It’s time to talk chib! We spoke with Erik Decker, our Romani language teacher, about all things language.

Erik Decker is a Romani language teacher of Roma and Sinti origin and Director of the Branislava “Papùsha” Weiss Romani Language Online School, a project of the World Roma Federation (WRF) Heritage and Cultural Institute. He taught International Baccalaureate language courses in Spanish and French, as well as English as a New Language, in Indianapolis Public Schools from 2019 through 2023 and taught English Language Communication, Human Rights, and Cultural Studies at George Coșbuc [Jòr-jay Koh’sh-bewk] National Bilingual College in Bucharest, Romania from 2013 through 2019. Recently he accepted a position as a teacher at an international school in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, French, and Spanish and a Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Hamline University in 2013 and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Indianapolis in 2022. His interests include heritage language learner education, heritage language preservation and revitalization, translanguaging, plurilingualism, teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling (TPRS), and language attitudes and language ideologies.

The Romani crushes this episode are professor Roxana Marin and our beloved poet, grandmother of Romani literature, Papusza (Papùśa).

If you want to join Erik’s class through The World Roma Federation, go to wrf-gov.org/learn-romani .

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram @romanistanpodcast, and on Facebook under the same name, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. Join our Patreon for extra content.

We started a Ko-fi fundraiser to help us grow. Our goal is to release more episodes more often, and we would eventually like to expand so we can produce content by other Romani & Sinti creators. We are hoping to cover production costs, like paying for our hosting site, website, editing and producing, and all the rest. We would love it if you could contribute and spread the word. The link, Ko-fi.com/romanistan, is in our bio on Instagram, and will be in the show notes

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If you would like to advertise with us, email us at romanistanpodcast@gmail.com. We offer sliding-scale for Romani, Sinti & related businesses, so reach out!

You can find Jez on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele, and on Twitter, TikTok, and Patreon, and you can find Jez’s vintage and curiosities shop Evil Eye Edit on Instagram @evileyeedit & Etsy.

You can find Paulina Verminski on Instagram @_paulina_v_ and at https://romaniholistic.com/. Follow Paulina’s store, Romani Holistic, in Newport Beach, CA, on Instagram @romaniholistic

Romanistan is hosted by Jessica Reidy/Jezmina Von Thiele and Paulina Verminski

Conceived of by Paulina Verminski

Edited by Cherub

With Music by Viktor Pachas

And Artwork by Elijah Vardo