Bridging Cultures Through Agriculture and Language

In this episode of Coffee in the Barn, Katie Dotterer, a third-generation dairy farmer and language educator, joins Morgan Hart to discuss her unique journey from dairy farming to building cross-cultural understanding within the agricultural community. Katie shares how her experiences on the farm led her to identify and address the language and cultural gaps between English and Spanish speakers in agriculture. Now, she teaches Spanish for agricultural workers and English for non-native speakers, helping to create a more inclusive and effective workplace. 

Highlights from the Conversation: 

• Creating Language Bridges in Agriculture: Katie describes her mission to bridge the language gap between English-speaking managers and Spanish-speaking workers, enhancing teamwork and efficiency on farms. 
• Empowering Workers Through Language: Her courses not only teach language skills but also empower individuals to communicate and advocate for themselves, fostering a respectful and collaborative work environment. 
• Importance of Understanding Cultural Differences: Katie highlights how cultural awareness can lead to better relationships, mutual respect, and increased productivity across agricultural teams. 
• Language as a Tool for Respect and Inclusivity: By learning even a few phrases in another language, English speakers can show respect and appreciation, building camaraderie and stronger connections with Spanish-speaking colleagues. 
• Future of Multilingual Agriculture: Katie envisions a future where agricultural operations prioritize bilingual education to create cohesive, supportive teams. 

Tune in to hear Katie's inspiring story and discover how language learning can foster a more inclusive and collaborative agricultural community. 

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Transcript

Morgan Hart 
0:00:00 
Hey guys and welcome back to this week's episode of Coffee in the Barn. This week we are happy to have Katie Dotyer. Katie is a third generation dairy farmer from Pennsylvania who also works to foster an agricultural community of culturally conscious and respectful people through ongoing education within the as well as sharing her stories across social media and through her world travels. Hi, Katie, welcome. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:00:29 
Hello, thank you for having me. 

Morgan Hart 
0:00:31 
It's a pleasure. 

Morgan Hart 
0:00:34 
I know I've been following you for probably quite a few years on social media and have kind of been able to follow your story a little bit, but for those of our audience that don't know who you are, could you give us a little bit of an introduction on your background and kind of what you're doing today in your business? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:00:57 
Sure, yeah, so I was a dairy farmer all my life, actually, up until just about three years ago. So I grew up as a third generation dairy farmer on my family dairy farm in Central PA, which is still in operation to this day. And then I left in 2009 to start and co-own 

Katie Dotterer 
0:01:13 
my own dairy farm as a first generation dairy farmer for 13 years. And the last seven of those 13 years was a farm that we had purchased in Maryland. So like I said, three years ago, stepped away from it, actually been like three and a half years now, and I relocated to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. So people often think that I went back to my family dairy, not the case. I love history. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:01:39 
I've always loved Gettysburg. So this just seemed like the best place to land. And so I, it was funny. I took what I had as a side hustle and turned it into my full-time career. So I kind of did all these like big things at once, um, went through a divorce and then I quit my full-time teaching job in the public school system. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:02:00 
And I was like, well, it's either go big or go home. And I gave myself a year to see if this was going to work and it did. And the opportunities just keep coming. And I'm very, very grateful to be where I'm at in life these days. So I still get to be in agriculture, just in a very different way, a way that I really didn't even think was possible, but here we are. 

Morgan Hart 
0:02:21 
So besides jumping in and just kind of getting your feet wet and getting started. How did you kind of come up with your business plan and how you were going to create a career out of, I guess, a vision? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:02:37 
Yeah. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:02:37 
So, um, I guess this is a side hustle. So what I currently do is I teach, I create curriculum from scratch and then teach it and it is specifically for agriculture, so I teach Spanish and I also teach English as a second language. If you hear me refer to ESL, that's what that means. So it is literally somebody's, their second language or maybe their third or 

Katie Dotterer 
0:02:58 
fourth or whatever is English. So English is not their primary language like it is for you and I. So I guess it started when I was a dairy farmer. And we always talked about the gap between farmers and the non-farming community, right? Farmers are less than 2% of the population in the US. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:03:19 
And that's all well and good. And I did my part. I feel like, you know, advocating for agriculture still do when I get that opportunity. But I was witnessing a gap that we had within agriculture. And that was a culture gap and a language gap. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:03:32 
And it bothered me because I also saw the Hispanic community being mistreated and that is either, you know, culturally wise or like things from like wage disparities. I've been privy to, you know, especially conversations in Facebook groups of, hey, what do you guys pay your Mexican workers versus your American workers? And it's like, you know, this isn't okay, especially if those workers, let's say, have the same 

