Hazel Carrasco-Spooner

I would say that this class is very social and interactive as you would expect from a language class. At times, the class can feel enjoyable for some because many of the students who take this class are energetic and social. The teacher can also be quite nice at times if the class is cooperative. I had Mrs. Carrasco for Filipino 1 and 3 and both of these classes operate the same way, just Filipino 3 covers a variety of topics beyond the language. I would say that Filipino 3 is more based on the culture, media, famous figures, and history of the Philippines, but at the beginning of the year, we do learn about several types of verbs, how to conjugate them, and how to use them in sentences. We also learn about enclitics and using the present perfect tense. Other than that, you will mainly be reading short stories and texts that require a good knowledge of Filipino. Some of the vocabularies that you learn at this level and encounter in the texts are unlikely to be used in everyday casual conversation. There is a lot of group work and oral projects and participation accounts for 30% of your grade, so it crucial that you participate and can work well with others, regardless of the situation. Presentations virtually were mainly Google slides, but in person, you would do more elaborate longer presentations and projects. Memorization is also heavily emphasized, but the teacher does provide many Quizlet assignments, kahoots, and short practice assignments that help your memorization and practice application of what you learn. The quizzes and tests are also easy to study for since she gives you the information that you need to do well in the form of practice tests. One thing to note is that quite a bit of the students who take this class already speak Tagalog, so there is a high expectation in this class to know your material and can speak decently. There are some times where the teacher can be impatient or demanding when you don’t know how to do something, which can be quite nerve-wracking and can affect your experience in the class. In general, the class is not super difficult, although it can be nerve-wracking at times, especially if you don’t do well with public speaking or don’t understand the information. However, if you memorize the material and try to speak Tagalog outside of class to practice, you should be fine!

The most useful piece of advice I would give to students taking Ms. Carrasco's Filipino course is to spend a lot of time on memorization. Since this is a foreign language class, naturally you would have to spend time remembering vocabulary and sentence structuring. Filipino 1 and Filipino 2 is mainly characterized by sentence structure and vocabulary while Filipino 3 has some more cultural aspects that you get to learn about. Because I spent a lot time of memorizing the vocabulary and content, I was able to do well in this class. Although it seems like this class is mainly memory-oriented from my description, this class is actually very enjoyable. A lot of the people you meet in this class are very social and fun to be around and we get to do fun activities like making Halo-Halo with your classmates.