Description of my Classes

Latin American Film—You guessed it. We watch films made in Latin America (for example, Ciudad de Deus, Amores Perros, Nueve Reinas, XXY, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, etc.) then make commentary in class through discussion as well as oral presentations and writing assignments. The professor is very passionate about discussions and making us think critically about the content of the film. Additionally, she’s pretty stoked to have some Brazilians in our class. While there is reading, there’s no more than 5-10 pages/movie and it helps give you a background. Further, there’s not a lot of boring lecture, so it’s easy to stay engaged, but still feel like you’re learning a lot. Sometimes it’s hard to follow the movies, but that’s because I lack colloquial speech and slang. Recommend? Absolutely.

Latin American Cultural Studies—Obvious once again. We’re studying Latin American culture from the cultural studies perspective, which takes many different disciplines into account. Lara Mirkin was my professor for intensive month and she too is passionate about the city and conveying information to make sure we understand without making us feel stupid because she knows that a lot of times you can ask “do you understand?” and we nod yes, but we have no idea. Plus our class has a wide array of levels, so sometimes for me it may be a little easier, but it’s still very interesting and I really want to learn more about this subject because there are few opportunities to ever learn about it in the US despite it being our neighbor to the south…Recommend? Yes.

La geografía turística de Argentina—This is my course with argentines. We cover not only the physical geography of Argentina in every province, but also the social, cultural and economic character of each province as well. This is important because if you’re providing services to tourists, you have to understand the situations beyond “oh it’s pretty here!”. This sounds easy, but it is actually difficult because thus far, we have just been going through all the provinces, naming off interesting things to do and important cities. I can barely name all the provinces, much less give you a basic description of them—but I kind of can. Obviously, all the students have a pretty good idea (think of it as people from the US knowing all 50 states and being able to imagine their geography and cities, important places in each state—something probably most of us could do…maybe…) so for them, it’s easy. But our class is small with a few international students, so hopefully I can keep up! Recommend? Well if you’re a Geography/Spanish major that needs a course with Argentines and you have a high level of Spanish—yeah!

Latin American History in the 20^th Century—This might be my favorite class. I admittedly have a serious problem when it comes to enjoying history. If it happened before the 19^th century, I have trouble recalling it, and it often seems incredibly tedious and overly centralized in Europe. WE GET IT, IT’S THE “CENTER OF CIVILIZATION” (despite it basically destroying the Earth physically and spiritually and screwing its peoples for centuries…)—but seriously, what else was happening in the world back then!? Hugo Pomposo is chock full-o knowledge on history and recalls everything from memory without notes. He is wildly interesting and puts things in a perspective I have never heard before. Additionally, this subject is also very repressed in the US, so I really have no way of learning it in this manner. We know that in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue (and then raped and pillaged tons of villages). But we don’t know what on earth happened after that much farther south than Florida…And it’s insanely interesting. Recommend? Absolutely, absolutely.

Argentine Cultural Studies—Luis Amaya is crazy. He might be drunk. I’m not sure. What I am sure is that he brings an interesting dynamic to a subject that has already been fascinating since day one here. He too is not necessarily keen on lecturing for hours and hours, rather he goes (stumbles, runs…you know, however he can get there) around the room asking students about certain topics that we’re discussing—asking us to explain them, give examples, give our own opinions. Everything is on the spot. He’s not one bit hesitant to point out flaws with the culture or ask us to consider just what in the world is going on with X. He wants to show us the repressed aspects, in addition to the beautiful aspects of this complex culture. Recommend? Yes!

As for the style of teaching, I love it. I am enthusiastic about this type of learning. All too often in the US we are given a block of information copied down in pages and pages of a notebook then forgotten until the day before the test. In all of my classes here, I’m constantly engaging with the material because most of the professors admit they’d die if they had to listen to themselves talk for an hour and a half, so why should we be subjected to it? Everything is a discussion, or a critical thinking session.

As for the homework load, I’m about to die in ecstasy of not suffocating under a mountain of 40 page PDFs, 10 readings for each class. I do have reading, and it’s all in Spanish, so it’s not simple, but I’m at a high enough level that I can cruise at a nice reading speed. Additionally, we have a lot of short papers to write. But instead of summaries, like in the US, they call for us to digest the information and come up with a response to it. So this not only means you read it, but that you understand it and can find its strengths and flaws, then respond in Spanish. Because in case you didn’t realize, all of my classes are completely in Spanish.

Everyone thinks that when you study abroad, you take easy-peasy classes and screw around all day. Maybe these classes are easier because we’re coming from the context that, ok, this is not my first language, so obviously the structure of the class has to be different. But at the same time, I think there’s a difference between easy classes versus classes with lighter work-loads that still require you to think critically in a foreign language. It’s by no means easy, but it’s nowhere near the workload I’m used to slaving over back in the US. For some people, this means “easier” and “I’m going to party all the time”. But for me, it means I have more time to think about, learn, appreciate and engage with the material as well as have more free time to just relax and chat with my host family.

The best part, though? We don’t have class on Friday!!!!!!!!!