While traveling this summer in Rome, Italy I had an “AHA Moment:” the student experience in my world language classroom is like a trip in a big city that is foreign to someone. Let’s delve into this crazy metaphor that I thought about while walking through the “_________” neighborhood in search of a market that bears that same name (umm, I cannot remember its name for the life of me as I am writing this), and frankly that is perfect because it really makes this metaphor even better. Here are my 10 reasons why I am making this claim.

1. TOUR DIRECTORS

I made this connection on our third and last day in Rome while on a trip with just me and my husband. Even though I had once spent two days in Rome on another whirlwind Italian trip in 2009, I was on a tour and was not venturing out on my own without the guidance of the tour director. The job of the tour director is to guide the participants and keep us safe and accounted for, in many ways this is just like a teacher or facilitator in any class; we guide, lead, and help our students on their language journeys. [This point was really a veer from my first thought – but again I think it is perfect].

2. THREE DAYS 

I feel I am a seasoned traveler, and it takes me a good three days while staying in the same hotel and navigating a city (meaning I am immersed in the decision making of how I get from point A to B) to feel comfortable there. Since I have traveled a lot, I have gained a lot of knowledge and built my skill-set for navigating a new city; so I will not equate my three day experience with three days in my world language classroom for students. In fact, I am going to guess that many of the points I present here will take students much longer to develop especially with regard to their comfort level and understanding what it means to be a world language student in my class.     

3. NAVIGATING TRANSPORTATION 

Back to 2023, we had just successfully navigated the metro to venture to the “forgotten-named” market. Whether in NYC, DC, London, or even public transportation in one’s own city, you just don’t wake up one morning and understand how to navigate the transportation systems. Each place’s metros, trains, or buses have a series of practices, rules and systems that must be learned in order to use them. In any given place, if I am using the metro, for example, for three days, I am just beginning to understand how they label the lines and trains, perhaps which train goes north or south or east or west (usually not both in three days), some landmark connections to some stops, the capacity to read a map, understand how to purchase tickets with credit cards and/or cash, and even how to know which doors might open on the differing sides of the subway train. Oh my, and learning all of this is just a tiny part of my three day experience, and it is much like how the details of my Spanish class’ classroom management rules, practices, and systems are a small part of my students’ whole day with seven other classes, extracurriculars, social life, and homelife.  

4. TECHNOLOGY

Just as with teaching and learning, technology, when used for good, can be a wonderful companion to any trip. On this trip, it was my first time abroad using an ESIM card that let me have data everyday while traveling at a really affordable cost using AIRALO (if you choose to use them, save $3. using my discount code “GARY1666”). While on trips, I have always used TripAdvisor and other planning apps but this year’s amazingness came from being able to use my Apple maps app while walking through any city or having guided directions for taking all public transportation, even vaporettos (public water taxis) in Venice. But again, travelers and students must learn how and when to best use technology so you do not miss the whole experience. I do not travel with an everlasting earbud tucked in my ear or answering a constant group chat from home. I, like I hope for my students, try to remain as present as possible on my trip to take in the sounds, smells, views, and tastes of where I am. The weaning of the devices and being present and focused is probably the most important thing my students need to do to best help them acquire language. As a teacher, I take a great responsibility to carefully craft my target language use for students, and if there is focus and listening with intent to understand, then so much can be acquired and learned by students during our class time together.      

5. IT’S FOREIGN 

Now I do not speak Italian so everything in the city was “foreign” to me. But I am a seasoned traveler, and since I am a Spanish-speaker who has spent time in Europe, it was not as foreign as it could have been or as “foreign” as my time in Tokyo, Bangkok, or even Athens, where I could not even begin to phonetically read signs or menus. So each year, classes are like being in a new city because even though most students have been taught how to “be” academic students, there will always be aspects that are “foreign” to them in a new environment. Just the nature of world language classes with teachers that use the target language is going to be more “foreign” than anything a student possibly has experienced before. This school year when I am rambling on in Spanish, I must remember the countless times I was a bit lost listening to the announcements in the train station or trying to communicate my needs with folks who did not speak English.  

