There are many problems with learning a foreign language, specifically Spanish, in a classroom setting. First of all, the courses teach students how to write Spanish, and spend little time teaching students how to speak it. I learned more Spanish by spending a weekend in Mexico than I did in four semesters of Spanish courses.
Taking Spanish in college will not prepare you to spend time in a Spanish-speaking country. You will learn how to write it, but you will not learn how to understand it when you go to the country. People speak quickly, and each country (and even states in those countries) has different accents. In classes, professors speak slowly, repeat themselves, and eventually say the phrase in English. Taking Spanish in college will not prepare you for the day-to-day conversations, but it will prepare you to tell someone your daily routine, count to 1,000, and tell people how to clean a house.
The other issue in the courses is the structure of the program itself. The overlap in the courses makes it feel like you aren’t learning anything new. My last semester of Spanish covered the same information that the first semester covered. The tests and quizzes, regardless of the professor, are based off the premises of memorization. Can you memorize vocabulary and fill in the blank with a word bank? Can you circle the right verb tense when the correct choice is obvious because of context? Study for 30 minutes and you have an A. Of course, Spanish is not easy for everyone, but Spanish classes in college are there to help those people out. So imagine being good at Spanish, and having to sit there painfully waiting for others to utter a butchered phrase.
Some of you may be thinking, “Why didn’t you major in Spanish then?” “Why did you even take Spanish courses?” “There are conversation classes, you know.” Because the College of Charleston doesn’t require a placement test for Spanish, they accidentally placed me in the beginner’s Spanish for my first semester, so I was unable to graduate on time if I majored or minored in Spanish. Because my school is a liberal arts school and requires students to take a foreign language, and I also love Spanish, I needed to take it. The conversation classes would be useful if the students in the class took it because they like to speak Spanish, not because it’s an easy A.
Of course, the vocabulary is somewhat helpful, and the verb tenses are the most useful part, but there is so much information I obtained that I will never use. I actually remember once in my last Spanish course we learned irregular commands and I thought, “Oh! I learned this in Mexico because my dog there is bilingual.” My dog taught me Spanish before a professor did. Still, I think students interested in Spanish should definitely take Spanish, but they need to lower their expectation for what they want out of the class. The best way to become fluent in Spanish is to visit countries and become friends with people who will help you learn the language, including the slang and informal mechanisms.
Think about this before choosing to take Spanish courses. They might teach you the basics, but they won’t prepare you for a Spanish-speaking country.
