Luis Castaneda

I came into this class having taken Spanish for 6 years, and I was pleasantly surprised how helpful I found the course materials to be. I was not exposed to the clear cut rules of Spanish morphology, so I liked that the class was focused almost entirely on advanced grammar (subjunctive, reflexives, tense, aspect etc.). I developed my Spanish writing and brainstorming skills, and Professor Castañeda was very accommodating to the entire class to let us revise and receive a new grade for the essay. We also did a lot of discussion and practiced speaking with our classmates, which I found a great help to getting comfortable with conversational Spanish. We also practiced our presentation skills; every week, two students would lead a presentation on Hispanic themed topics. Castañeda was very chill about grading our presentation.

I came into this class having taken Spanish for 6 years, and I was pleasantly surprised how helpful I found the course materials to be. I was not exposed to the clear cut rules of Spanish morphology, so I liked that the class was focused almost entirely on advanced grammar (subjunctive, reflexives, tense, aspect etc.). I developed my …Read more

This course felt similar to Spanish courses I took in high school. Everyone is expected to talk in Spanish the whole time but Prof Castaneda is very nice and it doesn't feel scary. A lot more grammar heavy than I had expected and it's hard to grasp complex Spanish grammar topics sometimes. We had super short readings every class but you never had to do them along with one group presentation, three in-class writing assignments, one short novel we read over the course of the semester, and two exams. Overall I would say this is a pretty chill Spanish class, you just might have to put in some extra effort for concepts you don't understand as he doesn't always spend a lot of time on all the grammar concepts.

This course felt similar to Spanish courses I took in high school. Everyone is expected to talk in Spanish the whole time but Prof Castaneda is very nice and it doesn't feel scary. A lot more grammar heavy than I had expected and it's hard to grasp complex Spanish grammar topics sometimes. We had super short readings every class but …Read more

Almost no homework, and exams are very manageable if you study. He provides a study guide that follows the format of the exams. He is a very fair grader and provides opportunity for corrections/extra credit. The class itself was not the most interesting, but Prof Castaneda is very kind and helpful.