Taught by Senior Lecturer Inés Arribas, offered again in fall 2019.
While on sabbatical in Barcelona in fall 2014, Inés Arribas met up with Rosamaria Fà brega i Mestres, a professor at the School of Education at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Mestres was interested in new ways to help her education students improve their English and Arribas was looking to help her intermediate level students speak and understand conversational Spanish. That next spring, the pair teamed up students in their classes via Skype. There was an initial period of trial and error, but Skyping has now become an integral part of the courses on both campuses. Pairs of students engage in 60 minute conversations—30 minutes in English and 30 minutes in Spanish—several times each semester. At the end of the semester the students create a video project together.
The conversations have even prompted some students to engage in further cultural exchange. Katarina Karris-Flores '19 and Joan Chirvella from Barcelona hit it off so well that Joan ended up visiting the U.S. for several weeks in the summer of 2018 and Katarina spent a portion of a late summer trip to Spain with Joan's family.
"This class is great because you get to learn in a way that's beyond what's in a textbook," says Katarina. "And you also get this chance to make great friendships."
Course Description: This course stresses mastery of complex grammatical constructions through selected readings from the Spanish-speaking world in a global context: art, folklore, geography, literature, sociopolitical issues, and multicultural perspectives. Written and oral proficiency is emphasized, with special emphasis on reading and writing. The class meets three hours a week with the instructor and there is an additional required 50-minute practice session with a teaching assistant on Monday evenings.
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Katarina Karri-Flores '19 and Joan Chirvella at the Capital building in D.C. Check out of his travels in the United States.