For Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced level Spanish students.
- Beginner level is for students who have never taken Spanish before.
- Low Intermediate level is for students who have taken 1-2 semesters or 1-2 quarters of college level Spanish.
- Intermediate level must have completed 2-3 semesters or 3-4 quarters of college level Spanish.
- Advanced level must have completed at least 4 semesters or 6 quarters of college level Spanish.
All students will take a Spanish language placement test upon arrival.
ENGLISH TAUGHT ELECTIVE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Profesor: Dr. Ximena Casanueva: Doctora en literatura Hispanoamericana. Universidad de Chile. Magíster en Literatura General, Universidad de Chile. Bachelor of Arts, Universidad de Minnesota Estados Unidos. Profesora de Inglés, Universidad de Chile.
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
Course Description:
Survey Course on Contemporary Latin American Literature. The course will consider selected narrative and poetry texts, intensive reading and analysis of paradigmatic poems, and short stories. Brief references to the biographical and cultural background will be given to help the student understand the historical problems faced by the authors.
LATIN AMERICA ON FILM
Profesor: Dr. Ximena Casanueva
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
Course Description:
Latin Americans search for their identity through their art. It helps to integrate a vision of themselves and their world. This course teaches a historical, cultural as well as a cinematic approach to Latin America. This is achieved through an analysis of its literature and cinema. The former element is important because a great part of the films develop from novels and novellas. The selected short stories and films express characteristics common to all the subcontinent, with reference to cultural heritage, landscape, political environment, and artistic development.
Through cinema, intercultural themes will be studied, considering that each Latin American country has developed a culture of its own. The approach will be multicultural including films made by artists from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and the United States in both English and/or Spanish.
The Spanish versions will be subtitled. An analysis of the contrasting views will be performed. In this way we can infer how we see ourselves and how we are viewed by the American culture.
PRECOLUMBIAN MESOAMERICAN CULTURES: AZTECS, MAYAS, INCAS
Professor: Varies
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
Course Description:
This course provides an overview of the pre Hispanic archaeology of Mesoamerica a region extending from central Mexico to El Salvador, as well as South American cultures, which comprises Peru to the Patagonia. We will study the life-ways of the ancient native peoples of those regions, from their first settlements more than 12,000 years ago, up until the Spanish conquest in the 1520s. Special emphasis will be placed on the Olec and other Formative chiefdoms; the Classic civilizations of Teotihuacán, the Maya, and the Zapotec; and the Postclassic Toltec and Aztec states.
As we travel south, we will study the Incas, Diaguitas from northern Chile, Onas and other Patagonian foragers, as well as the Rapa Nui.
SPANISH TAUGHT ELECTIVE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
CULTURAS IN CONTACT
Profesor: Meredith Denton
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
* This course is taught in English and in Spanish.
Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to introduce International and Chilean students to the principal topics in intercultural communication, focusing on similarities and differences in communication behaviors. This course will help students build intercultural communication skills and discover how culture influences communication between individuals from different cultures, specifically in Chile.
This course creates an environment where both International and Chilean students can learn about each other's cultures, improve their acquisition of the Spanish or English language and build intercultural communication skills. This course will be taught in English and in Spanish.
* Students must complete 20 hours of local volunteer work in this course
TEMAS CONTEMPORÁNEOS
Profesor: Clara Moya
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
Course Description:
Conocer las raíces históricas de las naciones hispanoamericanas.
Identificar la evolución económica de América Latina desde la descolonización a la época contemporánea. Identificar la problemática social y política de las naciones latinoamericanas contemporáneas.
LITERATURA LATINOAMERICANA
Profesor: Varies
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
Course Description:
Marco teórico de la narrativa y poesía latinoamericana contemporáneas en un curso panorámico .Se hará una lectura y análisis literario de obras paradigmáticas escritas en castellano. El énfasis está enfocado a proponer un análisis crítico y filosófico de obras literarias latinoamericanas que logre vislumbrar el contexto de las obras y el contenido social de éstas.
CHINO MANDARÍN NIVEL BÁSICO
Profesor: Varies
Hours of Instruction: 46
Semester Credit Units: 3
Course Description:
En este curso se dictan nociones básicas de gramática para capacitar al alumno en el dominio de la expresión oral e identificación de caracteres chinos en un nivel básico de comunicación del idioma.
