Adela Robles-Saez

Adela is a great instructor. She knows how to explain similarities and differences between her native language and English. She also has a very good sense of humor. She gives lots of homework, which is necessary to keep up with her in class. You'll learn a lot from doing the homework; otherwise, you'll be lost in her class. She is always available to help a student in her office and you should take advantage of the time she sets aside. Her exams are tough, but if you study and do your homework you'll be fine. I got an B as a grade because I added her class after 4 weeks after the term began. I felt that she gave me a lot of attention because of that.

What can I say? Anyone who knows anything about Adela knows that she is very demanding and gives a lot of homework. But if you really try to do all the homework and keep up with it every week, you will learn a lot. This is not an easy class, (the course title IS after all "Advanced Grammar"), but she really knows her subject. The biggest problem is really that most American students don't really know English grammar. But Adela understands this, and she is always willing to answer any questions. I would highly recommend taking advantage of her office hours.

This teacher seemed scary, as another reviewer mentioned.

To an extent this is a subjective interpretation, but consider these concerns: 1) to be put on the waiting list, I was asked for my name, social, address, phone, email, major, and age. Enough for identity theft basically, and her supervisor told me he was concerned about her asking for all that. 2) She engaged in incessant bragging about having taught at UC Berkeley and other places. This is unnecessary and indicates I think that she has low self-esteem. And considering the sad state of Berkeley these days, that's nothing to brag about. Her supervisor agreed with this as well. 3) She required us to take part in reciting the numbers and alphabet, but to the melody of a military march. Rather spooky, when you consider how many Spanish-speaking countries have suffered under military dictatorships. 4) Lastly, I got the feeling (I could be wrong) she thinks that Spanish is for Hispanic people only. If that is the case, I don't know why SFSU would employ a racist.

To summarize, she seems to be a narrow-minded intimidating person with self-esteem problems.

at first, adela seemed kind of scary... at the begging of the semester she sets down the rules about tardiness and absences and she really means it!!! if you were late you were considered absent... if you were really late then dont even bother!!! She would not even let you in the door. She eased up a lot throughout the semester and didnt take attendance as often. The class overall was very informative and worthwhile, Sometimes she was hard to understand because she uses the "spain" spanish and vocab that is unknown to others who have learned the latin american way. She only gives 3 tests during the semester and if you know your stuff its pretty easy. the class is all grammar so there is no essays or anything like that. homework wasnt too much of pain except for that she rarely made enough copies for the whole class so if you want to do your homework, you have to make arrangements with a classmate to get a copy of the sheet. most class meetings are set in groups to do activities and excercizes then she goes over everything with the whole class. I reccomend this class to anyone who already has a pretty firm grasp of spanish grammar at an intermidiate / advanced level