Western Kentucky University / L / Sonia E. Lenk

This class was very interesting but required a LOT of effort to keep up with the material. It helped to add to a study guide and write down information about each author and their respective works so that I didn't have to go back and do it a month later when I had forgotten. Dra. Lenk usually wanted specific examples of literary devices and themes from the material on the exams, but is a very fair grader. She is usually willing to work with you and help you out if you ask as long as you are trying your best and participating in class. Her Spanish is easy to understand and she knows what she is talking about.

I'm having trouble on exactly what to write because I think Lenk is a great lady, but I have had her several times in upper level Spanish and I despise her as a teacher. She assigns a good amount of homework (cough: busy work) a night and then we discuss it in the next class. It's not bad, but her tests suck and we have to write a really long final paper. Make sure you go in to see her about it though: some emails may get lost...(mine apparently did since I never got any sort of feedback from her regarding my rough draft so wrote it completely in the dark)

Dr. Lenk is fun to talk to but she does not have strong teaching skills. The class itself however was easy--homework on Quia was due following each chapter, there were grammar and vocabulary quizzes for each chapter, several exams, and a 5 minute presentation which had to be about a cultural aspect of a Spanish-speaking country.

I personally like Lenk as a professor very much, even though she is unorganized and sometimes inconsistent. This class is based heavily on the class text. Homework is frequent; questions at the end of every chapter. For a good grade be sure to read the chapters assigned and turn homework in on time. Lenk gives lots of notes on powerpoint; its impossible to write them all down but they are pulled mostly from the class text so focus on major ideas. The exams will be difficult if you don't read the chapters, so do your homework. Take Lenk up on any extra credit offered because she can be a tough grader. As long as you show you work hard in class, you can easily butter Lenk up. The final consists of a final paper over any topic related to Latin American civ. & culture. The paper is only 4-5 pages long but Lenk appreciates structured work. There are also 3 or 4 movies to review for class.

Professor Lenk doesn't have a lot of teaching experience or something because she was always unorganized and we never knew what we were learning for the day and she'd just give us random homework at the end of the class. She spent a huge chunk of the semester reviewing very basic vocabulary with quizes, and some class periods simply repeating words after her to better pronunciation. We had three or four presentations (powerpoint or whatever) in front of the class. They were informational, persuasive, etc. kind of like a general speech class, except that it was in spanish. She's extremely difficult to understand, and I would not recommend her if you can help it.

She was a pretty good teacher. The exams werent that hard because she gives you a study guide so all you have to do is memorize. There's no final, just a final paper. She's very understanding about hw and papers. I recommend her and plan to take her for a higher level class next semester.

DO NOT EVER TAKE A COURSE BY LENK. That is all I want to say, but I'm afraid some of you will think maybe I'm biased or that I just didn't get along with her. Quite the contrary. She is funny and nice. However, she cannot teach. The course is painfully unorganized and she has students give presentations every day on the chapters and random topics. She doesn't teach the material. This is not a communication course, but you may think otherwise if you take it. However, you are tested over the chapters in the book (about 30-40pg. per chapter) more or less once every other week. You have to read a chapter every night and complete the 10-15 end of chapter questions. She sometimes loses your work, and the tests are impossible. I am telling you - don't even try this course. It's terrible. The work demanded, the lack of learning - it's just not worth it and you will loathe every minute of it.

Dr. Lenk is an awesome person and she tries very hard. There were sometimes when I felt that the assignments were unclear or there was an overload of work all due on one specific day. Most of the semester was spent doing end-of-the-chapter questions, watching films and writing film reviews, and the majority was watching in-class presentations. Each person had to give a group presentation in which they presented a particular chapter and then each person also had to give an individual presentation on a specific topic of interest related to the coursework. Finding out your grades was really tough and there was a lot of open frustration from my classmates. Overall, Lenk is a good professor. I would take her again because I like her a lot and learn well from her. Sometimes I wish things were more clear, but just be ready to work really hard.

