Nandi Sipengane, instructor of isiZulu at Yale University, talks about speaking many different languages at home and at school growing up in South Africa. She describes some of the unique features of isiZulu,  including the famous click consonants. She also discusses how South Africans think about and understand their complex national, cultural, and linguistic identities.

Watch this conversation on Youtube: https://youtu.be/t5jOXjLx_TY

Angelina Craig-Florez of Columbia University, Ann Warner-Ault of the College of New Jersey, and Mike Jones of Swarthmore College are three members of the board of NEALLT, the Northeastern Association for Language Learning Technology.  In this conversation, we talk about the paths that they took to becoming language professionals, the role of technology in language teaching, and how a smaller regional organization like NEALLT can be a big help to graduate students and early-career language professionals as they try out new ideas and build their professional networks. Here’s my conversation with Angie, Ann, and Mike. 

www.neallt.org

https://youtu.be/q09EGrxBx7I

#language #languages #languagelearning #languageteaching 

What challenges do learners face in year 10, year 15, year 20 of studying a foreign language? Chris and Simon talk about their recent victories and ongoing challenges as higher-proficiency learners of English, German, and Italian.

This episode was recorded as a livestream on Youtube. You can watch the video version of this conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi7lW9yvnpo

Ayomide Tikare, a graduating senior at Barnard College, talks about learning Yoruba over the past four years. She discusses her background as a Yoruba heritage speaker, her language-learning process, and her love of Yoruba-language films and music.

Mentioned in this episode:

O Le Ku - 1997 film by Tunde Kelani Tunde Kelani, Nigerian film director Kunle Afolayan, Nigerian film director Maami - 2011 film by Tunde Kelani October 1 - 2014 film directed by Kunle Afolayan Ayinla - 2021 film directed by Tunde Kelani Tope Alabi - Nigerian gospel singer Fuji - popular Yoruba musical genre Oriki - Yoruba praise poetry

Dr. Dwijen Bhattacharya discusses the history and origin of the Bengali language, a related language called Sylheti, and some of the reasons why a language learner in the US might want to study Bengali.

In his second appearance on Said & Done, Yuri Shevchuk recounts a journey to Ukraine that he undertook in August 2022, and describes what he encountered in a country at war. He then speaks more generally about Russia’s war in Ukraine, about what surprised him and what didn’t surprise him about it, and about the evolving role of the Ukrainian language in this war. 

Professor Carol Rounds, lecturer of Hungarian at Columbia University, speaks about some of the unique and challenging ways in which Hungarian is structured, and why it is so interesting to linguists. She discusses how this agglutinative language creates meaning and allows for play in ways that are surprising to speakers of English, as a consequence of its morphological and syntactic complexity.

Professor Millicent Marcus of Yale University speaks about her life and work as a scholar of Italian literature. We focus in particular on her witnessing of and participation in two world-historical events: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the 1966 flood of the River Arno in Florence. She describes her experiences as one of the “Angeli del fango,” the young people who helped to recover books, manuscripts, and works of art from the damage of the floodwaters. 

Chris Kaiser thanks the listeners and guests of the Said & Done podcast and announces a new schedule for 2023.

Professor Jay Ramesh of Columbia University discusses his knowledge of and experiences in three languages of India: Sanskrit, Tamil, and Malayalam. He describes the myths and stories associated with Hindu temples, and in particular a certain kind of text called a Sthala Purana, some of which are written first in Sanskrit and then later given a unique kind of translation into Tamil.