6. LINGUISTIC AND CONTEXTUAL CONNECTIONS 

I said that I did not speak Italian but of course I have a working knowledge of English and Spanish, so my brain is able to make connections. In fact all of us can make linguistic and contextual connections based on our own backgrounds, and while on the trip, my mind was constantly making new connections based on what I was reading, seeing, and hearing. In our classes we must train, help, and listen to the connections and inferences that our students make. They all have background knowledge based on their life experiences that will help them on their journey of language learning and while communicating with others. 

7. THE PYRAMID

Ok so I still have not remembered the name of the neighborhood or market I visited but I do remember that there was a giant ancient pyramid in the Egyptian style near the metro stop. Names like any words or structures in a second language must be heard and read many, many times before being acquired or going into long-term memory. This summer, world language trainer Donna Tatum-Johns said that teachers must provide students robust exposure of target language and/or structures that are comprehended. This of course includes language that is heard and read, and obviously in the case of the name of this market, I have not heard nor read it enough. This is of course never the experience we hope for our students, but if some students do leave my classes not remembering much Spanish, I have to hope that my students at least remember some newly learned aspects of culture, people’s lives, geography or landmarks, just like I remember that there was an Egyptian style pyramid in the middle of Rome.

8. LEANING INTO SOME DISCOMFORT TO DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW

As a teacher I now realize that I want to cultivate a sense of curiosity in my students. In writing this, I really have no idea if I successfully have done this over the years for my students. I try to share with them many of my adventures in other countries and try to be authentic with them with regard to life, even if that means that we spend time talking in English about it. Over the years I have shared foods with my students that are easy to bring into class and have even brought in new foods that I have not eaten and tasted them with students. My husband is really a culinary explorer, and he will try nearly any type of food that could and should be consumed by humans. In this same spirit, I will try most foods once, but in recent years I have been diagnosed with some food restrictions that makes eating out a bit more challenging, but being open to trying new foods and any other forms of adventure (as long as they are safe), is a global mindset and spirit that I hope to share with my students in my classes. In fact, we went to the “forgotten-named” market for my husband to try a beef stomach sandwich, followed by a sandwich with beef intestines (for me and this experience having a food restriction to gluten was in my favor) but the spirit and global mindset remains intact. In fact, in that “forgotten named” market, I stepped outside of my comfort zone and tried a Caprese salad, which includes my favorite herb basil, fresh mozzarella cheese, balsamic vinegar and something I would never eat in the US: raw tomatoes; I know, I know – Gary how can you not like raw tomatoes? I just don’t. But I am so glad that I tried the Caprese salad because the tomatoes did not taste like the tomatoes I am used to in the US; the dish was delicious. So I leaned into a bit of discomfort, like we ask our students to do when speaking target language each day, and from these experiences there could be growth, a realization, or a confirmation but regardless it is new learning. By the way, he loved both sandwiches.  

9. BEING FLEXIBLE WHILE ON A TRIP 

Before any trip, I do lots of research by reading travel guidebooks, looking at reviews on TripAdvisor and other sites, and watching videos about where I might go and visit. All of those sources provide lots of recommendations and how-tos but until I actually go to the country and try these things, I don’t really get to experience them. In fact when you do get to experience them, there are always delays, restaurants that do not accept credit cards, tour guides who do not show, or as in the market experience, a canceled Uber ride after waiting 15 minutes.   These realities of life and travel can all cause rage and explosive reactions but honestly, trying to stay calm and being a bit flexible while on any trip, is really what can make or break a trip experience. For this reason, I have cultivated a mindset of flexibility that really helps me when traveling, and frankly, I think it is a mindset that I continue to develop as an educator too. In both contexts (and just life in general), there are so many things that are out of one’s control that it is important for me to control what I can by putting the correct systems in place, doing my research, and/or giving something my all and then making the necessary adjustments needed given the current circumstances

that might have veered from my original plan. In the end, the adaptations made while on trips or in the classroom are almost always as good or better. 

