So, as the name shows, half of my study abroad experience here is kind of the studying part. I was silly last semester and didn't post about the most important part: my classes! Here to change that for this semester is this blog post. Enjoy reading about what I am currently learning this semester!
El arte flamenco en la sociedad y cultura
This class is ‘The art of Flamenco in society and culture’. In this class, I’ll be learning about all aspects of Flamenco such as the lyrics, the songs, the dance including the difference between the man’s dance and the woman’s, the history, and the links between Flamenco and society. I’ll also study a little history about Spain and Andalucía in the process. There will also be a part of the class in which we will differentiate between Flamenco, Sevillana, and the Meringa. My teacher for this is Jose Javier Leon and he seems so cool. He’s very enthusiastic about what he’s teaching and funny too. I found out he’s also my teacher for my Literature class, which needless to say I am pumped about. He was also talking about the humor that Flamenco encompasses and some of the politically incorrectness of it. He was saying that back then, when some cantantes were named, the whole something-being-politically-incorrect thing wasn’t an issue. He wouldn’t tell us any of the names at this time because it’s not on the schedule until later in the semester. This is already one of my favorite classes!
Literatura española (siglo XX)
The professor for this class is the same one for my Flamenco class aka the one I really like. I’ll be studying Spanish Literature of the 20th Century in this class, though our second class we were informed that we would actually be starting this class in Nicaragua. The influence from Nicaragua and some authors there have influenced Spanish literature so dramatically that he insists that we veer off the course of the Spanish literature and study this background portion first. Right now we’re talking about ‘El Modernismo’ and the crisis of the bourgeoisie conscience when the younger generation started to rebel against the ideology of their bourgeoisie parents. Even though, for me, literature is sometimes a bore, I think I’m going to really like this class. Last semester I took a Hispanic American Literature class and was surprised how much I liked it so maybe this class will be the same! I’ve discovered that almost all my classes overlap with each other in some way, whether it is Spanish Art appearing during the Spanish take-over of Latin America or my LA & Spanish business class becoming relevant in my Civ & Culture class. I’m starting to see parallels in a lot of things by finally putting together events happening on each continent and realizing that they are all interconnected somehow. I guess whenever I was learning history, I was always learning it about one single location at a time and didn’t realize until now when I’m learning history from all parts of Latin America, Spain, and then plus my past knowledge of some of Europe and the US, it’s all coming together in one big web. And unlike spider webs and cobb webs, this is a type of web I'm enjoying immensely.
Civilización y cultura española
This class is about all aspects of the Spanish culture and the civilization. We’ll be learning about the origin of Spain and the Spanish people as well as the different autonomous regions. We’ll also look at Spanish people today: the family, customs, young people, and daily life. In addition to these, I’ll also be learning a little bit about flamenco, the Mediterranean diet, the bulls, the Spanish festivals/parties, Spanish cinema, and last but not least Spanish music. Excited about this class would not begin to describe how I feel. All of these things are such big reasons on why I wanted to come to Spain. To have lived in the culture for 4 months and now get to learn in the classroom about their culture (while continuing to learn every moment of every day) is awesome.
Variedades del español
This class is about all the different varieties of Spanish there are. I’ll be learning about the some of the phonetics, the difference between castellano and español, and what is considered ‘correct’ Spanish. We’ll also be looking at the different dialects that Spain has. There are actually 4 official languages in Spain: Castellano, Gallego, Catalán, and Vasco. In addition to these though, there are other ways of speaking and different dialects, such as in Andalucía. For example, in Andalucía, we eat a lot of our words and sounds. The ‘s’ at the end of a word is not pronounced nor is the ‘d’ when there is an ending such as –ado, -ido, -ada. Entonces, someone with a very heavy Andalusian accent would pronounce the sentence “Que ha pasado en Granada?” (normally said like ‘K ah pah-sah-doh in Grah-nah-dah’) as this: Que ha pasao en Graná? (said like ‘Kha pah-saww in Grah-nah’ )
I’m excited for the content of this class but I’m not too thrilled with the teacher. My friends last semester didn’t like him too much and my friend, Craighton, described him as an Evil Mr. Feeny (Boy Meets World reference, what up). He’s a smidge boring but since I’m really interested in the content, I’m hoping that helps me out a bit.
Cultura Islámica en España
This class I’m very excited to learn about; it’s Islamic culture in Spain (or as our teacher later informed us, not technically in Spain because we’re studying the years 711 -1492 and back then, the country of Spain that we all know and love today had not yet been formally formed.) Something that drew me to Granada was the huge Arab and Moorish influence here. It was the last place from which the Moors were expelled. In many aspects of the architecture here (conveniently noticed more so after my Spanish Art class last semester) are very Islamic: the arch ways, the carvings, so many things. I don’t have an in depth knowledge about this whole time period which is why I’m happy to take this class. I’m fascinated with the fact that they were expelled in 1492 and in 2012, over 500 years later their cultural presence is still being felt. I’ll also be learning about the fundamentals of Islam like the Koran, the pillars of Islam and the Islamic way of life. After that, I’ll learn about the Arab expansion into the Iberia Peninsula. This class is also interesting to me because before I came to Spain, I wrote a scholarship essay for API having to do with my interest in the Islamic influence. To write this paper, I had to do some research into the history of it all and I learned some things that way such as a few of the pillars of Islam. But, like I said before, since my knowledge is not immense, I’m really excited to learn more about it.
As you can see, it pretty much looks like I am excited about every class I'm taking which might seem unlikely. Conveniently, it is not! I truly am excited about every single one of my classes (yes, even those at 8:30 in the morning when all I want to do is snooze). I hope you enjoyed learning a little about what I'm learning about :)
Os quiero
Hasta luego!
I love you all
Until next time!
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