Katie Dotterer 
0:04:02 
seniority, have been there the same amount of time, are doing the same job, have the same work experience, like they shouldn't be treated any different just because they speak a different language, because they have a different culture, things like that. So, and of course the biggest thing is the communication barrier. That is, that is huge for so many people. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:04:19 
And you know, when you're on a farm, I don't care what industry you're in, and it doesn't even, we don't even have to talk about industry. Communication is important all around, but when you throw a barrier like Spanish or English in there, it makes things 10 times harder. So I'm just like, why are we not doing anything to address this? So I started this back in gosh, 2017, 2017. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:04:44 
And yeah, just started with dairy. And when other industries found out about it, I was approached and like I said, I now have curriculum for poultry, for swine, and I am working on some other industry-specific within agriculture courses. So that's how I got started and that's where I'm at now. And I think a lot more people finally are waking up to the fact that, hey, if I want to have a successful, not only a successful business, but to be able to communicate, to be able to have good relationships with people, we need to 

Katie Dotterer 
0:05:21 
meet in the middle and that's honestly, that's the mission of what I do. 

Morgan Hart 
0:05:24 
So are you having mostly, uh, employees of producers working, working with you? Or are you having mana- like what level managers, owners, um, kind of what does your class or the people that you work with, who does that look like? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:05:43 
All over the board. So I'm going to talk about my Spanish classes right now first. So again, people think that the Spanish classes are for people like you and I that speak English that want to learn a little bit of Spanish. So my students are all adults. It's funny because I think a lot of people first think they're like, oh, she teaches kids. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:06:02 
Yeah, I know I used to do that. Like I did my time in the middle in high school. My students are adults. They are from California to Delaware to Canada. They are nationwide. I try to accommodate all the time zones. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:06:15 
They are farmers. They are hoof trimmers. They're anywhere from the farm owner to milkers, anybody that's really communicating with people. I mean, I feel like you name it, I probably had somebody like milk tester, I've had nutritionist and the growing sector that I've been having for my classes are veterinarians. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:06:35 
And a couple of years ago I had asked, cause it's very humbling by the way, to have, especially veterinarians, just because I'm like, y'all have all of this education. I have some, but I don't have like, you know, whatever it is, seven to 10 years of vet school. And they said, because the first person to contact anymore 

Katie Dotterer 
0:06:54 
when we go on a farm is usually not the farm owner. It is usually a Spanish speaker. And I need to know how to say, "Where is the sick cow? Can you help me with the surgery?". You know, things like that. So my students are all over the board 

Katie Dotterer 
0:07:07 
and my ages range from 18 to 75. My oldest student who is still with me to this day, he took both of my courses. I do a beginner's and an intermediate, and I've been tutoring him on the side for two years. He's 75, so when people come at me and they're like, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:07:26 
"I'm too old to learn a language", I'm like, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:07:28 
that is no excuse. 

Morgan Hart 
0:07:29 
What do your classes look like? 

Morgan Hart 
0:07:30 
Are they all online, in-person? 

