Na'atik Language and Culture Institute

Outside of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the best place I visited would have to be Tulum. Just 1 ½ hours away and really easy to get to from Carrillo, Tulum is a Caribbean paradise. Mild, turquoise sea and white sand beaches, it took some serious willpower to come out of the water!

There is accommodation to suit all budgets and restaurants to suit all tastes. I stayed at a fantastic hostel, where the owner took us out on a memorable ‘taco tour’ of the town.

The highlight for me in Tulum was, of course, its magnificent clifftop ruins. The combination of ancient buildings set on a cliff overlooking that jewelled sea was simply magical.

I would make my stay longer! I experienced and learned so much in such a short space of time, to think what other treasures I would have come across and how much more of the language I could have picked up had I been there longer has me checking return flights...

Felipe Carrillo Puerto first comes across as a fairly quiet, slow paced town, but the more you get to know the community the more you learn, and the people are so friendly and welcoming, so proud of where they live, they want to show you everything. I was taken around the town, to the buzzing market, baseball games, a nearby farm, beautiful lagoons, an amazing seafood restaurant, nightclubs and a Mayan community village...just to name just a few!

Since I began working at Na'atik I have grown both professionally and personally. As a teacher, this is my first experience teaching teenagers so I have had to adjust my teaching style to suit this new age group. After teaching young learners for two years previously, it has been fun to be able to have deeper discussions with older students. It is interesting to hear both their opinions and life experience on the topics we discuss in class. Also with teaching a higher level of English to ESL students, I have been challenged in creating more in-depth lessons with more of a conversational or grammatical approach than simply vocabulary. I am definitely a more well-rounded teacher having worked at Na’atik.

Na’atik is definitely a unique company in several ways. I really like how we provide services both domestically (to the local community in Mexico) as well as internationally to students looking to learn Mayan or Spanish. The community and lifestyle in Felipe Carrillo Puerto is an incredible look into modern Mayan culture for foreigners to experience. And on the other hand, we are providing to local students an opportunity that otherwise would not exist for them in this small Mexican town. Overall, I think this creates very unique opportunities for both groups of learners. I also think Na’atik is unique in its size. We are a small company which fosters a laid-back, open working environment, which from a teaching standpoint, has allowed me to thrive.

Na’atik seems to have a large percent of return students, unlike anything I was familiar with in my ESL work in China. It’s neat to see classes that have studied English together for years and their closeness. The best stories I have heard from students are in general the opportunities the school has to expand their learning. For example, each year the Na’atik staff organizes a trip for the teen groups to go to Playa del Carmen, or this year to Xcaret, an eco-archaeological park in Riviera Maya. They have scavenger hunts and enjoy lunch and shows together, using their English in new and fun ways. Our younger students are invited to a camp where there are games and snacks in another exciting way to use the English they have learned in the classroom. It is activities like this that students have come to love from attending class at Na’atik.