Today is the third day of classes, and I’ve now had each class at least once. This’ll be a short update, because there really isn’t much to say about them–it’s school, after all.
On Mondays and Wednesdays, we have a grammar/writing class and a literature class. The grammar class is fantastic–for the first time, I feel like I have a professor who can clearly explain the difference between por and para or ese and este. I can already tell my usage is going to improve exponentially as a direct result of this class. The literature class, meanwhile, is a complete drag. The professor speaks too fast and uses too many hard words, and the first story we had to read was an impossible-to-comprehend tale mostly recounting a fucked up, drug-induced dream. Ugh, not looking forward to this class.
In addition to these two classes, we have a class called “España Hoy” on Wednesdays. It is just kind of a cultural awareness class, taught by the same professor as our grammar class (awesome, because I really like her direct, clear manner). It’s purely discussion based with no assignments due, and we’re going to talk about things like being young in Spain, immigration, the changing role of women, and Spain’s (and most of Europe’s) problems with a population that is getting older/a negative birth rate.
On Tuesdays, we have two different classes: an art and culture class, and a conversation class. The art and culture class is amazing; it does a great job of concisely describing Spanish history and the accompanying changes to architecture, the language itself (its latin roots and Arabic influences), and art. The class is taught with utmost clarity and concision. The conversation class is a useful adjunct to the grammar class; while in the latter we learn the rules of speaking the language, in conversation we learn colloquial Spanish from a very young, very personable, very excited woman. We have conversation again on Thursday (our only class that day).
I’m ecstatic with most of my classes, and am slowly coming to realize that I’m going to gain a lot of fluency here. It’s awesome to think about, and I can’t wait to be able to go into a shop and not worry about how retarded I sound.