10. RESEARCH AND STUDYING VS. LIVING IT  

So I mentioned that even after researching or pre-planning for a trip, one does not really ever get to experience a new place until we are in the moment. Unfortunately I cannot take all of my students to Spanish-speaking places and have them experience those cultures either while on a trip or living there, but I can try my hardest to help replicate any of those experiences in my classroom. So as the tour director, I need to be the one to provide new experiences while helping to move them from being dependent learners that need my input to becoming more independent learners who can use language in more meaningful ways. Through my lessons, I hope over time that my students become seasoned language learners like I have become a seasoned traveler.  

Those are my 10 connections as to how a three day trip is much like a being in a world language classroom. Even if a student has been in another world language classroom (even in the same language), each classroom environment is unique with different values, rules, systems, expectations and dynamics that have to be learned and practiced to become automatic only to be changed a bit when going to the next classroom just like being on a trip and traveling to each new city.  Along the way in our language classrooms, students’ minds might be flooded with foreign words, new concepts, and a new language system while hopefully being led by a tour director who helps them understand the discomfort they might be experiencing all while keeping them safe and modeling what it means to be flexible. As educators, we must remember that even though all of this happened during my three days in Rome, this will all take our students a great deal of time and not happen in just three days. Speaking of time, I have to wrap this up. I started writing this at 4:00 PM and it is now 9:00 PM (I did eat dinner for an hour), but first I am going to finally look up the name of the market near the pyramid (please know, I have not fabricated my missing knowledge of the market’s name, in fact I wish I were that talented of a writer to have written this in that way). The “forgotten named” market and neighborhood was Testaccio, and in no way had I had enough input of that name to make its way into my long-term memory.       

Being in a New World Language Class is like a TRIP 

While traveling this summer in Rome, Italy I had an “AHA Moment:” the student experience in my world language classroom is like a trip in a big city that is foreign to someone. Let’s delve into this crazy metaphor that I thought about while walking through the “_________” neighborhood in search of a market that bears that same name (umm, I cannot remember its name for the life of me as I am writing this), and frankly that is perfect because it really makes this metaphor even better. Here are my 10 reasons why I am making this claim.

1. TOUR DIRECTORS

I made this connection on our third and last day in Rome while on a trip with just me and my husband. Even though I had once spent two days in Rome on another whirlwind Italian trip in 2009, I was on a tour and was not venturing out on my own without the guidance of the tour director. The job of the tour director is to guide the participants and keep us safe and accounted for, in many ways this is just like a teacher or facilitator in any class; we guide, lead, and help our students on their language journeys. [This point was really a veer from my first thought – but again I think it is perfect].

2. THREE DAYS 

I feel I am a seasoned traveler, and it takes me a good three days while staying in the same hotel and navigating a city (meaning I am immersed in the decision making of how I get from point A to B) to feel comfortable there. Since I have traveled a lot, I have gained a lot of knowledge and built my skill-set for navigating a new city; so I will not equate my three day experience with three days in my world language classroom for students. In fact, I am going to guess that many of the points I present here will take students much longer to develop especially with regard to their comfort level and understanding what it means to be a world language student in my class.     

3. NAVIGATING TRANSPORTATION 

Back to 2023, we had just successfully navigated the metro to venture to the “forgotten-named” market. Whether in NYC, DC, London, or even public transportation in one’s own city, you just don’t wake up one morning and understand how to navigate the transportation systems. Each place’s metros, trains, or buses have a series of practices, rules and systems that must be learned in order to use them. In any given place, if I am using the metro, for example, for three days, I am just beginning to understand how they label the lines and trains, perhaps which train goes north or south or east or west (usually not both in three days), some landmark connections to some stops, the capacity to read a map, understand how to purchase tickets with credit cards and/or cash, and even how to know which doors might open on the differing sides of the subway train. Oh my, and learning all of this is just a tiny part of my three day experience, and it is much like how the details of my Spanish class’ classroom management rules, practices, and systems are a small part of my students’ whole day with seven other classes, extracurriculars, social life, and homelife.  

