Summer School is Cool

At orientation we received our class schedule, and needless to say I was not super thrilled to see that my Spanish class was from 8-11, Monday through Friday. However I was pleasantly surprised when I went to class Monday morning and the three hours flew by. There are only five people in my Spanish class and the professor is a native Costa Rican who speaks English fairly well. Instead of the very structured type of classes that I am used to in the States, my professor, Cristian, is great at maintaining an informal environment that is conducive to students asking questions and learning from each other. When I took Spanish in the States, I found it to be much more difficult because I did not have the opportunity to practice it in a variety of ways. Since I am in such a small classroom here, we write stories in Spanish and receive immediate feedback, we hold conversations with each other in class, and Cristian asks us questions individually to ensure that we each have a chance to practice correctly. Additionally, when we all go home to our host families, we can try and speak all of the new words we learned that day. Although I may be a slow speaker that has a long way to go grammatically and phonetically, my host family is very understanding and they help me finish my sentences and formulate thoughts in Spanish.

The other two classes I am taking are Dances of Latin America and Latin American History. They are each one credit so we only meet for three hours a week for each class. The dance class is so much fun and a nice break from doing homework. Our teacher’s name is David and let me just tell you, his hips don’t lie. I attempt to mimic his steps and movements but continue to fail miserably. Most of the students here are in the class so it is a fun way to interact with each other. So far we have learned the salsa and the merengue. The salsa is much easier, whereas the merengue has a tempo and rhythm that I am not used. I also feel that you need a certain genetic trait to move your hips the way you are supposed to when you do the merengue. David gives us each individual attention to improve our form. There is only one guy in my dance class, so the ladies partner up with each other to learn these two person dances. My history class is super low key, and again has a very small class size. The professor’s name is Arturo, and he is absolutely hilarious. He speaks almost perfect English. He let us choose the three Latin and South American countries that we want to learn about for the remainder of the term. We chose Colombia, Cuba, and Chile. We watched a movie called, “The Mission,” with Robert De Niro on our first day to learn about colonialism and imperialism in South America. I am excited to learn more in all of my classes.