Spanish and Portuguese

What You Will Learn

• How to participate with confidence in a community of speakers of the language.
• How to understand and identify differences in socio-cultural contexts and their social implications.
• How to explain the importance of appreciating the complexity of the human experience across cultures.
• Citizenship skills and increased self-awareness and personal growth. 
• How to examine the rights and responsibilities shared by the interconnected members of a community.
• How to identify your own personal strengths, limits, goals, fears, or prejudices as they relate to interacting with members of a community of speakers.
• How to explain the connections between personal, interpersonal, community, and socio-political transformation.
• The value of knowing another language and understanding how to become a lifelong learner.
• The importance of extending the use of the language outside university boundaries to develop personal relationships and explore new social spaces.

1. Language proficiency in either Spanish or Portuguese at the intermediate-high level upon entry to the major (end of the sophomore year).
2. Immersion experiences in both Spanish– and Portuguese–speaking communities abroad or as determined with the adviser.
3. One course as a theoretical foundation for understanding culture.
4. One foundation course that provides a historical and sociocultural background for the study of Latin America.
5. Four courses taught in Spanish and four in Portuguese, except that (with the adviser’s consent) up to one relevant course taught in English may count towards the major.
6. For students who arrive with proficiency in Spanish, all coursework in Spanish must be above SPAN33. For students who arrive with proficiency in Portuguese, all coursework in Portuguese must be above PORT33.
7. SPAN/PORT 199 PZ, a capstone senior research project