I loved teaching my Hispanic Civilization course. There is a beautiful variety of opinion among my students. They also have such a cute way of expressing themselves that grading their papers has been a lot of fun. Here are some of the most striking statements from their final exams and final essays:
"Capitalism is the worst. If at all possible I would renounce my citizenship from the US."
"I think the US embargo on Cuba should stop. I mean the US take and take, but do not give back."
"In the Argentinean society, it seems that when two people get together they can do some strange and crazy things."
"The International Monetary Fund kicks Latin American people while they are down."
"Argentineans enjoy moments of suspense and confusion."
"As Fidel Castro led the Cuban Revolution to the eventual overthrow of the Bautista (sic) regime, large decisions loomed in the foreseeable future."
"Cortazar's story "The Continuity of the Parks" is a strange soap opera gone weird." [I think this student stumbled unwittingly on the perfect definition of postmodernism.]
"Cuba went from being America's favorite ashtray/gangster paradise, to an enemy with missile capabilities in less than 30 years."
"Latin America has many extremely intelligent people. However, all these intelligent people move to the US or Europe in order to make more money."
"In his essay, Galeano tells about how Europe and US are not right, so why should countries look up to them. I do not agree with Galeano. I think that there are many successful European countries, and the US has done quite well themselves."
"No matter what you are doing in Argentina, you are never safe or alone."
3 comments:
I love the comments on Argentina, such a lovely little trifecta of absurdity. I totally want to take your class just to know what led them to those conclusions.
I spent at least 20% of class time explaining why talking about "all Argentineans"(all Mexicans, all Chileans, etc.) is stupid. And about how these stereotypes are formed, and what purposes they serve, and the mechanisms of their continued existence.
Sadly, it appears that some students were not listening. I was almost banging my head against my desk when I was reading some of these statements.
priceless!!! I can't stop laughing :)
did each comment come from a different student or was there someone who really stood out with the number of priceless statements?
M.
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