Introduction
This comprehensive AP® Spanish Language and Culture review will help guide test-takers through one of the AP® Spanish themes of the CollegeBoard’s Spanish Language &Culture curriculum—in particular, about the theme of Contemporary Life. Specifically, we will discuss why the CollegeBoard uses themes for their AP® Spanish Language and Culture course; what the theme of Contemporary Life actually entails, as well as provide specific context examples of how this theme may be applied in a class or study session to prepare you for your AP® Spanish exam.
We will also review some overarching, essential questions regarding Contemporary Life to assist you in your understanding of the topic, as well as offer examples on how to answer them. Finally, this guide will deliver information on where you can find practice texts, audios, videos and other study tools related to Contemporary Life, as well as review top 10 Spanish vocabulary words related to Contemporary Life and how to use them in a sentence.
Why does the CollegeBoard use Themes for AP® Spanish Language and Culture Course?
The AP® Spanish Language and Culture course is ordered around six AP® Spanish themes of historical and contemporary significance: Global Challenges, Science and Technology, Contemporary Life, Personal and Public Identities, Families and Communities, and Beauty and Aesthetics. These themes are used to generate stimulating situations for students to discover the variety of language and culture intrinsic in the Spanish speaking world. Themes may be presented in short modules spanning only a class period, or more comprehensive units covering several weeks or months.
By the end of the course, you should be able to mobilize these themes into written and oral interpersonal and presentational communication modalities for their AP® Spanish Language and Culture exam.
What does the Theme of Contemporary Life Entail?
The AP® Spanish Language and Culture theme of Contemporary Life may incorporate lessons on—education and careers; entertainment; travel and leisure; lifestyles; relationships; social customs and values; and volunteerism. Teachers and students can engage in class discussions and projects that may focus on improving quality of life for Indigenous peoples; travel in South America; or same sex marriage laws in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. You may be asked to research social media and technology in Spanish-speaking populations and debate its impact on individual’s well-being.
What are Contemporary Life Overarching, Essential Questions?
The succeeding essential questions may be used to rouse AP® Spanish students through engaged activities and assessments. Essential questions are used to elicit curiosity as well as invite students to participate in realistic scenarios that challenge them with a variety of problem-solving tasks. These questions embolden students to investigate and express different perspectives on current world issues, make comparisons between subject matter, and liken characteristics of Spanish speaking cultures to their own. You may use essential questions to understand content and viewpoints across subject areas while working with content from language, literature, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking communities.
Essential questions on the theme of Contemporary Life may include:
- How do societies and individuals define quality of life?
- How is contemporary life influenced by cultural products, practices, and perspectives?
- What are the challenges of contemporary life?
Example Answers to 2-3 Overarching, Essential Questions
Below are examples of how students may answer the essential questions they’ll encounter in their AP® Spanish Language and Culture course.
How do societies and individuals define quality of life?
“Quality of life” is meant to designate how we define the overall welfare of individuals and societies. It is frequently linked with the term “standard of living,” but the two do not automatically bare the same connotation. Wealth and economic status are generally perceived as measuring the standard of living of a person in a society on a quantitative scale, while a person’s surroundings, physical, mental, and social health, education, free time, self-determination, human rights, and pleasure are significant factors on a quality of life measure.
In political or law making circles, for example, quality of life may be used to gage the ease of livability in a given society. In such instances, access to affordable healthcare, particularly for those with terminal or mental health diseases, may be considered a litmus test of sorts to determine a particular city or state’s quality of life for its citizens.
That’s not to say quality of life cannot be measure on any number of methodological scales, as context often determines how quality of life is measured. Depending on the individual or the field, researchers may think of quality of life as both qualitative and quantitative development measures, and therefore persist in evaluating its impact factor on collective groups using surveys, psychological tests, or statistical scales to determine life quality for any number of reasons.
In international development, for example, quality of life is measured depending on the research organization’s values and beliefs, or the results they expect from their investigation. Examples of this can be found in the United Nation’s quantitatively grounded Human Development Index or the World Bank’s measure of neoliberal policies aimed to eradicate global poverty. Social scientists like anthropologists, education researchers, or those working in grassroots and non-government organizations, may use qualitative inquiry via interviews, focus groups, and participatory methods to determine what quality of life means, or could mean, for those they are seeking to serve via their study.
How is contemporary life influenced by cultural products, practices, and perspectives?
Cultural practices may define any number of social interactions or behaviors. Such practices may involve the use of particular material objects or products of value to a culture. These products may influence how individuals interact with one another on a daily basis, and include material objects like cameras, churches, newspapers, a pair of chopsticks, Smartphones—or intangible products like a chant at a sporting event, the education system, or rules of the road.
To understand a culture’s view of the world, it is important to evaluate the meanings, attitudes, values, beliefs, and ideas that motivate the cultural practices and products of their society. Such perspectives ultimately come to form their world view.