Morgan Hart 
0:07:32 
Are you using like, what is it? Duolingo or any sort of, uh, learning apps or things to help within your program? Um, not Duolingo. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:07:48 
Um, not Duolingo. I, I like Duolingo for like, if you want to, you know, start learning some basic stuff, but, um, no, my classes, I designed them all myself. I mean, the dairy was literally boots on the ground, you know, with that. And so the courses, the Spanish courses are all online right now. I would love to, and I've been approached by a couple businesses to like think this out, feel this out, of coming in in person and doing some on-site lessons. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:08:18 
Spanish is actually a really easy language to learn. It's very phonetic, which means it's, you spell it the way you hear it, unlike English. But the Spanish one is, it's all online right now, which is great for a lot of people, right? Because a lot of people don't have time to travel to a class, and that's why it's online. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:08:34 
It is total 14 weeks, but don't let that scare you. It's eight weeks of live but recorded classes. If you can attend live, cool. If you can't, that's fine too. I record every class, and then it's posted within an hour of class. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:08:50 
So I had a lot of students, the majority of my students actually take it via recordings. And the beauty about that is you're watching a recorded live version, so it's still engaging. You're still hearing the students ask questions. We have great camaraderie and conversation about different things that people, like my students bring their own experiences and I love it. So it is eight weeks and it's Tuesday and Thursday evenings, one hour each. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:09:18 
So two hours per week, so you're getting 16 one-hour classes to watch. You get the additional six weeks to catch up on things, right? So maybe you fell off the wagon, maybe because this happens every time. You're taking the class and week three, week four comes along, you fall off the wagon, something happens, right? Maybe you're traveling a lot for work, something happens with family. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:09:38 
You can still jump in and still complete the course by the end of the time. So, for example, this course started September 19th. My students have until December 28th to go back, pace yourselves, go back and rewatch videos. I'm also available to my students the entire time. So I answer a lot of student questions. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:09:56 
If you can't attend live, shoot me an email. If you shoot me a laundry list, I'll be like, let's jump on a Zoom call so we can better do that. Behind me is my SMART Board. I love this thing. It allows, so I guess to answer your question about a tool, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:10:10 
this thing is awesome. It's my whiteboard. I can bring a lot of stuff up on it to help students learn. So Spanish right now is all online. English as a second language is in person because I have found that Spanish speakers 

Katie Dotterer 
0:10:25 
are more willing to learn English when they have that connection with the instructor. And I think that's important, too. So right now I do teach that in person. I do – and, again, they're all adults. They are here on TN visas. And the current adults that I teach ESL to on Wednesdays currently work at a swine operation, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:10:47 
and I'm starting another one here. It's actually outside of Philadelphia in a couple of weeks. So it's going to, that's at that horse racetrack, actually. 

Morgan Hart 
0:10:54 
Oh cool. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:10:54 
Yeah. So my, my goal with that is let's meet in person. And then if you want to continue to learn English, I'm working on an online program for that too. Cause I, I can't be everywhere all the time. I wish I could be, but that's obviously just not, not the reality. So yeah, I'm, I'm open to doing online and in person for both Spanish and English and it's just whatever 

Katie Dotterer 
0:11:16 
opportunities come down, down the pike. 

Morgan Hart 
0:11:18 
Well, that's awesome. I know, uh, I studied abroad in Costa Rica for a summer during college and we got the opportunity to live with, uh, a Spanish speaking family for a handful of days. I took Spanish in high school, but never in college. And so I could kind of understand it a little bit. But what was so interesting to me is that 

Morgan Hart 
0:11:45 
just in the agricultural space, the words, the English words for things in agriculture translated to Spanish are actually like pretty similar. At least I was able to understand more with the Spanish speaking father that we were living with at their dairy farm than I was in their house. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:12:12 
That happens. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:12:13 
And that's because, see, this is why I say Spanish is easy. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:12:16 
And this, I, when I give presentations, I get the audience involved. So what you're talking about is actually, we call them cognates, right? So they're, they're words that sound very similar and also mean the same thing. So things like electrolytes, right? Sounds like electrolytes, electrolytes, 10 K tank, right? So there, there are a lot of those things. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:12:39 
So I always start class off with, so I'm like, "Look at you, you guys already know some Spanish.". You know? So, and it's, my classes were putting those words together. And I got so excited last night. So I'm such a grammar nerd and I see my students laughing at me on camera, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:12:53 
and I'm like, guys, we're putting, like we just finished, last night was week three, and we're putting simple sentences together, like just simple ones right now. The filters are dirty, that's a sentence. You're now able to do that. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:13:08 
Like it's the little things that just make me happy because it really, my students, the best part about what I do is getting their feedback. And I get it unsolicited all the time. And I love it because they're like, hey, I was out sorting cows with Juan. And he was so excited that I was saying the cow numbers in Spanish. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:13:25 
And we just had this great conversation. It might be broken Spanish, might be broken English, but you're still having a conversation. You're making inroads, whether you know it or not, establishing relationships with other people. 

