Said & Done

Learning Armenian, Eastern and Western - with Sato Moughalian and Ryan Nazari

Sato Moughalian and Ryan Nazari, both Ph.D. students enrolled in Armenian classes at Columbia, speak about their experiences and reasons for learning the language. They discuss the complex background of Armenian, which forms its own distinct, independent branch within the Indo-European language family. They also detail how their own personal and family stories intertwine with histories of genocide, forced migration, music, art, ceramics, weaving, and what it means to be Armenian today. To learn more about Armenian at Columbia, check out https://mesaas.columbia.edu/armenian-studies/ The music featured on this episode is from the Perspectives Ensemble's album Oror/Lullaby: Armenian Music for Flute and Harp, featuring Sato Moughalian and Alyssa Reit

On Music and Language, with Denzell Ivery

In this episode of Said & Done, Denzell Ivery, a master's student at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, talks about learning multiple languages—including Turkish, Russian, Azerbaijani, and Hungarian—and how his background as a musician has shaped his approach to communication. From the concert stage to deployments abroad with the U.S. Marines, he's found that sound and meaning follow the same patterns of play, discipline, and discovery.

Talking about Afrolatinas en Estados Unidos, with Leyre Alejaldre Biel

In this episode of Said & Done, Leyre Alejaldre Biel, Lecturer in Spanish at Columbia, speaks about her Intermediate Spanish course, Afrolatinas en Estados Unidos. The class centers the voices and experiences of Afrolatina women, as students research and learn about members of this community. The episode also points to how this project extends beyond the classroom, with student-created podcasts available on Spotify and student-generated content relating to the class on Instagram. *** If you'd like to see and hear more of the student work, visit Afrolatinas en Estados Unidos on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tneZgWTsNUQO7Xw7xAv67 And Afrolatinas in Spanish on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/afrolatinasinspanish/

Learning Sinhala at Columbia, with Emma Kaneira

Emma Kaneira, a 2025 graduate of Barnard College, shares her experience learning Sinhala at Columbia through the Shared Course Initiative, which brings this language to Columbia from Cornell University. She reflects on her progression through the language sequence, how her studies inspired her to apply for and receive a Fulbright award, and how she envisions her knowledge of Sinhala shaping her future career in the legal profession. Learn more about the Shared Course Initiative: www.sharedcourseinitiative.org [https://www.sharedcourseinitiative.org] Listen & Subscribe to Said & Done on Your Favorite Podcast App: 👉 https://linktr.ee/saidanddone 📌 🔔 Like & Subscribe for More Language Stories!

Centering the Climate Humanities in Language Education, with Francisca Aguiló Mora

Francisca Aguiló Mora is Senior Lecturer of Spanish in Columbia University's Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures and co-director of the Spanish Language Program. In this conversation, she discusses how the Climate Humanities can take a central position in the L2 classroom, and how she has begun to put this into practice in her own teaching. We also discuss a recent article, "Climate Humanities in the L2 Classroom: Radical Hope for an Uncertain Future," which she co-authored with Almudena Marin Cobos in the journal Radical Teacher as part of a volume dedicated to critical DEI. The article is accessible here: https://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/radicalteacher/article/view/1273/906 [https://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu/ojs/radicalteacher/article/view/1273/906] Listen & Subscribe to Said & Done on Your Favorite Podcast App: 👉 https://linktr.ee/saidanddone 📌 🔔 Like & Subscribe for More Language Stories! #climatehumanities #climatehope #climate #sustainability #humanities #languagelearning #podcast #WorldLanguages #LanguageTeaching #Columbia #ColumbiaUniversity #Education #linguistics #polyglot #podcast