Yanick, your argument was thoughtful and very well stated. I...

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Reply to Msg 12087

Yanick, your argument was thoughtful and very well stated.

I do think that Haitians should be having a discussion about the language issue.

However, it is difficult to have an honest and civilize discussion when these uncivilized individuals, who have nothing valid to contribute, try to take over the blog. These two individuals really seem to have never picked up a book or read anything that would elevate them from their ignorant status.

But I digress...back to the language issue.

I agree with your analysis on the problem with children learning in a language that is not spoken at home, however, I am not sure that teaching the children in a language that does not open doors for them in the upper echelon of a society is a good idea either.

Perhaps another way to approach this would be the way Mao went about educating his people.

The idea is to educate not just the children, but the adults too. Teaching the children French not only opens doors for them in the social hierarchy, but it also gives them a tool to compete in the global economy, where no one else speaks Creole.

The second problem I have with the Creole education is that as late as last year, when I went to Haiti, government officials and educators were still debating on the correct way to write or say certain words in creole.

Hence, it is a language that has not matured enough yet to be official.

An official language needs to have standard terminologies, spellings, and structure.

For example, there are no legal creole terms that can be used in official documents.

Most official documents in Haiti are still written in French.

Most bank transactions are still written in French.

Most top jobs in Haiti are held by people who can speak French.

Hence, if children are thought to speak and write in Creole, how will they apply that to real life situations within the social hierarchy.

These children will be locked out of parts of the social structure and will be doomed as second class citizens.

I tend to take the opposite position from you. I tend to think that all children should learn how to speak, read, and write French.

However, I also think that we should have a program like Mao's, where we have a national drive of Learn One Teach One. That way, all the adults would also learn how to speak French.

They would not be as fluent in the language as others who come from families who have always spoken French, but they would be able to talk to their children in French at home. Their children would then be better than them by the time they finish school.

By the next generation, those new French speakers would have children that speak French as well as those from the old Haitian elites did.

We need to give our children all the tools possible to compete in the world's global economy.

I don't think that Creole does that. But again, I could be wrong.

Linda, December 10 2008, 11:51 AM

Topic: Haitians do not speak french

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41 - 50 of 131 « First  ‹ Prev  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  Next ›  Last »
Yanick, your argument was thoughtful and very well stated. I do think that Haitians should be having a discussion... read more >
Linda, 10-Dec-08 11:51 am
Ms. Linda, "These two individuals really seem to have never picked up a book or read anything that would elevate them... read more >
Lavaud Desmoulins, 10-Dec-08 12:55 pm
Let see here! There are three most spoken languages in the business world and they are: English, Spanish and French... read more >
Tiba, 10-Dec-08 7:23 pm
Tiba said: "Haiti is in the toilet not because of the Creole language, or the vodoo, illeteracy, crime, corruption... read more >
Linda, 10-Dec-08 8:25 pm
No No No Linda...You do not speak french in Haiti. Please, please It is not speaking French. It is speaking this... read more >
Yves Salamanque Gren Son Nen, 11-Dec-08 12:31 am
Linda, Please, I hope you're not going to waste your precious time, energy and specially your brain power to answer... read more >
Tiba, 11-Dec-08 6:16 am
Tiba the Icon, "Please, I hope you're not going to waste your precious time, energy and specially your brain power to... read more >
Lavaud Desmoulins, 11-Dec-08 10:07 am
Tiba the Icon, "Please, I hope you're not going to waste your precious time, energy and specially your brain power to... read more >
Lavaud Desmoulins, 11-Dec-08 10:10 am
Lavaud, Lavaud, Lavaud, my, my, my! Please tell me it ain't so! you have got to be kidding me. right? First, you never... read more >
Tiba, 11-Dec-08 12:14 pm
Tiba The Icon, I have never meant to hurt you by calling you Tiba the Icon. It actually means your impressive... read more >
Lavaud Desmoulins, 11-Dec-08 12:46 pm
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