know, plus it's fun.

This man is a little hard to sum up. He starts out amazingly funny and nice, but soon becomes remarkably less so. He's not the most understanding man i've met, never hesitating to shell out bad grades. His antics keep you amused for a little but then its back to boredom. The amount of work for his class is significantly more than other Spanish classes of the same level. You can't miss more than the allowed three classes and must have your homework done for each class unless you want a zero. He forces participation and is a picky grader. However, if you want to learn Spanish quickly and well, his class is reasonable. Its a good amount of work but if you are good at languages it is possible to get an A without studying too much. His class will make you prepared for any of the teachers for the next level Spanish classes. He is hard and unforgiving, but will get the job done.

Diez-Diaz was one of the worst experiences I have had at Columbia. If she spent as much time teaching as she did praising "AntoniOOO Bandaras!!" she would still just be o.k. as a teacher. Not recommended.

Lanctot's a pretty young teacher, but he also, in my opinion, behaves more like a student than a teacher. He tends to be moody and is sort of arrogant; He knows spanish well, is good at teaching the material, and is pretty easy as far as grading is concerned.

an excellent teacher-- along with Kasten and Ortiz-Cuevas, my Spanish teachers for the somewhat tedious language sequence were fantastic. if you put in the (ridiculously easy) work, you'll do well. Ann prepared a lot for class which made it fun and reduced the boredom for everyone.

Pilar is a great professor! I was wary of taking Spanish five days a week and cutting out my totally-free-Fridays, but she is totally worth it. She's always completely energetic, very approachable, she makes sure she gives a good balance of language and culture, gives practical advice on your spanish speaking skills to prepare you to use it in everyday life, and is just completely sincere in everything she does. Class is never boring and not difficult at all. Plus if you're shy and hate speaking up in language classes like me, she calls on each student equally so everyone is forced to participate and everyone screws up once in awhile.

Pilar kicks major ass. She's straight from Colombia, so shes obviously fluent, and the entire class is taught in Spanish. She is young and pretty and stylish - just this tiny little ball of Spanish speaking energy. She jumps around the classroom speaking a thousand words a minute, and the weird thing was that I could understand every single thing she said. She's an awesome teacher - I came to the class knowing nothing and after one semester, I can get by pretty well and understand nearly everything that an average Spanish speaking person would say. And plus, her class is easy as PIE. It's partially because she teaches so much in class that studying is not necessary. I got an A and I didn't do much. TAKE THIS CLASS and not only will you fall in love with Pilar and want to have her as a professor for the rest of your years here, but you will also love spanish.

Fall '02: Professor Craig is now the Acting Director of the Spanish Language Program, and therefore she knows quite a bit about teaching Spanish classes. She always explains concepts clearly and is obviously willing to help students out, no matter their level of experience. The class is conducted primarily in Spanish, but she will explain difficult concepts in English if a majority of the students don't know what she's saying. Quizzes are bi-weekly, more or less, and aren't difficult, though she can be a bit nitpicky. Homework is daily, but rarely takes more than half an hour. Overall, Professor Craig is an excellent way to get started with Spanish: she provides a solid foundation and is willing to help students understand any confusing concepts.

Patricia is a wonderful professor. Although I find her class difficult I must say that she is fair. She is always available for office hours, after class, and does respond to emails. I would highly recommend her as an instructor.

I agree with the other reviews, and would like to add that if you intend to seriously study Spanish or even be prepared for Intermediate classes, don't take Professor Blumberg's easy easy course. She speaks in English almost all the time, and when she speaks in Spanish it is very slow and enunciated. When I switched to a different professor for Elementary II, I had a hard time getting used to a professor who talked in Spanish all the time and felt very behind. If I had waited until next year to switch professors, it would have been even worse.

You picked a winner. She won't give you trouble with grades but if you bother putting forth any sort of effort on your own you'll learn plenty of Spanish. She has a good sense of when to lighten up and let the class joke around and when to get down to business. Everyone in class was trying to get into her class for the next semester.