No Comprendo

Posted by Hannah | Filed under College

So… yesterday was my first day back to college, starting the Fall semester. My day went less than satisfactory.

My first class went fine, I think I will do decently in that course. But my second class, not so much.

We are required to take three foreign language courses, in order to graduate. So, let’s say I want to choose French as my foreign language; I would be required to take three complete French classes, which is about a year of French.

Since I live in Florida, and a very dominant language here is Spanish, I chose to do Spanish. Also, most places prefer to hire bilingual people, so it seemed like the logical thing for me to do, for the long run.

Bad idea.

Yesterday was the first day, and I figured Beginning Spanish would be a challenge, but not impossible to learn. In my opinion, learning a new language will of course be difficult, but if taught slowly and correctly, I would be able to learn it. But, no…

See…where my college is located, I’d say that 70% or more of the population is Spanish-speaking individuals. Most people either already know how to speak Spanish, or they have friends/family members who speak it, so either way, most people in this area are already familiar with how to speak/understand Spanish. I, on the other hand, do not know a word of Spanish. I know that there are plenty of other people who are in the same boat as me, so I’m not the only one; but Spanish people are indeed a majority around here.

So, on the first day of class, I noticed something was different. Out of about 35 students, only 5 or 6 people looked like non-Spanish people. I could be wrong, since that notion was based simply on appearances, but I thought to myself, “Oh, dear. I am totally in over my head!”

Then the professor walks in. She’s a young-ish, attractive Spanish woman, with a soft voice and thick accent. She immediately began to chat with a few of the students in the class, of course speaking only in Spanish. One girl who looked to be about my age, began to ask the professor questions about the text book, and the professor answered in English. When the girl kept asking more and more questions, the professor would mumble something in Spanish under her breath, and continue to answer the girl, as if it were a chore to use English.

The professor then handed out the class syllabus. At this point, I was reviewing the syllabus, and I noticed MANY misspelled words and incorrect diction in her English writing. Clearly, she’s more fluent in Spanish. Or, she doesn’t know what a spell checker is.

She went to the front of the class, introduced herself, and started to talk about class requirements and such. She kept alternating between Spanish and English, and mostly, she spoke in Spanish. It was confusing me, and I didn’t know what she was saying. When she would get stuck on how to express something in English, she would then switch to Spanish. WTF? This is the first day of a beginner’s Spanish class, how the hell am I supposed to know what you’re saying?

Then, she began to go over (very quickly) the Spanish alphabet. Next, she went on to common Spanish sayings, such as, “thank you”, “I am sorry”, and “I don’t understand”. Then…she went off for about 20-30 minutes straight, in Spanish, about God knows what. Occasionally she would throw in a few English words, but I still wasn’t quite sure what was being said. I tried to take notes, but she was speaking incredibly fast, and in another language that I don’t know. My head was pounding at the end of class.

And, I didn’t even know it was the end of class until people started getting up and leaving! Because, she dismissed us in Spanish. What the heck is going on? It felt like the Twilight Zone, but the Spanish edition!

As I got up to leave, I heard two people talking behind me. A guy said to the girl next to him, “So, are you overwhelmed yet?” and the girl said, “yes, I’m so confused!” I looked at them and said, “Thank God I’m not the only one! The past hour went by so fast and I’m not even quite sure what just happened!” LOL and we were talking and agreeing that it was crazy how things happened.

Just because tons of Spanish people live in Florida doesn’t mean that ALL people who live in this area is familiar with the language. This is a beginners class, and the language needs to be taught bit by bit, slowly, so that people like me (who only speak English) can comprehend and learn. It pisses me off that all these people who have Spanish as their first language can take these classes and make an easy A. It’s not fair! Shouldn’t they be required to take a different language that they DON’T already know?

So, now I have to decide whether or not I want to keep this class or withdraw from it and get my money back. I can’t possibly foresee myself learning a new language like this.

Read more | Comments (5) | Aug 26, 2008

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