The 2015 ACTFL National Language of the Year – Nicole Naditz
Like clockwork, the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in an exotic locale every November. This year it just happened to be in the great state of Texas.
Here are a few things that I took away from the trip.
My school, Cayman International School, sent me and two colleagues to San Antonio. Fortunately our school considers Spanish a core subject and for that reason, Spanish classes begin with 4 year olds all the way until they graduate as a Senior.
We’re revamping our Spanish curriculum and adopting new textbooks. It’s interesting visiting with textbook companies at the single most important world language conference of the year. In attendance are professionals from the worlds of education and business. Despite this great business opportunity for the textbook companies, there was an individual major textbook publisher that did not have actual copies of the textbook on hand that they were trying to sell. They suggested that we call their office after the conference to get more information! What?!?! That is why we flew from the Caribbean to this annual conference! I may have only earned my Associates in Business Administration, but that seems like a mighty poor business model to be following.
Welcome to ACTFL 2014, Texas Style
The ACTFL exhibition hall seems a lot like what a Comic-Con might look like. Rather than seeing folks dressed up as Batman and Robin, people are walking around talking in foreign languages and wearing nerdy bright green shirts with #LangChat tattered across their chest.
The guest speaker was National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths. She has snapped photos in 150 countries across the globe. She has almost tripled the number of countries I’ve visited and certainly taken a few more photographs. Griffiths uses her understanding of other cultures to make positive changes in the world with women and children as her focus.
Lila Cockrell Theatre San Antonio, Texas
I’m not a foodie by any means, but I was sure looking forward to eating my fair share of Tex-Mex in San Antonio. Tex-Mex ranks #2 on my list of world foods behind Italian, and slightly ahead of Thai. My first choice would always be Italian food, but if I wasn’t able to go out on a date with Italian, I would definitely go out with Tex-Mex.
My brother Tim and I enjoyed a great lunch at , home of the best breakfast burrito in the world. I devoured 3 tacos and what seemed to be a gallon of Dr. Pepper. All that gastronomic satisfaction only came out to $8. In Grand Cayman, that would easily come out to $30 for one burrito.
I spent lunch with a former University of Nebraska-Omaha professor and current CIS colleagues on the Riverwalk enjoying some delicious chicken fajitas with Mariachi bands serenading us in the background.
Colleagues from Around the World
Our Friday night dinner was pretty unique in that I spent it was three educators from various points of my professional career: Sarah is a French teacher from Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska; Jessica was a fellow participant in the Uruguay Fulbright Teacher Exchange in 2011; and Emiley is a Spanish teacher at CIS.
Dinner was at the Belgium bistro La Frite. Any chance to hang out with good people and drink Belgium beers, I’m there. Dinner was grilled salmon, veggies with rice all accompanied by mighty fine Belgium beers. First, Triple Karmeliet visited and then Kwak. Kwak came in a unique shaped glass held upright by a wooden stand. The glass looked like a large, disproportionate weighted beaker. When the glass was full, it could stand upright on its own, but as beaker lost vital fluids, it became less stable. Towards the end of my Kwak, I was showing the Georgia teachers the unique shape of the glass and quick as a whip, the last two ounces found its way to my crotch. When the waitress came asking about dinner, I mentioned the instability of the Kwak glass and my wet crotch, and she cheerily stated, “Sorry about that. Let’s get you another dear!” And that is how you make Belgium beers multiply.
After dinner, the entire group walked down the sidewalk giving our food a chance to digest.
Emiley mentioned, “You know John he is eating like a supermodel. Grilled fish, veggies, and rice.”
Why yes, I eat like a supermodel, a supermodel that makes Belgium beers multiply.
