Extra cultural spanish course

Culture and civilization course

Universpain offers this kind of course to all students that wish to get to know the Spanish culture or wish to profound their knowledge. Aimed at all students, the course is especially recommendable for students that are interested in (contemporary) history, anthropology, sociology, art history, communication, the economic situation...
Topics that will be discussed during the course are the situation of the Spanish language in the world, the actual problems, the immigration, the unemployment, the importance of family in Spain, the habits and traditions, the gastronomy, the Spanish art of the 20th century, modern literature, the popular celebrations...
The course consists out of two hours a day and is complementary to every other course we offer. Universpain recommends combining the Cultural Course with the Intensive Spanish Course.

During the course, students will be provided with all necessary course material (included maps, texts, photos, videos..) so that the student will be able to express and think about his/her opinion in Spanish from level A2-B1.

Objectives:

• To stimulate the interest for the Spanish culture and civilization and to make the information more tangible.
• To get to know the most important events that have occurred in the Spanish history.
• To offer the possibility to get to know other cultures while searching for differences and similarities with the culture of origin and/or with other cultures throughout the world.
• To practice the Spanish language in all of its competences. This means understanding the language while speaking as well as writing, to be able to express yourself in speaking as well as in writing, to practice with summaries of certain contents and expressing your opinion in (possible) debates.
• To communicate the importance of the causes of historical, political and social events to understand and respect the different cultures through one example: Spain and the Spanish.

Content:

Structured in ten entities, each entity covers a general theme, which is then distributed in more specific themes. Each entity has a scheme that will be repeated in all themes.

• A list of specific objectives.
• The development of the content.
• Explanation and realization of concrete activities in relation to the proposed objectives and the general content.

Grammatical, functional, socio-cultural contents as well as vocabulary will be practiced with oral, writing and insight (understanding) exercises.

• The situation in Spain and the development of the Spanish language: the King of Spain, the autonomous communities, the situation of the Spanish language in the world. Castilian – Spanish.
• Contemporary history. Government and economy: contemporary history, economics, Spain within the EU, immigration.
• Spanish habits and traditions: daily schedule, greetings, habits, norms.
• The gastronomy: the Mediterranean food, the tapas, the gastronomy in the different autonomous communities.
• Cities: demographics, differences between the different autonomous communities, representative cities and monuments.
• Popular celebrations. Spectacles. The musical spectrum: the culture and bull traditions, spectacles and press, the Spanish music, copla, zarzuela, flamenco...
• Sports: Sports and hobby’s, the most popular Spanish sports...
• The Spanish literature: Some poets, Lorca, Antonio Machado, actual tendencies.
• Art. Paint and sculpture: Famous painters, Goya, Velásquez, Picasso… modern art, actual tendencies, the vanguards...
• The development of the Spanish cinema. The television: the cinema of the postwar period, the actual spectrum, actual television channels and television programs, series of own production, the television rubbish.