Spanish Civilization & Culture

The aim of this course is to analyze Spanish culture from both a historical and sociological perspective while you acquire strong Spanish writing and speaking skills. The course has an intercultural component and you will study the history of Spanish civilization from pre-history to modern times while interacting with the reality of modern day Spain in order to interpret and understand contemporary culture. By learning about Spanish culture in Spanish, you will be able to reflect on the ties between language and culture. In such a way, you will acquire general knowledge of the main events of Spanish history and their influence upon current life. How significant issues have changed over the last century will be discussed in class so as to better understand the main underlying ideological, political and cultural tendencies in modern Spain.

Furthermore, in order to maximize your integration into Spanish culture, this course guides you to critically analyze what is culture and how you can achieve intercultural strategies so as to understand, adapt and learn local customs more easily. Thus, you are asked to reflect on cultural differences between U.S and Barcelona so as to analyze in greater depth the host culture and navigate in your new surroundings successfully. Thus, by the end of the course, you will understand that a country's customs and traditions are linked to its historical, social and economic evolution.