Classes in Alcalá de Henares

So I figured the best time to talk about the classes I'd been taking while in Spain would be a post positioned right  at the end of my class time and right before I went to London for post-school travelling!

We had two different sets of class types.  The first was for 9 transfer credits with the international portion of the Universidad de Alcalá called Alcalingua.  This is where we got our Grammar and Conversation education.  It was in this cute little building about a 15 minute walk from my homestay, and lasted from 10am-1:30pm, Monday-Friday from January 12th until March 18th.  We of course got a half an hour break in between classes so it totalled 3 hours of class a day.

Our classes were split up by experience level and we tested into said levels.  The class we tested into was our class for the semester so we had class with the same wonderful 18 people every day.  In my class there were 6 people from our Maryland program, 2 Australian girls, 1 Norwegian girl,  1 Frenchman, 1 Japanese girl, 1 Korean girl, and 6 Chinese students (2 boys, 4 girls).  Our class was wonderful.  They were so nice and lively and it was so cool to talk to them all in Spanish.  The Chinese students knew some English, but we were usually guilted into Spanish by our teachers.  My instructor for grammar was named Alicia and she was unbelievable.  She was the best Spanish professor I've ever had.  Because she was teaching students with all different native languages, she couldn't explain grammar in the same way that English speaking Spanish professors would.  It was MUCH clearer when it wasn't always being equated to English grammar.

My Wonderful Grammar Class

This is my class!  There are only a few people missing from this picture.  It was a really wonderful group.  Everyone was so nice and chatty!

The Maryland Crew with Alicia!

Me and the Chinese Crew with Alicia!

After grammar we had Conversation class with Cristina.  She was a fantastic teacher as well because she chose topics that we could have long discussions about and topics that actually interested us.

Me with Alicia and Cristina at Graduation.

Our other set of classes were Maryland classes with our Resident Director Dr. Regina Harrison and the Maryland Associated professor Mercedes Rivas.  From January 12th to March 18th we had each class once a week for three hours on either Tuesday or Thursday.  Our class with Professor Harrison (who insisted we be on a first name basis since she was our Resident Director) was a culture and literature class so we learned about Spanish history and read various short stories and textbook chapters on anything from Franco to the state of the poverty stricken.  Our class with Professor Rivas was a Spanish Cinema and Theater class.  We got 6 Maryland credits for the two classes.

After March 27thth (the end of spring break) we had class only three times a week.  Reggies class was Tuesday and Wednesday for 1.25 hours and Prof. Rivas' class on Thursdays for three hours.  We needed three hours for her class to watch movies or go see plays.  The shows and movies we saw with the class were very good, but usually very confusing as well.  The plays were old so it was practically like reading/watching Shakespeare....in  Spanish!  It was also difficult because she spoke very quickly and used vocabulary we weren't familiar with.  It also didn't help that she was from Southern Spain while we were used to the Madrid accent.  The Andalucian accent has more of a lisp and they jumble the words together more.  Madrileños (people from Madrid) speak with more separation and clarity.

Overall I enjoyed the Alcalingua classes more because I felt I learned more from them.  I really enjoyed grammar and conversation class each day, and I'll be sad not to have an experience like that again.  It was a wonderful educational environment!