In some Asian cultures, community members are perceived to be more worthy of respect because age, social status, education, and other values weighed on a hierarchical scale. The product of exchange, for example a business cards upon introductory meetings, will often reflect one’s social status by revealing relevant personal data associated with their the variables mentioned. This provided information clues recipients in on how to interact with the giver. Such verbal and nonverbal practices, products, and perspectives all serve to uphold the worldview that certain Asian cultures reserve for social status.
In the United States, on the other hand, youth is often perceived as more valuable than age. Face creams, high fiber breakfast cereals, and gym memberships are the material products that reflect this outlook. Practices that promote a youthful lifestyle like exercise, marrying and having offspring later in life, or extended higher education into later years, exemplify this youth focused, American world view.
On a more quotidian level, how people consume food also reflects their world view. In Spain, bread is perceived to be a central part of every meal. Products, like baguette loaves, are baked and sold fresh in panaderías or bread shops in cities, towns, and villages throughout the country. People practice the act of breaking bread at the table, rather than using knives, which reflects the communal qualities of eating informally with others in a relaxed manner.
Social scientists and other who study world views use knowledge gained from perceptions, products, and practices to understand various dimensions of humanity across the globe. Such dimensions open portals of knowledge into how we come to understand politics, economics, religion, culture, science, ethics, and more.
Where can you Find Practice Texts, Audios and Videos Related to Contemporary Life?
In this section, you’ll find a few suggestions on AP® Spanish Language and Culture practice texts, audios, and videos that will bring you specific content knowledge related to the AP® Spanish theme ofContemporary Life.
For a General Overview of AP® Spanish Language and Culture Themes.
First, for general overviews of all six themes, a great place to being would be the AP® Spanish Language and Culture homepage. Here AP® students and test takers can access official CollegeBoard information published on the course. Here there are example syllabi, course milestones and objectives, and other useful material to assist both teachers and learners. Textbooks are also available to help students strengthen their skills. For a book focused particularly on the six themes, check out: Temas: AP® Spanish Language and Culture.
Granted by Instituto Cervantes and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain, DELE (Diploma de Espanol como Lengua Extranjera) is comparable to the AP® Spanish Language and Culture exam in that it confirms test takers capability and mastery of Spanish. Their website offers practice exams based on oral and written expression and interaction.
Quizlet is a fun online tool to create “index cards” with key terms and definitions relative to any of the six AP® Spanish themes. These can then be turned into review items in the form of games or practice tests. Click here for flashcards on Contemporary Life.
Another entertaining online too for AP® students and teachers to draw ideas from is Audiria, which offers podcasts and videos in Spanish that are centered on various cultural and thematic issues.
For More Intensive Practice with the Theme of Contemporary Life.
Because of its historical and global impact throughout the centuries, a good place gain knowledge of contemporary life in Spain would be through an investigation of their Monarchy system. Aljazeera offers a convincing look into if the crown system in the country is still relevant in contemporary times.
Torres humanas is a human tower constructed customarily for festivals within Catalonia. At these festivals, several construction workers known as collescastelleres build human towers standing one atop the other reaching up to 10 stories high. Teams that successfully build their tower are judged by height and stability. In 2010, UNESCO declared torred humanas to be Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The Atlantic offers a great photo essay for those looking to gain some beginner knowledge on this fascinating contemporary cultural activity.
Malinche was a Nahual woman and one of twenty native women the Spaniards took as slaves from Mexico’s Gulf Coast in 1519. Through her enforced role as interpreter, advisor, and concubine for Hernán Cortés, Malinche is whispered to have played a role in Spain’s conquest of the Aztec Empire. As a historical figure, Malinche’s standing has been altered according to altering social and political perceptions, though she is characteristically represented in dramas, novels, and paintings as an evil or calculating temptress.
In Mexico today, the figure of Malinche remains intoxicating – understood in often conflicting elucidations as the quintessence of betrayal, the model victim, or simply as emblematic mother of the Mexican people. To learn more about this important historical figure and what she continues to symbolize for Mexico today, Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek is a great collection of short stories that deconstructs the modern day Malinche by reconsidering her through a number of feminine archetypes.
Top 10 Spanish Vocabulary Words for Contemporary Life
Here is a list of frequently used AP® Spanish vocabulary words related to the theme of Contemporary Life.
City: Ciudad
Los restaurantes de la ciudadson mejores que los de la isla.
To talk: Conversar
Conversamos acerca de política europeo durante horas.
To enjoy: Disfrutar
Yo prefiero realizar una ruta no muy confundida para poder disfrutar de lavista.
To be hot: Hacer calor
Va a hacer calor.
To passby: Pasar
Tiene que pasar por la tienda por los huevos.
Impatient: Impaciente
El es muy impaciente con su hermana.
Lonely: Solitario
Ya no está solitario.
To walk: Andar
Esta mañana anduvimos por la playa mucho tiempo.
Highway: Autopista
A dónde va esta autopista?
Corner: La esquina
El restaurante Cubano está a la vuelta de la esquina.
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