Language educators were unprepared for emergency remote language teaching (ERLT) due to lack of training in online pedagogy and negative perceptions of online instruction, and the rural community of language educators have been challenged in unique ways. Using the intersections of content (language teaching), space (rurality), and context (pandemic) as the theoretical framework, this comparative survey study aimed to investigate rural Mississippi language teachers' beliefs and practices to ERLT in comparison to their counterparts nationwide. Two independent samples, one consisting of 94 Mississippi language teachers and the other consisting of 255 national K-12 language teachers, responded to our electronic survey about their ERLT perceptions and practices. Independent-samples t tests were conducted to examine participants' responses, and the results indicated that rural Mississippi educators in general adapted significantly better than educators nationwide. Specifically, with the same four dimensions of ERLT practices as revealed by confirmatory factor analysis, Mississippi teachers reported having courses more in line with best practices in online course design with higher levels of interaction within their classes, and higher learner outcomes, while making fewer adjustments in their teaching due to the pandemic. Practical implications are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.