SPAN 2020
Intermediate Spanish II
The second half of a two-semester intermediate level sequence. This class continues to review basic knowledge and to introduce advanced skills in grammar, reading, writing, culture, and vocabulary.
Instructors
Allison Milner, Elvira Zamora Garcia, Gail Swick, Gail Swick Meeks, Hector Pineda Cupa, Katherine Tilghman, Marisa Barragan-Peugnet, Mark Dowell, Nancy Schnurr, Nelson Pardino, Rebeca Fromm Ayoroa, Renzo Rivas Echarri, Santiago Rozo Sanchez, Shirley Anghel, Silvia Ledesma Ortiz, Virginia Braxs
Reviews
Prof Dowell is a nice and pretty funny guy. However, his classes are boring and you learn more from the Supersite homework than you do from him. He assigns meaningless homework, but his tests are pretty straight forward. However, he gives arbitrary grades for compositions. He's ok but his class isn't the best for actually learning Spanish.
4/16/2026
I'm not sure why her rating is 16% because she is hilarious and also very understanding of personal circumstances. She definitely prioritizes effort over perfection which I appreciate.
10/2/2025
I stumbled on this 30 years later, remembering just how much I LOVED Swick's classes - I took 2 or 3 with her. I'm sifting through old notebooks, reminiscing. It's amazing how Swick remains so memorable, in such a positive light. She brought creativity and upbeat, inspiration to her classes that made Spanish fun, the way education ought to be. :-)
1/23/2025
Schnurr has one of the most disorganized canvas pages I have seen, where most of the due dates were incorrect (she refused to fix any of the issues brought to her attention). The Supersite homework in the class is pretty horrible as well, and her lectures don't cover the material that is on the test.
1/13/2025
Really nice professor and very accessible with office hours. Was at times intimidating to ask questions in class and has a very confusing Canvas page, so due dates and assignment instructions are sometimes unclear. I think she is a great professor though, just wasn't a great class.
12/19/2024
Condescending when you ask questions. Directions are not clear and she is very specific when grading papers. Never thought Spanish would be the class I hated the most. More assignments in this class than in all my other classes combined, which is really saying a lot.
11/11/2024
2-4 hrs/week
BP is very caring and does a good job. Shouldn't have any worries about taking 202 with her
5/21/2024
Challenging but really nice. Strict on attendance.
5/5/2024
Ledesma-Ortiz makes you work but is also so kind and accommodating to students' needs (she once moved an exam because it was scheduled on my birthday). The small class sizes means everyone participates which can be scary. Her Spanish accent is beautiful to listen to, and she sometimes goes on fun tangents about her family and Argentinian culture.
4/29/2024
The class has a decent workload (as is typical of Spanish at WashU), but nothing too difficult. Prof. Fromm Ayoroa is a wonderful instructor; she fosters a caring, collaborative classroom environment and clearly communicates deadlines and grading criteria. She speaks at a good pace: not too rapid-fire, but still improves students' listening skills.
2/5/2024
Strict when necessary, but overall incredibly sweet and accommodating. Great choice of prof for this class
12/26/2023
Professor Ledesma Ortiz is one of my favorite professors at WashU. I find her class to be quite fun while being a great atmosphere to improve your conversational Spanish skills as well as your comprehension of many different cultures. The first unit is fairly difficult but outside of that her class is a must-take if you're interested in Spanish!
8/28/2023
Fromm Ayoroa is a really fun teacher. She always keeps the energy up and is pretty fun to have teaching lectures. She's chill and the vocab sections were always pretty easy.
5/16/2023
I was a solid Spanish speaker before I came to her class but began to struggle with grammar. I would attend her office hours for extra help, and instead of actually helping me learn the Spanish language, she went on and on about how she couldn\'t give me detailed feedback because of the "integrity of the assignment" everyone else cheated on. AVOID!!
3/22/2023
I took Ledesma Ortiz for Span 302 and I loved her. Great class and she was super clear about instructions and we always had nice discussions.
2/22/2023
Prof Fromm Ayoroa is literally so nice. She is very understanding and I always felt I could talk to her if I needed an extension or something. The class is very chill and an A is attainable. I also felt I actually learned in her class. I would highly recommend.
10/17/2022
The class is really easy and you just have to show up basically. The syllabus is clear about what you have to do. Sometime she kind of goes off of the syllabus but its not that big of a deal. The only problem was that she graded everything like 2 weeks after the semester was done which was a bit annoying but oh well.
1/11/2022
The first unit of the semester for this course in particular is really difficult, however other than that Profe is an excellent teacher of Spanish. She's a native speaker, super willing to help, funny, and she explains things in a way that just makes sense to me. I would definitely recommend Profe Ortiz to anyone on the fence about taking Spanish
1/8/2022
Definitely need to go to class to do well, as participation really matters in Spanish classes. She's a great teacher tough, I don't think many people got below an 85% (as long as you try, you will do well).
1/4/2022
To be honest, I was super scared of her the first couple lectures (I actually almost dropped the class, but I stuck with it). Over time I began to realize that she is a super sweet lady. Yes, she cold-calls sometimes during discussion so you need to pay attention, but my Spanish genuinely improved so so much, and she is so understanding.
12/13/2021