For those of you who read all the happy face evaluations, be aware that Lenk left to work on her PhD last year and she has returned a different woman. I had her for 202 and she was unorganized and stressful but an easy A for the most part. I have her now for 372 and this class is a nightmare. She changes the syllabus almost daily. She is completely unorganized. It has taken over a month for her to return my presentation grade. Her "pruebas" are more like finals - don't let the word 'quiz' fool you. Pretty much it goes like this: Each day we must read a chapter of the book (20-40 pages of a history book written in spanish.) and when we finish that we must answer 10-15 questions at the end of the chapter due at the beginning of the period and she does not take late work. She taught the first couple of chapters but went through a powerpoint so fast none of us even bothered taking notes. Then she started assigning chapters to the students in groups of 2, so now the students teach the class. That means - she requires pretty much a 1hr 20min presentation btw you and a partner on a chapter of the textbook. Beforehand, she makes you turn in a rough draft and your slides. You also must meet with her. These meetings take forever. She requires other work as well, including movie critiques and personal presentations. She moved the date of one girl's presentation twice. She showed up two days in a row to present and we ran out of time both days. We fell behind one day and now she's been killing us trying to catch up to the extent that she made us all come to class 20min early today and we stayed an hour late because she wanted to squeeze a movie in in one day. Needless to say, this is a bit frustrating. She is a nice woman and cracks a lot of jokes, but she demands an incredible amount of work - and we aren't even learning. Don't take this class. Avoid Lenk. Nice person, funny jokes, terrible class.

I really enjoyed this class, I think it was the perfect course for Sonia to teach seeing as she knows the culture and history of Latin America probably better than anyone else in the department. She made the class really interesting, and kept the class entertained with her teaching style and change up from notes to films and discussions. I received an A in this class eventhough I didn't complete one of the major assignments for the course....which goes to show that she is caring and understanding and a friend to her students. TAKE HER IF YOU CAN!

Dr. Lenk is awesome! She is laid back and easy going, yet actively helpful and passionate when it comes to teaching her language and culture to her students. I recommend Dr. Lenk for any Spanish Majors. She was one of the nicest, well-spoken, and approachable professors that I had in the Department. I had her for 2 classes and I am taking another class with her that isn't required because she is a good teacher and her class is fun. If you think she speaks too fast, well then you probably shouldn't be a Spanish Major because she is from Ecuador, had she been from Mexico you would be screwed when it comes to hablar con rapidez!

This class was not hard at all. Ms. Lenk is not very organized, but she's really nice and very helpful. The class period goes by quickly and there's not a whole lot of outside work.

Professor Lenk is readily available for questions and has a good spirit to keep the class interesting. She assigns reasonable amounts of homework. Instead of exams, there are 4 main written compositions that you turn in. She grades objectively and you can tell that she is passionate about teaching the language.

Sonial Lenk will move very quickly. She is very difficult to understand at some times but she will go over the information that you dont understand.

There was really very little work to do for this class. Right around midterms and finals was when she piled a bunch of stuff on us, but overall, it wasn't too bad. We had to do two presentations, an oral exam, an interview with a native, and three cultural activities. She did not grade harshly, but it took her a really long time to get the grades back to us.

She's great! Awesome! Wonderful! Take her!!! TAKE her!!! TAKE HER!!!! Take her for all your classes!!!!!

Professor Lenk is a great woman and knows Spanish very well. Her class was fairly easy. There were 2 oral presentations in front of the class but they weren't too hard. The only problem was that she returned very few grades over the semester--no one in our class new how they were doing. If you're the kind of person who gets stressed out by stuff like that, it will. Or, you can just trust her which is what I did. Looking back, it's hard to remember what we did in class, really... just spoke a lot of spanish about various subjects. I probably got more fluent... She's a sweet lady, just don't let her relaxed style stress you out.