Students taking Basic Spanish for Pharmacy Professionals 713 taught by Roberto Linares gathered during regular class on Thursday to celebrate the 5 de Mayo day in a didactic way, while practicing their Spanish. Students in this class understand the growing need for pharmacists to know Spanish, in order to assist an increasing number of patients whose native language is Spanish and feel more comfortable speaking it than English. During the previous weeks of the term, students learned the necessary basic Spanish skills to carry out several activities that day. The activities were enhanced with the presence of Spanish speaking members of the community, who were invited to come and interact with students.
Fernando Camacho, a teacher assistant and also a pharmacy student, helped to coordinate the various activities that students carried out that day. The class was divided in three sections, whereby students carried out skit presentations, a potluck, and Spanish sentence and word scrambled games. During the skit presentations students emulated a pharmacy environment where a Spanish speaking customer approaches a pharmacist. Their newly acquired Spanish skills helped them to carry out a conversation that would be typical in a pharmacy, hence preparing them for a real-life encounter of such nature.
The potluck activity provided great fun and food for everyone. Students were able to share the food they brought to class, while also being graded on answering in Spanish a set of pre-determined questions conducted by Roberto and Fernando. In addition, students had the task to collect demographic information in Spanish from both of them as well. A grade was awarded to students in lieu of the grade that they would regularly receive on their weekly quizzes based on the material covered the previous week.
The Spanish sentence and word scrambled games were of great amusement for everyone as well. Each student was given first an envelope with scrambled Spanish words that they had the task to put together in a sentence, and then each sentence in the right order. The first students who wrote down on a piece of paper the correct syntax of the sentences and their right order in a dialogue won a prize. Three prizes were awarded for the first, second, and third places. In this manner students did not compete with their Spanish skills for a grade but for a fun prize. In the same way a game was conducted afterward where students had sealed envelopes with words in Spanish for which they had to provide the right translation in English. The winner pairs of the games were from first to third price in the following order: Victoria Nguyen and Min Kyung Hwang, Jessica M. Ngo and Amar J. Patel, and Tabitha L. Purice and Kylee M. Kastelic. The prizes were two cactus shaped cups for the two first prize winners, two hats for the second prize winners, and a festive present for the third prize winners.
In the end, students gained a greater appreciation of the Spanish language, while also acquiring a cultural understanding of Hispanic culture in a fan and didactic way. They can later on take these skills and become more culturally competent pharmacists.
-Story and Photos submitted by Fernando Camacho