Morgan Hart 
0:13:52 
How have you seen the camaraderie and positivity within a specific operation that you've worked with and when you're able to merge you know the English-speaking managers with the Spanish-speaking employees and how have you seen that change given the communication barrier going away? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:14:23 
One of my favorite stories that I share with people, so if people have like listened to me speak before they probably heard this story, but it's it's so worth repeating. A few years ago I had a woman take my course, she was a milk tester in Wisconsin and she's like, she's so excited though she she sent me an email before class. She was only in my course at this point, I think for three weeks, right? So we weren't even halfway through. She's like, "Katie, can you get on Zoom early?" I have to tell you something else. I was like, okay. So this story, it still gives me chills. She said, "I've been milk testing at this large dairy, it's like a 5,000 cow dairy for years. And I would just go in and do my job. The milkers would do their job and we would just go our separate ways.". She said, "But after three weeks of your class, I did what you...", 

Katie Dotterer 
0:14:52 
because I always encourage my students, even after the first day when you're learning greetings, the next time you see a Spanish speaker, flip and say "Hola" or "Buenos dias", right? Or "Como estas"? And you might not be prepared because I also teach them how to say I am learning because they're like, Katie, when I do that, they're like, "Oh, you know Spanish and blah, blah, blah". So I teach them how to, you know, how to mitigate that, but she said, "I got to the farm 

Katie Dotterer 
0:15:16 
and I said to myself, 'I'm gonna actually use some Spanish'." So she said, all I said was, "Buenos dias, como estas?". And you should have seen their faces light up. And she said that entire shift. So I mean, the 5,000 cow dairy. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:15:31 
She's at this shift for like at least seven hours. She said the entire time, she was like, "I've never had so much fun testing milk because they were teaching me Spanish, I was teaching them English. We had so much fun.". 

Katie Dotterer 
0:15:42 
It went by, here's the kicker to the story though. There was a blizzard that came through during this shift. And she said, "I went out to load my milk samples into my car and I had learned that the entire milking crew had cleaned my car off for me", and I was like, "Do you realize how much respect that you garner just in a matter of one shift?". 

Morgan Hart 
0:16:03 
Right. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:16:04 
You know, so like just you letting them know that you're putting the effort in to learn their language and to come together, like I love that. And that's just one of many stories that I have heard from past students. And it's probably the best part of what I do. 

Morgan Hart 
0:16:20 
Oh, that's awesome. 

Morgan Hart 
0:16:21 
I'm sure you have so many more. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:16:24 
I keep them in a Word doc because like everybody else, I have, you know, my down days or a down season and I sometimes I have to remind myself that, "No Katie, keep going because what, what...". 

Morgan Hart 
0:16:36 
This is your why. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:16:37 
Yes, exactly. Exactly. Sometimes I just need to be reminded of it. 

Morgan Hart 
0:16:42 
Oh, that's, that's awesome. I love to hear stuff like that. And I know sometimes we hear comments and maybe it's the resources aren't available or whatnot, but you know, you'll hear, and I'm sure you've heard it before that, well, "If they're coming to the US that they need to learn English.". Like, how do you respond to people that are making those comments? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:17:07 
Oh, I hate that comment because obviously of the, the connotation behind it. Especially if they're working with Spanish speakers or they are an employer of Spanish speakers, my first question to them is, how's that working out for you? How is that attitude helping you? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:17:28 
Because there are things that you could be doing to bridge that gap. And furthermore, they're here, you hired them. They are here to help us produce agriculture because as Americans, and I have been on the HR side of it, I have been a farm owner where I have interviewed 60 people for a milking position. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:17:47 
Only two were hired and both of those couldn't even last 24 hours. So I get it, but if you're employing Spanish speakers, the least you can do is meet them halfway. I, in my opinion, there should be onus on both parts. Oh, for sure. So, when people come at me with that comment, I often say that, but I often also say, "What's wrong with meeting in the middle?". 

Katie Dotterer 
0:18:15 
I am not, the services that I offer in both Spanish and English, I'm not asking either person, an English speaker or a Spanish speaker, to become fluent. Most of the time that's unrealistic. All I'm asking is for you to learn a little bit of each language. Also, if you're an employer and you're going to say that, then put up the funds and the time to help your employees learn English, because 

Katie Dotterer 
0:18:39 
that's what I run into a lot. That that's actually a very big roadblock, if you will. You want them to learn English so bad, well then help them. Because I'm not saying that you should just pay for that fully, but if we're willing to offer professional development and trainings for Americans, why can't we offer that same thing for the Hispanic community that is here, again, to help produce food in the United 

Katie Dotterer 
0:19:04 
States? 

