Experience Yucatán: En Busca de los Pueblos Yucatecos con Don Héctor(1 Experience Yucatan)

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. 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.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
¡Bienvenidos! Es buena suerte que encontró usted esta oportunidad de explorar la riqueza cultural de la Península Yucatán. Me llamo Don Héctor y seré su guía del mundo de los maya de hoy. Por las páginas de este libro, le voy a enseñar como pasear por la región como un yucateco, introducirle a los varios componentes de la cultura de la gente, y los idiomas yucatecos que le permitan participar en los hermosos pueblos de la Península Yucatán. Nuestro viaje empieza en su propia casa, repasando el idioma español tan muy rápido mientras nos preparamos para despegar a su exploración cultural lo más extraordinario del todo mundo. Cuando llegue al aeropuerto internacional Cancún por avión, volvemos de repasar lo básico de español por negociar cómo ser turista por las playas turísticas de la Riviera Maya en el estado de Quintana Roo. Entonces, nos escapamos al interior de la península en busca del patrimonio de la gente maya. Después de una noche en Valladolid, Yucatán para usted pudiera ubicarse con confianza afuera de las zonas turísticas, vamos a continuar para visitar el centro histórico de Mérida, "La Ciudad de La Paz," y la capital del estado de Yucatán, México. Después de practicar el tipo de español yucateco en unas pláticas casuales entre personas en las plazas pacificas y alrededor las exhibiciones de los museos modernos para que se acomode al momento tranquilo, espero que estemos charlando bien en español antes de que salgamos por taxi colectivo a los pueblos donde no hablen por nada el inglés. Afuera de anillo periférico que rodea toda la ciudad blanca, los pueblos se distinguen de los ciudadanos por también su localización como su familiarización. Y cuando usted se acostumbre al momento poblano, podremos practicar palabras que ya han aprendido en el lenguaje de los mayas, para que te pudieras conocer mejor la gente que ya no desapareció del rostro del mundo... solamente olvidado para morir. Pues, si usted logró leer esta introducción sin problemas, eres listo para continuar su exploración del mundo maya contemporáneo como guerrero de la paz en la batalla de proteger una gente en peligro de extinción. Ojalá que continúes de estudiar tu segundo y un tercer idioma; que progreses por las páginas de este libro y otros del asunto para educarse en el sumiso forzado de las culturas indígenas de las Américas; y que visites los pueblos del estado de Yucatán para saber cómo conviven los descendientes de los antiguos mayas en la sombra de desigualdad socio-política. De nuevo: ¡Bienvenidos! Y les invitamos llegar pronto. Sinceramente, Don Héctor