This blog is almost exclusively written about excursions I take, which I need to fix. I am living in Madrid for the year, so time I start writing a few more madrileño posts.
Today I finished my first semester here in Spain (half the year is over already?), and even though I really have nothing good to say about our specific academic program, I do want to comment on the professors.
I had heard before coming here that the teaching style in Spain was very dry; almost every class was straight lecture, where the teacher just stands and talks without any visual aids while the students scribble furiously in their notebooks. I did have a couple of classes like that, but not all of them. In fact some of them, especially theater, were really interactive. Like I've said before, all of my classes this semester were with other Americans, so I can't really speak in generalities. This is just my experience so far. This coming semester I'll have actual classes with Spaniards and get a better idea of how an actual Spanish classroom feels.
Another real difference I feel with my professors here is that the relationships are much more personal with the students. This past weekend, we had a field trip around the Malasaña and Chueca barrios of Madrid, and along the way our professor would stop and show us bars he liked and buy us drinks. And there weren't just small cups of wine either, but enough so that by noon we were all pretty drunk, including the professor. Obviously, something like this couldn't happen for me in the United States because I'm not even legally allowed to drink there, so maybe this is a normal thing to do with a teacher once you're 21. I don't know. But, it definitely made us all closer, and I feel the same with other professors as well. Our theater teacher has plans to come out with us one night, and my syntax professor is so cool I want her to be my friend.
Even my landlord has asked me to invite one of my teachers over for dinner one night. I honestly can't really imagine inviting a professor from Cal Poly over to my house for dinner, but that fact that my landlord even suggested it means it can't be too bizarre here. It is great to have relationships with them outside of class, since they're all really intelligent people and it's fun to talk with them candidly. I'm also naturally a kiss-ass, so I typically jump at chances to hang out with teachers outside of class.
Today I finished my first semester here in Spain (half the year is over already?), and even though I really have nothing good to say about our specific academic program, I do want to comment on the professors.
I had heard before coming here that the teaching style in Spain was very dry; almost every class was straight lecture, where the teacher just stands and talks without any visual aids while the students scribble furiously in their notebooks. I did have a couple of classes like that, but not all of them. In fact some of them, especially theater, were really interactive. Like I've said before, all of my classes this semester were with other Americans, so I can't really speak in generalities. This is just my experience so far. This coming semester I'll have actual classes with Spaniards and get a better idea of how an actual Spanish classroom feels.
Another real difference I feel with my professors here is that the relationships are much more personal with the students. This past weekend, we had a field trip around the Malasaña and Chueca barrios of Madrid, and along the way our professor would stop and show us bars he liked and buy us drinks. And there weren't just small cups of wine either, but enough so that by noon we were all pretty drunk, including the professor. Obviously, something like this couldn't happen for me in the United States because I'm not even legally allowed to drink there, so maybe this is a normal thing to do with a teacher once you're 21. I don't know. But, it definitely made us all closer, and I feel the same with other professors as well. Our theater teacher has plans to come out with us one night, and my syntax professor is so cool I want her to be my friend.
Even my landlord has asked me to invite one of my teachers over for dinner one night. I honestly can't really imagine inviting a professor from Cal Poly over to my house for dinner, but that fact that my landlord even suggested it means it can't be too bizarre here. It is great to have relationships with them outside of class, since they're all really intelligent people and it's fun to talk with them candidly. I'm also naturally a kiss-ass, so I typically jump at chances to hang out with teachers outside of class.
