Off-campus courses, both international and in the United States, are offered during the January Interim. They vary from year to year. Details are available in the Off-Campus Interims brochure published each spring and in the Interims Announcement printed in mid-fall.
El próximo enero se estrena un interino nuevo para estudiantes de nivel Spanish 250, un interino que estará bajo la dirección de la Dra. Gwendolyn Barnes-Karol. Doña Gwen ha enseñado antes en España y es experta en literatura y cultura peninsular. Si desea conseguir información sobre esta oportunidad académica, pasar por Manitou Cottage y hablar con la ayudante administrativa de International Studies and Off-campus Programs. Para los estudiantes de nivel Spanish 232 se sigue ofreciendo los interinos en Costa Rica y Ecuador.
The following programs will be offered in January 2010:
Spanish 233 Intermediate Spanish in Ecuador
Spanish 233 (the equivalent of 232 on compus) is an on-site course based in Quito, capital of Ecuador. While concentrating on content, the course combines the study of language in an authentic second language context. Students continue to develop their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in Spanish as they acquire and process information about Ecuador and its culture. The language/content assignments will focus on cultural information through selected reading from a variety of resources (essays, short stories, current newspapers & magazines, religious an political documents, others), interviews with native speakers of Spanish, guest lectures, and experiential learning activities.
The course will illustrate and enrich the information note only through conventional classroom activities and assignments, but also with out-of class activities in and around Quito and extended excursions to other areas of Ecuador. In addition, a family home stay will help the student apply and develop his/her ability both to communicate in Spanish and to understand Hispanic culture in general.
The course will analyze cultural topics such as:
- Ecuador Regions: The Coast Region, the Highlands Region (the Andes), the Amazonian or Jungle Region, and the Galapagos Archipelago.
- Ethinicity & Culture: The mestizo, the Amerindians, the African, the Spanish & other ethnic groups.
- Religion: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and the native belief-systems of the indigenous people.
- Family and Kin: Male and female roles in urban and rural Ecuador.
- Contemporary Ecuador: economic and political challenges.
The language of the course and all official interim activities will be Spanish. Spanish 233 has been approved for the following GE credentials: Foreign Language (FOL-S) and Multicultrual Studies - Global Course (MCS-G).
Spanish 270 Spain's Cultural and Linguistic Legacy in Spain
Topic: "Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Spain"
In this course, we will explore the culture of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Spain, their interactions, and their contributions to Spain's literary, cultural and linguistic heritage from 711 A.D. (the date of the first Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula) to the present. Analysis of selected historical, literary, and cultural texts will be supplemented by guest lectures, site visits to museums, cultural institutions, artistic monuments, and cultural observation and field research activities. Within this broad focus, we will highlight the following topics:
- Safarad, Al-Andalus, and the Christian Kingdoms: Medieval Iberia's "convivencia" of three cultures (711-1492)
- "True Believers" and "Infidels": Images of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Cultural Texts and Artifacts
- 21st-Century Spain: The Religious Pluralism of Democratic S pain & Spain's Changing Demographics
All course materials will be in Spanish, and all course activities will be conducted in Spanish. We will begin with excursions to Toledo and Cordoba, then move to our home base of Granada for three weeks and finally take an extended excursion to Sevilla.
Spanish 234 Intermediate Spanish in Costa Rica
Spanish 234 (the equivalent of 232 on campus) provides students with the opportunity to complete their fourth-semester of Spanish in Costa Rica, a Spanish-speaking country in Central America. Students will continue to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in Spanish through living with a Costa Rican family, acquiring and processing information about Costa Rica, attending classes and participating in field trips and excursions. Special emphasis will be given to description and narration, comparison and contrast, and explanation and analysis of such topics as the following:
1. Costa Ricans (Ticos) and their physical environment: the urban landscape of San José, the capital city, and the diverse ecological systems of two coasts and the mountains and valleys in between, including a volcano or two.
2. Family, kinship, gender and social relations in urban and, to some degree, rural Costa Rica.
3. Education, work and leisure activities in San José and, to a lesser degree, outside of the capital.
4. Cultural similarities and differences between groups within Costa Rica and between North American and Costa Rican societies.
Family Homestay in San José:
All students will live in private homes in the San José area during the interim, except during excursions. The homestay will provide an experience in language immersion and allow students to observe and participate in family life in Costa Rica. Few homes will be in walking distance of the ACM center, where classes will be held; hence, most students will take public transportation (buses) to get to class.
Excursions:
We will take two overnight excursions, one to the province of Puntarenas on the Pacific coast and the second to the province of Linón on the Caribbean coast.
(Left) Students pose for a group picture in front of La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago, Costa Rica. (Below) ¡La música costarricense es fantástica!
"I had anticipated gorgeous landscape and weather to match, but I never imagined that I would fall in love with the people and their culture. It is possible to find fantastic geography all over the world, but only in Costa Rica can one find "Ticos" (Costa Ricans); it is these people and the warmth that they extend to their guests that make this program stand out." ~ Cecily Robinson, student
Here, students enjoy the beauty of the Ecuadorian countryside as well as the Amazon region.