Morgan Hart 
0:19:05 
Yeah, and that's my biggest thing is like there's so many, I mean, and I know that this probably happened before COVID too, but there's still so many signs everywhere that saying, hiring, hiring, we're looking for people. But I don't know if it's our generation or what, but farm kids are not raised. There's not as many farm kids as there was today 

Morgan Hart 
0:19:31 
as there was 20, 30 years ago. And nobody wants to do the hard work. And so we've had to rely on other ethnicities to help us still produce the food that we need to today. And every single operation that I've ever been on, dairy, swine, poultry, whatever, they're the hardest working people I know. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:19:56 
Yep. I think people would be shocked to find out that 78% of the agricultural workforce here in the US speak Spanish. 78%, it's almost 80%. Like how can you just ignore that statistic? Insane. We also have the second largest Spanish speaking population 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:12 
in the world. So when people really wanna get into it with me about learning English, I tell them to Google what the official language is in the US and you will find we do not have 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:29 
one. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:30 
We just don't. We were a country built on colonization. Any other country, you type in what is the official language of Honduras, it's going to tell you Spanish. What is the official language of France? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:40 
French. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:42 
In the U.S., we don't have one. Is it the most popular language spoken here? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:47 
Yes. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:20:48 
But Spanish is actually the second largest language spoken here. And there was a stat that I saw somewhere, which I didn't, I didn't make note of it to jot it down, but the amount of people that are going to be bilingual by like 2050 is pretty darn high. And if you don't want to get left behind, highly recommend learning some, some other language. 

Morgan Hart 
0:21:09 
Catch up. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:21:09 
Yeah. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:21:10 
Yeah, another one that actually just came out a few years ago. So the US population grew in a time span of 11 years, okay, so just over a decade. So they grew from 2010 to 2022 by 24.5 million, okay, 24.5 million people within a decade. We'll just round it and say decade. 53% of that growth were Hispanics. 

Morgan Hart 
0:21:37 
I believe it. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:21:39 
Yeah. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:21:40 
And whether you agree that they're here or not, I don't get into the political arena about that. What I'm most focused on is agriculture in the US. I have, again, been on the HR side trying to hire Americans and it's a struggle. And unfortunately, it's not going to get any better. I have been part of lobbying groups to help, you know, lobby for different worker visa programs because, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:22:06 
you know, dairy, we don't, dairy doesn't have the same opportunities with that as say poultry or swine or especially produce, you know, produce industry, they, I'm not saying the H2A or H2B program is perfect, but at least they have that option, dairy doesn't have that option. 

Morgan Hart 
0:22:21 
Yeah, I know a lot of, I'm working more in the swine space now, but a lot of the producers that we're working with are working with employees on the TN-70 program, which I think is very similar on the dairy side as well. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:22:36 
Yeah. Yeah. So the, my current students that are taking the ESL, the English as a second language, they're all adults and they're actually all from, so they're the ones that are working on the swine operation and they're working, they're all from different parts of Mexico, which is a lot of fun because I learn, I feel like I tell them every 

Katie Dotterer 
0:22:51 
Wednesday, I'm like, "I feel like I learned as much from you guys as you learned from me". And I have to tell you, I love their employer's attitude. When he first contacted me two years ago, he was obviously looking for, you know, I'm certified by the way, in English as a second language, you have to do a whole practicum and everything. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:23:07 
And my first students, by the way, were from China and Saudi Arabia. So that was, that was challenging. But anyway, when I talked to this employer, I said, "Okay, so what would you like me to teach them?". Like, you know, pig anatomy, because I do all of the anatomies 

Katie Dotterer 
0:23:23 
in each one of those courses. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:23:24 
And I'll never forget his response, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:23:26 
because he said, "Well, I mean, yeah, I guess.". I was like, what? Like, you get it? And I was like, you know, "I can use my curriculum that I use in Spanish to teach English". And he goes, "I want you to teach them what they want to learn 

Katie Dotterer 
0:23:40 
because I want them to be happy here.". And I was like, so things like, and this is what matters to them, how to set up a bank account, how to read the road signs here, right? Like none of them are in Spanish. 

Morgan Hart 
0:23:52 
Right. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:23:53 
How to go shopping. One of, this is a heartbreaking story for me. Let me, hold on, I'll get into that in just a minute. So what I'm getting at is this employer's attitude, I wish more people shared. Because he knows that his business would not be able 

Katie Dotterer 
0:24:10 
to function the way it does right now without them. So he's like, I want them to learn what they wanna learn in order for them to be happy here. So I went in one day, I always have lessons planned, but I always ask them, hey, if there's anything specific you want to learn, let me know. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:24:28 
And we're talking about, so the first 10 minutes, I get to talk all in Spanish, because I obviously take the opportunity to practice it. And I was like, "hey, what'd you guys do this weekend"? And they're telling me that they went to Target. I was like, "oh, how'd you like Target"? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:24:42 
And they said, "well, we went to buy clothes", because mind you, a lot of these people come here for like a three month, or it's not, sorry, three year contract usually, it's usually three years, they come with a suitcase. 

