The fall semester went well, with about 12 classmates and a kind teacher who works at a public high school during the day. I was surprised to see how many of my classmates were already conversational in Spanish and they were taking the class simply because it was an easy credit that fit in their schedule. The professor quickly identified the handful of us that needed extra assistance and wanted to learn, and I got a lot of one-on-one assistance. For the more advanced students, she assigned appropriately challenging book reports and had them attend only occasionally. The spring was similar, except for the basketball player who attend approximately every fourth class and gave the teacher a note from his coach "excusing his absences." I cannot believe that happened at a community college - I would have expected that from a four year school with a big sports programs.
We covered even less material in the spring and sometimes it felt like we weren't being pushed. I'd hesitate to call CC 13th grade - because I worked harder than that all through high school. I had looked around for alternatives in September and hadn't seen any that made sense with my schedule and budget. In the spring, I simply signed up for Spanish II. I've since learned from a fellow AmeriCorps that she is taking a great class at Brookline Adult & Community Education for about 1/4 of the cost. Her class is tailored towards working adults and might have been a better fit for me.
Pros: Cons:
Learned basic vocab and pronunciation Expensive
Learned basic sentence structure Didn't get past chapter 7
Learned present and present progressive tenses Didn't learn past tense, or any other tenses
Good basis to continue with textbook or duolingo After 2 semesters, not ready to speak with clients
Getting started was a good step, but I have a long way to go!
