KICH 1010

UVA's K'iche' program is taught virtually through a collaboration with Vanderbilt University. Bigelow is the program coordinator, not the instructor. The class is co-taught by Mareike Sattler from Vanderbilt and a native speaker in Guatemala. This class can seem very intimidating at first but if you stick with it it is incredibly rewarding. The class tends to be small with lots of active participation, so it is possible to learn a lot very quickly. Sattler can be unapproachable but is incredibly knowledgable of K'iche' and Mayan languages generally. She is a linguist by training so the class is taught from that perspective, but the native speaker adds a lot of conversational and cultural elements. Grading and assignments change each semester but is usually based on participation, a midterm exam, a final exam, and a semester project. I highly recommend this course.