5.1.2020 – Andrea on Tips and Farewell

Posted on May 01, 2020
Andrea says farewell

Today is my last day as a UIC undergraduate student. It’s a little sad but also exciting. However, I am not leaving without sharing a little bit of my wisdom. I will be receiving my Bachelors in Spanish with a concentration in Hispanic Studies. Thus, I have taken language classes at UIC for the last four years! Here are a few tips on how to succeed in language classes:

  1. Practice: Practice, Practice, Practice! I can’t stress this enough, practice! During my time at UIC I took Spanish classes and Portuguese. Although I am a native Spanish speaker, my Spanish is not perfect so I tried to expose myself to the language as much as possible. I started listening to more music in Spanish and watched more TV in Spanish as well (Check out our Instagram page  for movie and TV show recommendations). For Portuguese, I downloaded the Duolingo app and kept practicing there. Practicing is important because it can help you understand a language more and be exposed to other elements such as pronunciation.
  2. DO ALL OF YOUR HOMEWORK!: Yes, really, do your homework! For some language classes, homework assignments make up a decent percent of your grade. If you start missing some of your assignments, you’ll see your grade start to take a dip. Don’t be lazy and do your homework – those are pretty easy points to earn!
  3. Participate in class: Some language classes grade participation others don’t, regardless try to participate. If you participate you’ll be more engaged and more likely to retain the information and you’ll be practicing (ehmm point #1)
  4. Study for exams: Try to review material before your exams. Whether that’s in a study group or independently, whatever works for you.
  5. Have fun: And lastly have fun or at least try to. Some of you are learning a new language and others might be learning a language in more of an academic setting, either way both scenarios can be stressful so I advise you to try and have fun during this process because it’s a new experience and always try to make the best out of new experiences for better results.

I hope you guys follow some of this advice. I might be a little biased about language classes being fun because I am a language major but I can assure you these tips will be very helpful. Good luck in the rest of your UIC journey!

Best wishes,

Andrea

Modified on July 15, 2021