Before coming to teach at Parkway Central, longtime Spanish teacher Dan Kelty taught in multiple countries around the world. Kelty taught for a year in Mexico, Venezuela and Slovakia. Kelty had different experiences in each country.

During his time in Mexico he taught at an American high school/ middle school. Kelty taught workers of the embassy’s kids and wealthy Mexicans. The students were all bilingual and spoke both English and Spanish. During his time there he taught middle school typing, math and English.

One thing that made his students from Mexico so different from his Central students was that they were bilingual. Stdents could speak both English and Spanish perfectly.

“They could flip from English to Spanish, like flipping a switch; it was amazing, they had perfect accents so, that was really neat,” Kelty said.

His students from his school in Mexico City were really wealthy and they would invite the teachers over to their houses.

“They’re like mansions over there. They’re like castles and it was neat seeing that side of life,” Kelty said.

Spanish Five student Emily Lander always looks forward to going to Spanish class.

“I enjoy Mr. Kelty’s class because he makes everything so fun. Anything he teaches us he always tries to incorporate like a game or just makes it funny so it’s really enjoyable,” Lander said.

Senior Alexis Baumgarten really likes the community Kelty creates within his classroom.

“I really enjoy being in Mr. Kelty’s class because I feel like he helped me improve my Spanish a lot and just created a really welcoming environment for all the students to try their hardest and take risks learning a new language,” Baumgarten said.

On the weekends Kelty got the opportunity to sightsee. He thought Mexico was very neat because of its culture. When in Mexico, Kelty got the chance to go to both coasts.

“When you travel through Mexico, you eat in these little restaurants, and the food’s fantastic, like food, you’ll never eat again in your life,” Kelty said.

During his time in Slovakia, he lived in the capital city Bratislava, which is one hour away from Vienna, two hours away from Budapest and four hours away from Prague.

“I mean, these are big cities, and it was so neat. And we also went to Germany and Italy,” Kelty said.

Kelty would have loved to stay in Mexico City, but the smog was so bad that it was making him sick.

When he lived in Slovakia during 1993-1994 it was not long after the Berlin wall came down dividing East and West Germany. Kelty’s students had grown up under communism and would tell him unique stories about what it was like growing up.

“They were people who didn’t show emotions on their faces. And they said, ‘we have poker faces because of communism’ because under communism you learn how to hide your feelings,” Kelty said.

They learned how to hide their emotions because under communism you don’t want anybody to know what you’re thinking. Kelty thought that was culturally really interesting to experience and to see.

“It really gives you an insight into the post-communist countries,” Kelty said.

While Kelty’s experiences teaching abroad were great, he offers a piece of advice for those who consider teaching English abroad.

“I would suggest you get some kind of a background in teaching English as a foreign language,” Kelty said. “I didn’t really feel like I was that good of a teacher because I really didn’t know the techniques used. But the people you work with are great and very interesting.”