> “When you’re talking about community...that’s why we have language in the first place, is community. You know, language builds community and community builds language. If you can provide a space for people to forget that they’re learning, to have fun and be OK with making mistakes and learning from one another, I think that it really changes the approach and changes the relationship that people have with language.” —Jason Slanga
### Show Notes:
In this episode of the WAYKcast we welcome our first guest, [Jason Slanga](http://https://whereareyourkeys.org/our-team/jason-slanga/). Jason is a Latin speaker who works with SALVI (The North American Institute of Living Latin Studies) and co-hosts the Quomodo Dicitur? Podcast. Jason and Sky met up in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Jason and Sky talk about the spoken Latin community and WAYK, the baggage that surrounds language learning in the United States (for many people “it was something that was hard, it was something that seemed impossible”), and some of the baggage that accompanies Latin specifically. In his time as a high school Latin teacher in Baltimore county, Jason focused on creating an equitable classroom where all kids can be successful, promoted on student-directed learning, and advocated for a paradigm shift in testing culture where learners are empowered to be active participants in their own education.
Jason talks about the how teaching language can be misunderstood: “Teaching language is challenging because people don’t understand it in the same way that they understand how somebody teaching Science or English or History or Math operates, which is that those are all content areas, whereas language is the vehicle by which we teach those subjects. It is in many ways sort of a subject unto itself.” The key to Jason’s implementation of WAYK and other methods was “giving students the keys and letting them drive the car.”
Jason and Sky talk about the Quomodo Dicitur? Podcast (“A Weekly Podcast About Anything”), which Jason hosts with Justin Slocum Bailey and Gus Grissom. They try to keep their language at an intermediate level and talk about a variety of topics—heros, baseball, Pliny, philosophy—to make sure their podcast is accessible. Jason sees the podcast as a way to bring a piece of the Rusticatio porch to the internet and hopes it is a catalyst for Latin media in general.
Sky asks Jason for his “Technique of the Week.” One of Jason’s favorite Techniques is plus/deltas because it’s about the human piece of the language learning experience. Jason’s advice: “Listening to your students will make you a better teacher.”
Let us know what you think of this episode of the WAYKcast! Send any questions to [
[email protected]](http://mailto:
[email protected]) or [tweet at us](https://twitter.com/playwayk) with the hashtag #WAYKcastquestion. We’ll do our best to address questions in future episodes of the WAYKcast.
Follow Jason [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/argusmagister?lang=en) and [check out his website here](http://jasonslanga.net/).
### WAYK Techniques Mentioned:
- [Set Up](https://whereareyourkeys.org/technique-glossary/#setup)
- Plus/Deltas
Check out the [WAYK Techniques Glossary](https://whereareyourkeys.org/technique-glossary) for more!
###Links Mentioned:
* [SALVI](http://latin.org/wordpress/) (Septentrionale Americanum Latinitatis Vivae Institutum, or the North American Institute of Living Latin Studies)
* SALVI’s events include [Biduua Latinua](http://latin.org/wordpress/bidua-latina/) (Latin weekends) as well as the original [Rusticatio summer programs](http://latin.org/wordpress/rusticatio-2/).
* [The Quomodo Dicitur? Podcast ](https://quomododicitur.com)
If you haven’t seen Sky’s video about the 2014 Pedagogy Rusticatio with WAYK, [check it out here](https://vimeo.com/119402010). You’ll hear from Evan, Jason, and Justin Slocum Bailey.
### Follow Us (I did put it in the show notes, Sky!):
* [The WAYK Website](https://whereareyourkeys.org/)
* [Subscribe on Apple Podcasts](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-waykcast/id1389938619)
* [Twitter](https://twitter.com/playwayk)
* [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/playwayk/?hl=en)
New episodes in Season 1 of the WAYKcast are coming in January 2019, when we’ll be releasing new episodes every other Tuesday.
