Spanish

Program description

The globalized world in which we live underscores the importance of language study as part of your education. Today's world is characterized by a myriad of political, economic, social and cultural interconnections that will impact your career, civic participation and personal lives – now and in the future. Languages are an inseparable part of culture, and culture is expressed through language.

Learning a foreign language gives you a window into cross-cultural understanding by providing you with a fundamental tool: the ability to communicate directly with speakers of other languages. In addition to teaching you communication skills, foreign language classes deal with current and historical cultural, socio-political, and economic aspects of the areas where the language is spoken.

Here are a few more good reasons to study Spanish at Century College:

• Gives you a greater awareness and deeper understanding of other cultures
• Prepares you for travel for business, education, or pleasure
• Broadens your career opportunities involving a foreign language
• Helps you appreciate the aesthetics of literature, music, art, and folklore of other cultures
• Develops more flexibility in thinking processes through problem solving, conceptualizing, reasoning, and dealing with ambiguity
• Enables you to transfer four semester courses (beginning and Intermediate Spanish) to a four year university
• Connects you to the Spanish-speaking community through Service Learning projects

Program points of pride

The Century Language Laboratory offers students the opportunity to practice the Spanish language in a comfortable setting with Spanish-speaking students from Columbia, Peru, Mexico, etc. Language lab resources include computers to access audio programs and the internet, videos, dictionaries, readers, maps, and current magazines.

Clubs and groups

The Spanish Club sponsors activities which are open to all Century students and staff. Club activities include the viewing and discussion of films, the promotion of events as fund raisers, salsa dance instruction weekly, museum and restaurant visits, celebrations of special days, and the opportunity to meet and hear speakers from Spanish-speaking countries.

Language students are introduced to the Resource Center of the Americas, located in Minneapolis. The Center's goal is to inform and educate “to promote human rights, democratic participation, economic justice, and cross-cultural understanding in the context of globalization in the Americas.”