Morgan Hart 
0:24:55 
It's not very much. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:24:57 
No. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:24:58 
So they're like, we needed clothes, so we went to Target. And I was like, "oh, so what'd you get"? And they're like, "nothing". I was like, "oh, did you not like the clothes at Target"? And they go, "no, we didn't know how to say, can we try these on"? 

Morgan Hart 
0:25:08 
It's things that we take for granted every day. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:25:10 
Exactly. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:25:11 
So that class, we went over articles of clothing and, uh, we played, we role-played, so I was the dressing room attendant, so they had to practice, you know, can I try these on? I need a different size, things like that, things that we don't think about. So. The next time you want to say they're here, they need to learn English. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:25:29 
Maybe take a step back and put yourself in their shoes because the majority of them, I'm not going to say all of them, but the majority of them do want to learn English. And I'm trying to forge a pathway for that to happen that is efficient and practical for everyone involved. 

Morgan Hart 
0:25:54 
Yeah, I love that. I'm kind of switching gears here a little bit. But I know you travel quite a bit, or you at least try to. Um, where has been one of your favorite places to travel to? And if you haven't been somewhere, where's your next goal of a place that you'd like to go? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:11 
I do love to travel. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:12 
And, uh, it's funny, everybody that I meet, their first question is, so where are you going next? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:17 
I'm like, do we really travel that much? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:18 
I love traveling. It just, it opens up a whole new world and a whole new perspective. I wish more people would do it, to be honest. To ask what my favorite place is, I feel like that's asking a parent, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:38 
what's your, who's your favorite place to be with your child? Haha. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:42 
Because it really, like, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:26:43 
I have different ones for different things. Right. So, if I really had to pick, I loved Panama. I, there was a dairy farm, obviously like every country I go to, I have to visit a farm and, um, the dairy in Panama was, it was crazy. Like the cows were just housed in these like tents and it was awesome. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:27:10 
You can do that in Panama. And the, the place I was in was called Boquete, which is like the mountainous region. And it's 70 degrees there all year round. It is absolutely gorgeous. So maybe for a Spanish speaker, I don't know. I like Mexico, but Morocco was frickin' awesome. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:27:31 
I was just in Greece with, so that was a sister trip. And I have to tell you, I did not expect to use my Spanish as much as I did in Greece. I met, so yeah, like, and I, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. The U.S., we are one of the very few countries that are monolingual, meaning we only speak one language. Many other people speak at least two, if not more. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:27:55 
I met, I met this guy, he spoke five, five languages. And he was so excited that I could speak Spanish. So we just had an entire conversation in Spanish. It was like his third language. And I met so many great people because I spoke Spanish. So it was awesome. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:28:11 
So to answer your question on where I want to go, so I do have a goal to go to a different Spanish speaking country every year. That is for my business, so I can write it off. But it's really, it's for me to improve my Spanish to continue. I'm always learning. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:28:32 
I'm never going to tell you my Spanish is perfect. I actually hate being called fluent, believe it or not. Like, I could live in a Spanish-speaking country tomorrow, but I just am like, oh no, there's so many dialects. There's so many flying terms, you know. The most rewarding part, by the way, is the people. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:28:49 
I have connections now all over, which is awesome. So, for 2025, I would love to go to Argentina. 

Morgan Hart 
0:28:59 
Oh, awesome. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:01 
Yeah, and that's because everybody I meet internationally, I kid you not, everybody thinks I'm from Argentina. 

