Recently a close friend of mine, who is a descendant of one of the original cultures of the Americas and native speaker of the Yucatec Mayan language, asked me to help him save his language from evaporating from the pueblo ambiance, as he put it in Spanish. While his plea certainly provided the inspiration necessary for producing such an instructional guide for learning to speak the Yucatec Maya language; living in the Pueblo of Chicxulub over the past five years has provided the perspective necessary for presenting the lifestyle of a culture that is disappearing as rapidly as its speech community. After several authentic language lessons with my ‘compadre’ and language guide Don Tristeza, followed-up by hundreds of hours studying and practicing his language in my own time, I now find myself in a position to respond to this seemingly overwhelming yet undeniable request. Though the number of speakers of Mayan languages numbers in the millions, and there are supposedly at least 800,000 speakers of the Yucatec Mayan variety, current trends towards greater cultural convergence on the face of a shrinking world map that encroaches on the agrarian pueblos that seem to get closer-and-closer to the city with every son or daughter that exchanges the cultural conventions of the pueblo for the undeniable corporate profits of the city. As a result of my unique positioning in the pueblo as both a formally-trained Anthropologist and Linguist, and an active participant in the bilingual community, I am now motivated to present my findings both informal and academic in this hybridized format for learning the Yucatec Mayan language with cultural adaptation at its core. Soon available as an e-book from a variety of sources, followed by a paperback version, this self-published language tour guide book lures the potential traveler away from the tourist zones of the Caribbean Coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, and offers the reader access to the agrarian pueblos that surround Mérida, the capital city of the State of Yucatan in Mexico. Authored by a formally trained Linguist, Cultural Ethnologist, and Second Language Acquisition Specialist, the first three chapters of this travel simulator are dense with review activities for the second language learner of Spanish, providing a clear path for acclimating to the Spanish-speaking world by way of travel tips infused into several dialogues and grammar activities. However, the subsequent seven chapters and majority of this instructional text approaches the Yucatec Mayan language through a series of excursion-simulator, producing a purposeful shift from the colonial Spanish language overlay to the depths of the contemporary Mayan Culture of the western peninsula, opening the door to the bilingual language communities of the region. Presenting a working introduction to the Yucatec Mayan Language and Culture, and therefore a deeper understanding of this longstanding speech community, the book: Experience Yucatan: En Busca de los Pueblos Yucatecos approaches Second (and third) Language learning through functional instruction. Offering implicit dual-language dialogues in Mayan and Spanish, and utilizing authentic activities for reinforcement purposes, this language learning text also offers access to the bilingual speech patterns of the region through a series of cultural presentations designed for applying new grammar concepts and vocabulary in the contemporary Mayan World. Ultimately, this informal yet education language instruction manual ultimately serves as a guide book for animating the Mayan Language within the cultural parameters that the surrounding society prefers to ignore. The fact is, every year languages become extinct, particularly the indigenous languages of the New World that live in the shadow of a dominant colonial society seeking only to profit on its substrate influence; and only through insightful understanding of these socio-political relationships, between a dominant colonial culture and its citizenry of highest disregard, can we hope to avoid the loss of another precious speech community; and only through language learning can we truly approach the matter of language conservation with any success. Serving as both a ‘Language Instruction Manual’ as well as a ‘Travel Guide Book’ for the Yucatan Peninsula, Experience Yucatan: En Busca de Los Pueblos Yucatecos includes ten chapters of 15 language-dense pages designed to guide the backpack adventurer to a greater understanding of a culture that time has nearly forgotten. Preparing for just such a trip makes up the formative chapters of the text, including a fast-paced review of highly-applicable grammar and several useful phrases for use by Second Language learners who already have an introduction to the Spanish language. Serving as a medium for authentic activity in the form of a travel simulator, the reader prepares for travel in the first chapter, and arrives to Cancun International Airport in the second, in which the traveler becomes accustomed to the Spanish-speaking environment through a series of applicable dialogues for use in taking advantage of public transportation, ordering inexpensive meals, and obtaining economy hotels rooms. However, upon arrival to the State of Yucatan in the fourth chapter, this one-of-a-kind “Language Tour Guide Book” offers an opportunity for the reader to exchange the tourist zones on the eastern coast of the peninsula for a chance to get better acquainted with the people and places associated with the contemporary Mayan Culture. Each chapter includes several author-owned photographs; dozens of line art drawings to represent flora, and fauna of the area; several informative hand-sketched maps of the region for reference purposes; along with instructional activities throughout the text in both Spanish and Yucatec Maya for the enhancement of multilingual language skills. Useful phrases in practical dialogues, presented in both languages; along with easy-to-read informational selections written for the second language learner that offer travel tips and historical facts for use by the reader, transformation from the role of tourist to participant becomes more deliberate as the objectives of the book are achieved. While the first half of the book is primarily focuses on the enhancement of Spanish language skills specific to a developing a more profound appreciation for the cultural diversity of Yucatan Peninsula, the second half centers around the language of the local pueblos, including several highly-practical instructional activities for development of productive language skills in Yucatec Mayan. Finally, the reader finds a 30 page appendix that centers on the regional dialect of the peninsula, its substrate indigenous influence, a list of opportunities for solving the problems associated with language extinction, which also includes one-hundred-and-fifty-one useful Mayan phrases that allows the reader to participate in helping to conserve a language and culture that is disappearing whether it is right before our eyes or simply outside our understanding. As a veteran classroom teacher of Spanish as a Second Language with graduate degrees in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language (MAT) and Spanish Linguistics (near completion), as well as an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Field Archaeology, I am confident that this book will serve well in the Second Language and Bilingual Social Studies classroom, as well as providing a resource for budget travelers to Experience Yucatan: In Search of the Mayan people. The content within, which incorporates dozens of language-learning instructional pieces, invaluable travel tidbits for enhancing your educational adventure, and profound morsels of cultural information that focus on the situation of the contemporary people who descended from the original inhabitants of the Americas, certainly provides a venue for enhancing Second Language skills in Spanish through practical application; but more importantly, consistent with the intention of providing a resource for the potential-traveler/ language learner to access the Mayan pueblos of the region, where language students are presented with the opportunity to learn about the social and political injustices experienced by one of the oldest cultures in the New World, including the fallacy that accepts their disappearance from the face of the Earth some 500 years ago. For unlimited free access to Experience Yucatan: En busca de los pueblos yucatecos con Don Hector, input the Username: "Don Hector" and Password "Chicxulub".

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