Besides being an author, I also teach junior high and high school students. My subject matter is Spanish. I am the only foreign language teacher in a small, rural school. My largest class has 19 students. (Go ahead and hate me teachers; it’s okay.) That’s one of the perks of a small school. However, one of the challenges is to show students there is a reason to learn a foreign language. So, I am always looking for ways to encourage them. The last couple of weeks, my daughter, a former foreign exchange student with Rotary, has shared a couple videos for me to share with my classes. I decided to share them with you in the context of what I will share with my classes.

This first one is just flat adorable. How many of us adults know the facts of these countries and can find them on a map? My 6th grade Spanish students will be introduced to the Spanish speaking countries this week. They are to prepare a quick report of fun facts, geography, food, and history with the class on one country. I want to share this video with them so they get an idea of what type of a report it could be–it doesn’t have to be dull and boring!

One of the biggest challenges of my job is to show students that learning a language is important and that they can travel outside of the Southern Oregon Coast. They think that they can get by speaking English, no matter where they go. This next video shares why it’s important to be multilingual in a very unique way. Who doesn’t want to have a great personality?

What do you think? How many languages do you know? How many could you understand?