4. TECHNOLOGY

Just as with teaching and learning, technology, when used for good, can be a wonderful companion to any trip. On this trip, it was my first time abroad using an ESIM card that let me have data everyday while traveling at a really affordable cost using AIRALO (if you choose to use them, save $3. using my discount code “GARY1666”). While on trips, I have always used TripAdvisor and other planning apps but this year’s amazingness came from being able to use my Apple maps app while walking through any city or having guided directions for taking all public transportation, even vaporettos (public water taxis) in Venice. But again, travelers and students must learn how and when to best use technology so you do not miss the whole experience. I do not travel with an everlasting earbud tucked in my ear or answering a constant group chat from home. I, like I hope for my students, try to remain as present as possible on my trip to take in the sounds, smells, views, and tastes of where I am. The weaning of the devices and being present and focused is probably the most important thing my students need to do to best help them acquire language. As a teacher, I take a great responsibility to carefully craft my target language use for students, and if there is focus and listening with intent to understand, then so much can be acquired and learned by students during our class time together.      

5. IT’S FOREIGN 

Now I do not speak Italian so everything in the city was “foreign” to me. But I am a seasoned traveler, and since I am a Spanish-speaker who has spent time in Europe, it was not as foreign as it could have been or as “foreign” as my time in Tokyo, Bangkok, or even Athens, where I could not even begin to phonetically read signs or menus. So each year, classes are like being in a new city because even though most students have been taught how to “be” academic students, there will always be aspects that are “foreign” to them in a new environment. Just the nature of world language classes with teachers that use the target language is going to be more “foreign” than anything a student possibly has experienced before. This school year when I am rambling on in Spanish, I must remember the countless times I was a bit lost listening to the announcements in the train station or trying to communicate my needs with folks who did not speak English.  

6. LINGUISTIC AND CONTEXTUAL CONNECTIONS 

I said that I did not speak Italian but of course I have a working knowledge of English and Spanish, so my brain is able to make connections. In fact all of us can make linguistic and contextual connections based on our own backgrounds, and while on the trip, my mind was constantly making new connections based on what I was reading, seeing, and hearing. In our classes we must train, help, and listen to the connections and inferences that our students make. They all have background knowledge based on their life experiences that will help them on their journey of language learning and while communicating with others. 

7. THE PYRAMID

Ok so I still have not remembered the name of the neighborhood or market I visited but I do remember that there was a giant ancient pyramid in the Egyptian style near the metro stop. Names like any words or structures in a second language must be heard and read many, many times before being acquired or going into long-term memory. This summer, world language trainer Donna Tatum-Johns said that teachers must provide students robust exposure of target language and/or structures that are comprehended. This of course includes language that is heard and read, and obviously in the case of the name of this market, I have not heard nor read it enough. This is of course never the experience we hope for our students, but if some students do leave my classes not remembering much Spanish, I have to hope that my students at least remember some newly learned aspects of culture, people’s lives, geography or landmarks, just like I remember that there was an Egyptian style pyramid in the middle of Rome.

