Spanish Masters?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by b4cz28, Aug 16, 2017.

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  1. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    I'm wanting to work on my Spanish ( I have very little) I am not a good fit for the DMIN I was in so I want to do something that would help me more and that's learn fluent Spanish. Can this be done at the masters level, does a program exist? I didn't use FinAid for my first Bachelors but did for my Masters degree. Does that mean I can't use FinAid for a new Bachelors degree?
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  3. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member


    Fluency in Spanish might be achieved through CLEP. Won't a degree involve history, culture and the name of Cervantes' horse?
     
  4. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    That's great! I might suggest an old school B&M for language fluency though.

    Ay dios hermano!

    Abner :smile:
     
  5. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Rocinante. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocinante Well, Don Quixote's horse, anyway. And yes, a degree in Spanish (or any other language) would involve all manner of cultural things. You'll need the fluency and knowledge acquired in a Bachelor's program before entering a Master's program.

    I remember someone on another forum saying basically "you can test out for an entire degree majoring in a language. you take the Gen-ed requirements, then this language CLEP and that language CLEP and ONE test for the culture and bang, you're done." Not the way it works. I have some experience with languages at University level - beginner and advanced. Getting a language degree doesn't work that wasy - at least where I went to school.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 16, 2017
  6. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member


    "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"

    "Practice, practice, practice."


    Probably the same with gaining fluency in Spanish.
     
  7. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Exactly. No substitute.

    J.
     
  8. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    A degree is often not the most expedient route to a skill. Consider what you want to do with your new language. If you want to socialize or work with people who speak it, or even live in another country, maybe you don't need a degree in the language. If you want to be able to teach it -- then you likely do.

    Think of it like any other skill. If you were interested in auto mechanics or welding, would you look for a degree program? You might, you might not. Depends.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 17, 2017
  9. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    If you do, I could probably recommend a good one:cool: But I agree with Johann and decimon. If your main goal is to improve your functional Spanish then hanging out at the local café with a copy of El Nuevo Dia is probably your best bet (and the cheapest).
     
  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Sí. Eres muy sabia. (Yes. You are very wise.) :smile:

    J.
     
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Let's not get carried away.
     
  12. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    That might have been me, and yes, that's the way it works at TESU with some minor corrections to what you wrote. People have done it before. The Big 3 are the main schools discussed on that forum, so it wasn't about how it worked at your school. They are the original competency-based schools, so earning a degree this way isn't about learning. It's about demonstrating proficiency you already have.
     
  13. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Then - if it's a degree program with a language major, besides grammar and fluency, it should include demonstrating these proficiencies:

    • Your knowledge of the history and old forms of the language. That could take several courses. Morphology, syntax, the whole thing.
    • Your knowledge of the history of the country of origin and relevance to language influences and development. More than a one-course deal.
    • Your knowledge of literature written in the language in various periods. Again, a multi-course deal.
    • Appropriate cultural literacy - which takes in a lot of the three fields above and maybe a current affairs course.

    You should have to learn these somewhere - to earn any language degree, competency-based or not. Anything less, you've learned to speak/write a language - but not earned a degree majoring in it. At least where I live.
    Same deal - for English (major) degrees or other languages.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 17, 2017
  14. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member


    Poll:

    A -I would do the above

    B -I would watch reruns of Barnaby Jones
     
  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I'd do both. I discovered something interesting about Barnaby just the other day. In the middle, the name has an Arabic word - arnab - meaning rabbit. Written thus: أرنب

    Words fascinate me - any language. I know very little Arabic, but I knew this word because I like the critters - and calligraphers in Arabic do beautiful things with animal designs, including rabbits.
    I'll never have a degree in Arabic - but I'm learning to do some nice writing in it anyway. :smile:

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 17, 2017
  16. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    That's true for any subject, so I don't know why it needs to be specified. When people test out of courses, they don't absorb the information from the universe. They learned it from somewhere.
     
  17. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I took the mandatory language courses (Spanish) in college and had no problem with them. I promptly forgot 90% of what I learned but I also left with a feeling that if I had applied myself for some additional time I could have become fluent, especially in regards to reading. But I also learned that a lot of people who grew up speaking Spanish at home didn't speak "proper Spanish." They could go on and on at top speed but the Instructor would be making corrections to verb tenses and conjugation, vocabulary, etc. In my mind I said, "They speak street Spanish but it would never fly in a boardroom." Their grades were no better than mine. Their Spanish skills were limited despite the fact that they were bilingual/bicultural. I know plenty of English-speaking people who are just the same. They speak English as a first language and would be considered as fluent but have limitations to their skills, especially in regards to reading and vocabulary.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 18, 2017
  18. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    I was in honors and pre-AP courses and made higher grades than most of the native Spanish speakers. However, there was this one girl from a middle class family who spoke proper Spanish and made slightly higher grades than I did. In a few jobs I've had, I have heard supervisors and trainers say that they prefer having people new to the field because they're working with a clean slate. Those with experience often learned bad habits elsewhere that are hard to break.

    I also forgot most of what I learned after taking three years of Spanish, but I was better at writing and reading than speaking and listening. We didn't do many speaking exercises, so there wasn't much immersion. By the time we got to Spanish III, we probably should have been conducting our classes entirely in Spanish.
     
  19. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    As you pointed out, it affects native speakers of English, too. And other languages. Working in Canada, I've known Canadians who spoke French from an early age, quite a few of whom went to French-language primary and high schools. A good proportion were bad spellers and the simplest grammar rules eluded them. I was born in England and didn't learn French until my teens. But often I had to fix their office correspondence for them. However, they were fluent...

    J.
     
  20. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Of course they did. What I have trouble believing is that there are sufficient tests -CLEP, DSST or whatever - to cover this breadth and depth of material. I can easily believe in efficient, robust tests for math, computer subjects etc., but a major in a language... there'd just have to be SO many tests to cover the field ... or maybe a just few 12-hour ones.

    Unfortunately, even if there are 100 Spanish, French, German or other language-related tests, (and I'm pretty sure there aren't) none of them would work for me, here. I know of no university in Canada that accepts CLEP /DSST, Shmoop, Aleks, Straighterline or any of that. Not even Athabasca, which is the closest we have to the Big 3 (and is RA). Back around 2003 I think they might have OK'd CLEP etc., but not today.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 18, 2017

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