Morgan Hart 
0:29:10 
Really? Maybe you have the Argentinian Spanish dialect. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:11 
Yes. I do. That's what I've been told because I've literally asked legit Argentinians. And it was funny, the latest one, other than Greece, everybody in Greece thought I was from Argentina. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:24 
And I'll get to why in a minute. But I think one of the most shocking was I was on a call with a company and their HR person was Argentinian. And she's like, "Hey, Katie, can I, you know, listen to your Spanish? Can you say something in Spanish?". 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:40 
So I did. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:41 
She didn't miss a beat. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:42 
She's like, "So what part of Argentina are you originally from?". And I'm like, I called my mom right after, because I was like, "We need to talk.". So I always joke that I was adopted. And she was like, "Katie, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:29:52 
you were the only girl born the day that you were born.". I'm like, I don't think I buy this. So I've been told that I have an Argentinian accent, that I look Argentinian, and this is fun. So I'm a history nerd, and when I was in a rabbit hole, I was in a World War II rabbit hole for a while, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:30:07 
kind of still there, when I learned, so both of my mom and dad's side of the family, very German, very German. But when I started learning that after World War II, a lot of Germans escaped to Chile or Argentina to escape the war crime trials, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:30:24 
there's a lot of German ancestry there, so maybe that's where I come from, because I get told it's my dark hair, my dark eyes, and my fair skin. I just never knew that. I never, you know, put it together. So I joke that I'm going to go to Argentina and find my real family. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:30:41 
My family here doesn't find that funny, but I think it's hilarious. 

Morgan Hart 
0:30:46 
That's awesome. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:30:48 
Yeah. 

Morgan Hart 
0:30:49 
Okay. 

Morgan Hart 
0:30:50 
That's so cool. Just one last question for anyone who is looking to start learning Spanish or trying to better communicate with their employees. How, what is the best way for them to contact you or to possibly take one of your classes? 

Katie Dotterer 
0:31:02 
So go to my website, agvokate.com. That's A-G-V-O-K-A-T-E, do you see what I did there, advocating for agriculture. It takes some people some time. It's fine. But that is a wealth of information. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:31:23 
I just overhauled the Spanish for agriculture page. I have a wait list for the winter class. I always have wait lists. So get on that as soon as you can because you'll be the first one to, one of the first to learn when registration is open. So shoot me an email, get on that waitlist. If you are interested in the ESL 

Katie Dotterer 
0:31:41 
option for Hispanics, also just shoot me an email, see what we can do there. I would love to have you. I love what I do, if you can't tell. I don't know if that's, you know, evidence or what I've talked about, but it's a lot of fun. I don't do, I don't really do a lot of things that aren't fun. So I make these courses as fun as possible. Um, and I think that people will be pleasantly surprised with the impact 

Katie Dotterer 
0:32:08 
that they then can make with just learning how to say a few things in Spanish, like, again, it's not, you're not going to be... 

Morgan Hart 
0:32:17 
It's the ripple effect. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:32:17 
Yeah. And you know, duolingo. I always get asked that question. It's great if you want to learn towards these stuff. Um, but it's one, it's not going to give you the agricultural terminology that my courses do. And my two Ts, the people that I tutor on the side, the one, actually the 75-year-old, what he does is he takes screenshots of the errors that he gets in Duolingo, and we go 

Katie Dotterer 
0:32:41 
over them as a learning tool. And I have to tell you, almost half of them, he's correct on. But we have to remember that Duolingo is AI, and we're not going to specify things like, I want the formal versus the informal and then mark it wrong. I don't like that as an educator because I'm like, 

Katie Dotterer 
0:32:59 
you're shooting people's confidence when technically you were correct, but you AI didn't specify what you wanted. Or they use more Spain Spanish. I don't teach Spain Spanish. I have yet to encounter anybody in the US agriculture industry from Spain. They're all from Latin America. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:33:15 
So that's the Spanish that I teach in these courses. Duolingo is more of the Spain. If you're, if you're headed to Spain, totally recommend Duolingo. 

Morgan Hart 
0:33:23 
Awesome. 

Morgan Hart 
0:33:24 
Good to know. 

Morgan Hart 
0:33:24 
Well, we always like to leave our audience with an action item. And I think, uh, if they haven't picked up on the action item yet, it would be that if you don't know Spanish or are not learning a second language, soon you should. You should start learning. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:33:49 
It's a lot of fun. Don't get over it. Get over the attitude of, you know, my language is superior, my culture is superior. That only hinders yourself in so many ways. Just open up your mind a little bit. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised of what will happen once you do that. 

Morgan Hart 
0:34:08 
Oh, well, I really enjoyed this conversation and it's been a pleasure having you on Coffee in the Barn this week. Thanks for having me so much. 

Katie Dotterer 
0:34:15 
Thanks for having me so much. I enjoyed this. 

Morgan Hart 
0:34:17 
Awesome. Thank you!