By Martha Gorman

Dan Buettner Educator. Explorer. Author. Producer. Storyteller. Public speaker. Sounds like a world language educator…

But these expansive terms actually abroad while attending the University of “our most important tool was not a wrench describe Dan Buettner, the National Geo- St. Thomas in , and ended up but language.” graphic Fellow and New York Times best- staying for two semesters. He was initially Buettner then converted his treks selling author who will speak at the 2018 placed with an English-speaking homestay into quests. These started as interactive, ACTFL Convention Opening General family but had the wisdom to seek im- online, mystery-solving opportunities like Session on November 16. mersion by moving to a Spanish-speaking MayaQuest, which allowed audiences to Buettner is best known for his ground- home instead. The result? He still speaks help solve the mystery of the collapse of breaking discoveries about how to live fluent Spanish today. the Maya civilization in the ninth century. longer and be happier. He has traveled the Of course, he has had many opportuni- Carrying laptop computers and a satellite world to look for the places where people ties to use his second language over the dish, the expedition interacted with 40,000 live the longest, healthiest lives. He found intervening decades. For example, in 1986 classrooms to help determine the explora- them in Greece, , , Costa Buettner and his brother Steve bicycled tion route and findings. Rica, and California, and dubbed them 15,536 miles, from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Hamline University’s Center for Global “Blue Zones.” He now works with com- Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. They called it Environmental Education then created a munities, workplaces, and universities to Americastrek. He waxes poetic (en español) framework for schools to use the expedi- implement Projects, well-being about that amazing, life-altering journey tion as a multidisciplinary teaching tool, initiatives that focus on changes to the more than three decades later. and Buettner’s quests quickly turned into local environment, public policy, and social This prepared the brothers for Sovietrek educational computer games. He and his networks. His latest book, Blue Zones of in 1990. By then they recognized the team wrote a curriculum guide for teachers Happiness: Lessons from the World’s Happi- importance of language and tried to learn so that they could incorporate history, so- est People, is based on travel to the world’s Russian prior to this next extraordinary cial studies, languages, and science. “It was happiest places, revealing the surprising journey. “We ended up recruiting two in more than 20,000 classrooms!” exclaims secrets of these cultures and showing us Russians to join the team,” says Buettner. Buettner with no small degree of pride. how we can all apply them to our lives. “They spoke some English and we learned In 1995, Buettner founded Earthtreks, some Russian. We followed the 45th paral- Inc. to manage his expeditions. He sold the Global and Bilingual lel, covering 12,888 miles and becoming company to Classroom Connect in 1997, When did this wanderlust start? Where did the first Americans to traverse the Soviet which in turn sold it to Harcourt Brace. it come from? It turns out that it was travel, Union since 1917.” This has provided Buettner with a great language, and culture that set him on this Language was even more critical on affinity for educators and an interesting global path. Africatrek in 1992, when they pedaled from perspective on the classroom. When Buettner was just 15 years old, Bizerte, Tunisia, to Cape Agulhas, South “I learned that giving kids control of he won a 10-day trip to . “I was so Africa, covering 11,885 miles in 8 months. the learning experience is very powerful, romanced by that foreign place and foreign They recruited a Nigerian who spoke both and that they have a lot of fresh ideas,” he language,” he recalls. “It was like a gateway French and Ebo, and a Ugandan who spoke recalls. “I learned that if you want them to drug to a lifetime of exploration.” He Swahili and several other African languages. be excited about learning a language, they returned to Spain for one semester of study “While crossing Africa on bicycle,” he says, have to be excited about the culture.” “While crossing Africa on bicycle, our most important tool was not a wrench but language.”

The Language Educator n Aug/Sept 2018 13