WSU Goddard School of Business to Offer Economics Class in Spanish
OGDEN, Utah – With 577 million Spanish speakers worldwide and 40 million in the United States alone, Weber State University’s Goddard School of Business & Economics is preparing students to compete successfully in the global marketplace by offering select business courses in Spanish.
Álvaro La Parra-Perez, assistant professor of economics, is a native of Gandia, Spain. He has focused years of research on economics in history. La Parra-Perez will teach Economics 1010: Economics as a Social Science in Spanish summer semester 2019. The course will introduce students to economics and showcase how economics intersects with other disciplines such as history.
“I think students often are surprised by how many different areas are impacted by economics including poverty, crime, pollution, health and the inequalities of people,” La Parra-Perez said. “The main goal of this class is to show that economics goes well beyond purely monetary and financial issues. It is a social discipline aimed at understanding how we behave and interact.”
Because the course will be taught completely in the foreign language, it will provide an excellent opportunity to practice and reinforce the students’ Spanish linguistic skills.
The class will help both native and non-native Spanish speakers develop their basic economics knowledge while adding cultural and social norms to help make them marketable and more valuable to an organization.
In business, language competency can help build trust, open doors to new opportunities in networking and relationship building, allow an individual to negotiate more confidently and effectively, and create valuable, lasting partnerships.
Taking an economics class can seem intimidating, especially for a non-native speaker. This class will add the comfort of language in a lively setting.
“I hate a one-sided class” La Parra-Perez said. “Education is a two-way interaction.”
For more information about the class, contact La Parra-Perez at 801-626-6687 or laparraperez@weber.edu.
Registration for summer classes at Weber State University is now open.
Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
Niki Tonks, Goddard School of Business & Economics marketing manager
801-626-7397 • nikitonks@weber.edu- Contact:
Álvaro La Parra-Perez, Goddard School of Business & Economics assistant professor
801-626-6687 • laparraperez@weber.edu