Norms of marriage differ around the world, so I made a video with answers in Bambara/Jula from people in Abidjan — who is married, kids, challenges, and why people get married at all 🙃 youtu.be/9lbt3SRhS5M

TikTok often hides comments in Bambara (as "folded comments") on my "An ka taa" acccount because their system says they may affect people's well-being 😡 Also you can't specify that a video is even in Bambara so I have to say that they are in French 🤬

That feeling when the subtitles are laid down after hours and hours of filming and editing and transcribing and translating :-) New episode of "Na baro kè" coming soon!

Some stills from the next "Na baro kè" street interview episode about "furu" (marriage), which I am currently editing :-)

After greetings, people find it helpful to know how to say basics like "yes", "no" and "excuse me", etc., so I made a whole video about essential expressions for Maninka (AKA "Malinké") learners :-) youtu.be/R4tzQQXXk04

I’ll be teaching a small set of live online Bambara/Jula courses starting in Feb: - Beginner – Wed, 14h30 Paris / 8:30am ET - Adv. Beginner – Wed, 17h Paris / 11am ET - Adv. Beginner Conversation – Wed, 19h Paris / 1pm ET Interested? Let me know!

I put together a new AKT corpus for myself! It's got ~5 hours of spoken Bambara/Jula, with 210+ speakers across 30 "An ka taa" videos. That's 6.5k subtitle units which break down into 75k+ word & punctuation tokens :-)

Over 1,600 people used the Bambara/Dioula-English-French dictionary more than 2,300 times last month! The top English search terms were: 1. hairy 2. fog 3. life 4. love 5. find You can use it too! It's free! dictionary.ankataa.com

The Bambara/Dioula-English-French dictionary was used by over 1,200 people last month. The top English search terms were: 1. hairy 2. bridge 3. food 4. red 5. last name

A student asked me about Bambara language films with subtitles so I did a little write-up :-) www.ankataa.com/blog/2025/12...

That feeling when the subtitles are finally laid down on a rough edit :-)

It’s official! Preregistration is open for the Summer 2026 Immersion Program in Abidjan that I am co-organizing! One week of Bambara/Jula classes, field activities, and homestay learning :-) www.ankataa.com/abidjan-imme...

I've been preparing something new for summer 2026 :-) Can you guess what it is? A) Full length film in Bambara B) Print dictionnary C) Immersion program D) My retirement

Finally wrote up a little short explainer about telling time "in Bambara" (which is to say, "in French" sometimes). Short version: - Heure jumɛn bɛ yen? What "heure" is there? - "Trois heure" sera "Trois heure" has arrived

Subtitles are laid down on the next "An ka taa" video :-)

Happy to share two big updates to the "An ka taa" learning platform 🚀

Subtitling!

Classes start next week! Sending out syllabi with first homework assignments this week 😬

I ni ce! The Bambara/Jula-English-Dictionary was used by 877 people last month :-) The top English search terms were: 1. night 2. water 3. cute 4. professor 5. girl

Back from a month back at home in the US. Time to get ready for the fall semester and do a million other small online business things 🫡

Aw ni ce! Friendly reminder (while on vacation 😴) that I am teaching live online Bambara/Jula courses for small groups of students this fall 🙂 There are still spots available! More info at ankataa.com/live-courses

I'm teaching a few small-group online Bambara/Jula language courses this fall :-) Registration is open now if you're interested: ankataa.com/live-courses

Who else got a marketing email form the Social Security Adminstration today? 😵‍💫

En 1904, deux savants se rencontrent à la mosquée al-Azhar du Caire, un lettré musulman du Borno, al-Hajj Musa et un linguiste amateur allemand, Rudolf Prietze, tous deux en Égypte pour poursuivre leurs études, ils collaboreront pendant dix ans produisant des centaines de pages de textes en kanouri.

Trying to come up with a course schedule for students at various levels, with various preferences, across various time zones 😵‍💫 I kind of want to give up and just propose what works for me, but it's the difference between 0 students and 3 students signing up 😭

I'm teaching live online Bambara, Jula, and Maninka courses this Fall! These are cohort-based and mix self-paced homework with real-time sessions. Tell me what times work for you so I can build the schedule 🙂 forms.gle/qrAY3GX9bmKn...

6 out of 7 AKT audience members say they wouldn't survive a gbaka ride 😂

Krass! Und in Hamburg :-)

I have a new blog post that tries to lay out just what is at stake with Trump's attempted fascist takeover of higher education. Check it out and share widely! educationallinguist.wordpress.com/2025/05/13/t...

I just released a new "Na baro kè" episode: Getting Around Abidjan. It’s all about wôrô-wôrôs, gbakas, taxis, and buses—what people prefer and why. And it's all in Jula/Bambara with subtitles in English and French ;-) youtu.be/LDI3-g9qH3g

That sweet sweet feeling when you lay down the subtitles are HOURS of transcribing and translating and proofreading 🙂 Now back to editing!

Why do i post on both Twitter and BlueSky? Blargh

Just finished transcribing and translating for the subtitles of next "Na baro kè" street interview video. I think it took me at least 3 hours to do 11.5 minutes 😐

Woohoo, I just finished the 2-3 hours that it took my to transcribe a rough cut of the next 12-minute episode of "Na baro kè"

Some stills from the next episode of "Na baro kè" which I am working on :-)

Sounds with "g" are tricky for Manding learners because they can be pronounced a lot of different ways regionally, so I made a video lesson to help people :-) youtu.be/J2UjLBvfijY

Excited for this upcoming assignment in my Intermediate Bambara seminar 🤓

Really excited for this upcoming assignment in my Intermediate Bambara seminar :-)

It's always funny when I go through a Manding language recording and compare with a fellow scholar's expert transcription in a book and I'd make minor adjustments to like 30% of the lines 😬

Excited to read about "dugawu" soon

Just taught the first session of my new Adv. Beginner Conversation course and it's funny how the students don't want a bunch of activities and breakout rooms, they just want to talk in Bambara/Jula in a virtual circle with me leading and writing down our convo in real time 🙃

Just taught the first class of this spring's live edition of my Beginner Bambara course :-) Feeling psyched about the new warm-up activities that I rolled out 🙃

Hello I have jetlag and a 1-year-old 🥴

Feeling like a dork because I'm excited about the new assignments that I'm adding to my syllabi for Bambara/Jula courses this semester 🙃

I just completed a new chapter in my Advanced Beginner Coursebook for Bambara/Dioula learners :-)

14k subscribers on YouTube 🙃

I'm teaching live Bambara/Jula courses for small groups this spring starting March 10: - Beginner - 4 spots left - Beginner Booster – 1 spot left - Adv. Beginner Conversation – 1 spot left - Intermediate – 1 spot left If you’ve been thinking about joining, let me know :-)

Visiting your local mobile money "transfer" vendor to buy cellphone credit, get an online, deposit your savings, withdraw cash or send money to your family is a huge part of daily life in West Africa, so I asked people about it www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKDi...

The sweet sweet feeling when the subtitles are finally laid down on an edit is back 🤩 Now time to edit more 🙃

Drafting a survey for a potential short-term Bambara/Jula language study abroad program in Abidjan :-)