Wednesday, February 21, 2007

A la mitad del curso

So far Spanish 365 has been very interesting. We have been doing a lot of reading which has been good for me, because I definitely needed the practice. In Spanish 364, our instructor took a more historcal approach to understanding literature, which I found to be very helpful when putting what I read into context. We also wrote a fair amount of essays, which helped me with my writing. I find that this course fits well with Spanish 364 because of the reading we are doing. I have noticed that my writing in spanish has improved due to all the reading I’ve been doing in this course and in Spanish 490.
The sad part is that since we have a limited amount of time in this course, we can only read one piece of literature to represent each country. Because of this, I am having a hard time grasping the identity of each country by reading one book from each region. For example, if someone were to ask me to explain the differences between Chilean literature and Ecuatorian literature, it would be hard to answer them. Maybe this the point of this course is to understand South American literature as a whole? I find that the role of literature in creating an identity of a country, is very interesting. I thought that Cumanda provided an all-encompassing portrait of Ecuator , or at least represented at that time.
The whole concept of blogging has been new to me. At first I found it to be very awkward, the idea that anyone can read what I write at anytime they want. But as I got used to the idea, I think it is a great way of exchanging ideas with classmates and professor and I especially like the non-formal format which allows us to be open and honest and not worry about grammar or spelling.

3 comments:

Laure said...

I agree with you, you can't grasp the culture of only one country but you can grasp the culture of South America as a whole. I think this is how this course has been planned... I don;t think u can really learn how a country is buy its litterature, travelling and interacting with the people is the best way to do so...

Cheryl said...

I think you have pointed out the plus and negative of a course in literature. The plus is that we get to read and BEGIN to see a little bit of other cultures and that kind of exposure helps us to see beyond our immediate world. The negative is that it is impossible to cram 200 years of cultures, beliefs, personal identities into 13 weeks and still have an understanding of the past. For me the value of a course such as this helps to broaden my understanding and respect for other people and in the process hopefully awakens a greater desire to take the time to find out! Interaction with others can open many doors and take down barriers or perceptions that separate people.

Stacey said...

I also feel that this course has improved my Spanish from all the readings I have done. It would be nicer to spend more time on each in order to grasp a better understanding of different Latin American countries, although, I also thought Cumanda was a great choice for the class. It would be nice, however, to spend more time to read through each novel/story to understand it better.