2008 Woodie Awards
Spanish done creatively
Catherine Gaa - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 2/13/06 Section: Metro
- Page 1 of 1
On Friday mornings, while many UI students are sleeping off a Thursday night of carousing with friends, UI lecturer and soon-to-be professor Roberto Ampuero's class is laughing at a story about a special Christmas gift and the difference between the Spanish words for "dad" and "potato."
The course, Taller de Escritura Creativa, or Creative Writing Workshop, has become so popular in its three semesters of existence that it uses a waiting list.
Ampuero, a Chilean and the author of eight novels and a short-story collection, said he wants students to think and write creatively while improving their Spanish. The students write short stories and then break into groups to discuss the story. Students give each other feedback and ask questions before Ampuero adds his own response. It's usually praise, not criticism.
UI junior Aris Dravillas, who took Ampuero's class last spring, said the course helps her learn the language while also exploring her own feelings and experiences.
"It was nice to use Spanish in a way that made it into something personal," she said.
Ampuero conjured up the idea for the workshop because he wanted to invent a creative outlet for advanced Spanish students. He was shocked by the increase in enrollment, he said. A year ago, the course had one section and 17 students. This semester, 44 students fill a pair of classes.
Class enrollment isn't Ampuero's only accomplishment, however. His books have been translated into French, Portuguese, Dutch, Mandarin, and Swedish, with English editions on the way. He's also a weekly contributor to Chilean newspaper La Tercera and a popular internationally published author.
"On the first day of class, he nonchalantly told us he had some books published,"
Dravillas said. "I don't think the class realized how well-known he was until he brought in a huge stack of books and told us he wrote all of them."
The students get a chance to publish their own stories in a course booklet at the conclusion of the semester. They also learn fiction theory, watch and discuss Latin American films, and have the opportunity to hear, firsthand, accounts of being an author from their instructor.
The workshop has been a learning experience for Ampuero, too. He said he has found his students learn in different stages. First, they realize they have the capacity to write fiction in a new language, Ampuero said. When they read their stories aloud to other classmates, students "open their hearts," communicate their feelings, their lives, and their expectations to classmates.
"Every student brings something different to his or her stories," Ampuero said. "This has been so gratifying, in that way."
On a campus known for its writing programs, he has taken creative writing and language acquisition to a new level with his workshop. But he does not take credit for the response to his class. Without the motivation and hard work of his students, he said, the program would not have survived.
"We are all writers. I am more experienced; that's all," he said.
E-mail DI reporter Catherine Gaa at:
catherine-gaa@uiowa.edu
The course, Taller de Escritura Creativa, or Creative Writing Workshop, has become so popular in its three semesters of existence that it uses a waiting list.
Ampuero, a Chilean and the author of eight novels and a short-story collection, said he wants students to think and write creatively while improving their Spanish. The students write short stories and then break into groups to discuss the story. Students give each other feedback and ask questions before Ampuero adds his own response. It's usually praise, not criticism.
UI junior Aris Dravillas, who took Ampuero's class last spring, said the course helps her learn the language while also exploring her own feelings and experiences.
"It was nice to use Spanish in a way that made it into something personal," she said.
Ampuero conjured up the idea for the workshop because he wanted to invent a creative outlet for advanced Spanish students. He was shocked by the increase in enrollment, he said. A year ago, the course had one section and 17 students. This semester, 44 students fill a pair of classes.
Class enrollment isn't Ampuero's only accomplishment, however. His books have been translated into French, Portuguese, Dutch, Mandarin, and Swedish, with English editions on the way. He's also a weekly contributor to Chilean newspaper La Tercera and a popular internationally published author.
"On the first day of class, he nonchalantly told us he had some books published,"
Dravillas said. "I don't think the class realized how well-known he was until he brought in a huge stack of books and told us he wrote all of them."
The students get a chance to publish their own stories in a course booklet at the conclusion of the semester. They also learn fiction theory, watch and discuss Latin American films, and have the opportunity to hear, firsthand, accounts of being an author from their instructor.
The workshop has been a learning experience for Ampuero, too. He said he has found his students learn in different stages. First, they realize they have the capacity to write fiction in a new language, Ampuero said. When they read their stories aloud to other classmates, students "open their hearts," communicate their feelings, their lives, and their expectations to classmates.
"Every student brings something different to his or her stories," Ampuero said. "This has been so gratifying, in that way."
On a campus known for its writing programs, he has taken creative writing and language acquisition to a new level with his workshop. But he does not take credit for the response to his class. Without the motivation and hard work of his students, he said, the program would not have survived.
"We are all writers. I am more experienced; that's all," he said.
E-mail DI reporter Catherine Gaa at:
catherine-gaa@uiowa.edu