8. LEANING INTO SOME DISCOMFORT TO DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW

As a teacher I now realize that I want to cultivate a sense of curiosity in my students. In writing this, I really have no idea if I successfully have done this over the years for my students. I try to share with them many of my adventures in other countries and try to be authentic with them with regard to life, even if that means that we spend time talking in English about it. Over the years I have shared foods with my students that are easy to bring into class and have even brought in new foods that I have not eaten and tasted them with students. My husband is really a culinary explorer, and he will try nearly any type of food that could and should be consumed by humans. In this same spirit, I will try most foods once, but in recent years I have been diagnosed with some food restrictions that makes eating out a bit more challenging, but being open to trying new foods and any other forms of adventure (as long as they are safe), is a global mindset and spirit that I hope to share with my students in my classes. In fact, we went to the “forgotten-named” market for my husband to try a beef stomach sandwich, followed by a sandwich with beef intestines (for me and this experience having a food restriction to gluten was in my favor) but the spirit and global mindset remains intact. In fact, in that “forgotten named” market, I stepped outside of my comfort zone and tried a Caprese salad, which includes my favorite herb basil, fresh mozzarella cheese, balsamic vinegar and something I would never eat in the US: raw tomatoes; I know, I know – Gary how can you not like raw tomatoes? I just don’t. But I am so glad that I tried the Caprese salad because the tomatoes did not taste like the tomatoes I am used to in the US; the dish was delicious. So I leaned into a bit of discomfort, like we ask our students to do when speaking target language each day, and from these experiences there could be growth, a realization, or a confirmation but regardless it is new learning. By the way, he loved both sandwiches.  

9. BEING FLEXIBLE WHILE ON A TRIP 

Before any trip, I do lots of research by reading travel guidebooks, looking at reviews on TripAdvisor and other sites, and watching videos about where I might go and visit. All of those sources provide lots of recommendations and how-tos but until I actually go to the country and try these things, I don’t really get to experience them. In fact when you do get to experience them, there are always delays, restaurants that do not accept credit cards, tour guides who do not show, or as in the market experience, a canceled Uber ride after waiting 15 minutes.   These realities of life and travel can all cause rage and explosive reactions but honestly, trying to stay calm and being a bit flexible while on any trip, is really what can make or break a trip experience. For this reason, I have cultivated a mindset of flexibility that really helps me when traveling, and frankly, I think it is a mindset that I continue to develop as an educator too. In both contexts (and just life in general), there are so many things that are out of one’s control that it is important for me to control what I can by putting the correct systems in place, doing my research, and/or giving something my all and then making the necessary adjustments needed given the current circumstances

that might have veered from my original plan. In the end, the adaptations made while on trips or in the classroom are almost always as good or better. 

10. RESEARCH AND STUDYING VS. LIVING IT  

So I mentioned that even after researching or pre-planning for a trip, one does not really ever get to experience a new place until we are in the moment. Unfortunately I cannot take all of my students to Spanish-speaking places and have them experience those cultures either while on a trip or living there, but I can try my hardest to help replicate any of those experiences in my classroom. So as the tour director, I need to be the one to provide new experiences while helping to move them from being dependent learners that need my input to becoming more independent learners who can use language in more meaningful ways. Through my lessons, I hope over time that my students become seasoned language learners like I have become a seasoned traveler.  

Those are my 10 connections as to how a three day trip is much like a being in a world language classroom. Even if a student has been in another world language classroom (even in the same language), each classroom environment is unique with different values, rules, systems, expectations and dynamics that have to be learned and practiced to become automatic only to be changed a bit when going to the next classroom just like being on a trip and traveling to each new city.  Along the way in our language classrooms, students’ minds might be flooded with foreign words, new concepts, and a new language system while hopefully being led by a tour director who helps them understand the discomfort they might be experiencing all while keeping them safe and modeling what it means to be flexible. As educators, we must remember that even though all of this happened during my three days in Rome, this will all take our students a great deal of time and not happen in just three days. Speaking of time, I have to wrap this up. I started writing this at 4:00 PM and it is now 9:00 PM (I did eat dinner for an hour), but first I am going to finally look up the name of the market near the pyramid (please know, I have not fabricated my missing knowledge of the market’s name, in fact I wish I were that talented of a writer to have written this in that way). The “forgotten named” market and neighborhood was Testaccio, and in no way had I had enough input of that name to make its way into my long-term memory.       

Check out my Summer Reflection Series.