# SPANSH 15 - Intensive Beginning Spanish: Special Course Semester: Spring | Year offered: 2026 | Link: [Course Website](https://locator.tlt.harvard.edu/course/colgsas-116469/2025/spring/12222) This intensive beginning class is for students with no previous formal training in Spanish, but with competence in at least one language other than English. In this class, students explore a host of social, cultural, and environmental issues that have historically impacted the lives and livelihoods of local, national, and foreign Spanish-speaking communities. Throughout the semester, students interact constantly with instructors, peers, and native Spanish speakers around the world as they explore culturally and linguistically rich content. Through discussions and critical analyses of authentic multimodal texts (e.g., written, audiovisual, visual) from many different sources (e.g., social media, newspapers), students develop a wide array of linguistic functions, such as the ability to make detailed descriptions or to narrate in different time frames. By the end of this class, students a) will have significantly advanced their linguistic competence, and b) will have deepened their understanding of the cultures and worldviews of Spanish-speaking communities in the United States, Latin America, and Spain. --- ## Course Head [### Juan Arias ](/people/juan-arias) Preceptor (Spanish) Dr. Juan Manuel Arias is an interim Preceptor in Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, where he completed his PhD in 2024. His literary research focuses on medieval and early modern literature, with a... ![Juan](/sites/g/files/omnuum8296/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-04/Screenshot%202024-11-14%20at%209.09.58%E2%80%AFAM-2.png?itok=ZZanDN_s) See also:- [ Language ](/class-categories/language) - [ Spanish language ](/keywords/spanish-language) - [ Spanish ](/language/spanish) - [ Juan Manuel Arias ](/language-instructor/juan-manuel-arias) - [ Spring 2026 ](/class/term/spring-2026)