For 90% of Haitian kids, French is and will remain a foreign language.
Does it make sense to teach them in French?

An American Visitor in Haiti
One Tuesday in Port‐au‐Prince, October 10, 2000, at around one o’clock in the afternoon, as I walked from the
Paloma gas station to my residence across from Carrefour’s open air marketplace, I was overwhelmed by the flow of
students coming out of the area schools, particularly the Juvénat des Frères du Sacré‐Coeur. That day I probably
crossed paths with a thousand children and accompanying adults. Basking in this joyous immersion, I lingered at
Juvénat’s gates for some time and imagined a meeting between an American visitor and an English‐speaking
Haitian teacher. As I listened to the hum of hundreds of voices, a stream of humans with their streams of words, I
imagined a dialogue between the visitor and the teacher:
A. I’d really like to know what these children are saying. Too bad they don’t speak English.
T. Too bad you don’t speak their language.
A. True. I do speak some French. I don’t think they’re speaking French though. What language are they speaking?
T. They’re speaking Creole. Every Haitian speaks Creole.
A. Are the children taught in Creole?
T. No, they’re taught in French.
A. Why aren’t they taught in Creole? Do all these children speak French too?
T. No, they’re learning French at school.
A. Do these children’s parents speak French?
T. Only some of them.
A. What percentage would you say?
T. I’d say barely ten percent.
A. You mean to tell me that ninety percent of the parents of this large group of children we’re looking at right now
don’t speak French fluently?
T. The parents don’t speak French at all.
A. Then I suppose ninety percent of the kids I’m looking at right now didn’t speak French at all when they entered
primary school.
T. That’s right.
A. Is this true only of this neighborhood, Carrefour?
T. No, it happens everywhere in Haiti. Some linguists—Yves Dejean, for example—believe that out of eight to nine
million Haitians only two or three percent speak French proficiently.
A. Do these school children then become proficient in French after a few years of schooling, after, say, four or five
years?
T. I’ve been teaching high school for fifteen years, but in all honesty I’d have to say that, even after ten years of
schooling, a great majority of these students don’t speak French proficiently. And that opinion is shared by most of
Haiti’s (certified) teachers.
A. Do they know at least how to read French?
T. In theory. Almost all of them read French at various levels.
A. So, they understand well what’s written in French books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, brochures,
directions, etc.
T. I don’t think so, at least not most of them.
A. But how do you define “knowing how to read”? Where I’m from, we classify as illiterate (unable to read) those
who don’t pass a comprehension exam based on a text written in English, if English is their first language. The text
is one that all English‐ speaking ninth graders should understand very well after a relatively short period of silent
reading.
T. By this standard, most of our students and former students wouldn’t pass a French exam unless they’ve learned
both the text and a detailed explanation by heart.
A. So why don’t you give them texts written in Creole?
T. They don’t know how to read Creole. I don’t know how to read Creole.
A. Do you speak Creole fluently?
T. Of course. I’ve been speaking Creole ever since I learned to talk, just like everyone born and raised in Haiti.
A. And you can speak and read English. You can understand an article about Haiti in the New York Times, the
Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Miami Herald?
T. And whenever I have a chance I read what’s published about Haiti in Le Monde, Le Monde Diplomatique, La
Croix, Le Figaro, and even Paris‐Match.
A. But why don’t you learn to read Creole?
T. It’s difficult. And there’s no orthography.
A. I’m stunned. Before coming to Haiti, I checked with one of my friends who’d lived in Port‐au‐Prince for fifteen
years. He showed me three English‐Creole dictionaries published in the United Stated along with some other books.
There was even a collection of poems by a great Haitian writer who died in Miami.
T. Felix Morisseau‐Leroy, the author of Diakout [diakout, written in the Pressoir Orthography for Creole, is a
large straw bag with a strap; spelled d‐y‐a‐k‐o‐u‐t in the official, orthography].
A. He showed me a Creole edition of the Bible, which was published, I believe in 1999. All these books were written
in an orthography that my friend told me has been officially in use since 1980.
T. Ah? In any case, French is the official language of instruction here.
A. And do you get good results?
T. Unfortunately, no. The success rate for national high school exams has been a catastrophe for many years—very
low, between 20 and 30 percent. Really sad.
A. Haiti’s children are truly unfortunate. I don’t think I would have been able to earn my high school diploma, my
B.A., and my Masters in Electronics if I’d been taught in German or Spanish from childhood instead of in my own
language.
T. I’m lucky to be among a select few. I speak French fluently and I can read in three major languages: French,
English, and Spanish.
A. I think we have a very different understanding of instruction, education, reading comprehension and the ultimate
purpose of lifelong instruction for all.

If this intrigued you enough, read the rest here

Haiti ‘s children don’t need laptops! They need food, shelter, the basic stuff…

I’m grateful that others have the skills and the opportunity to go to Haiti and help with those basic needs.

I applaud their efforts and admire their courage.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the skills  or opportunity to do so myself.

Almost a month has passed already…It’s time to build Haiti back!

It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to happen by itself.

It starts with everyone doing a little bit, where they are, when they can.

So I’m doing the little bit I can by actively supporting 2 organizations in whose mission I believe.

What motivates and excites me about the One Laptop Per Child / Waveplace project is its potential to impact

the next generation of Haitians,  out of which future parents, citizens, mayors, senators and even presidents will come from.

I see a potential to open the minds of our children to other realities, other worlds,  give them new dreams, broader horizons.

So last Saturday at a CrisisCamp in NYC, when I heard Adam Holt and Allison Bland, exhausted from an early morning train ride from Boston to NY

talked enthusiastically about this project I saw a chance to make a difference.

No matter how small my part would be.

Then I witnessed something awesome:  people were gathering around them,  coming together, rallying around this project.

The ideas started flowing,  out of the box ideas.

Suddenly, a simple translation project request became a movement to revolutionize the educational system  in Haiti.

2 days later, we have a coloring book project under way, translation parties in the works, blogs, websites, publishers/authors

willing to giving us permission to make their children Creole books into e-books, an active and growing online community of a people exchanging ideas and

ready to make a difference in anyway they can. Wow! If we can do that in 2 days, what can we do in 1 week, 1 month, 1 year!

Yes, I realize that it’s a drop in the ocean, but if you could even indirectly impact the future of 1 child of Haiti,

Would it not have been worth your while?

You can help!

Join our community at The New Haiti Project.

Donate 1 hour of your time to translate material from English to Creole

Start here: http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ht/

Step 1:
http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ht/

Step 2:
In order to contribute, you must register with the sugarlabs site
and this will give you the ability to add translated text
Locate the Register link in the top right corner of the page.

Step 3:
The first time you log in, you’ll be asked to select some settings. on that screens you also get to select the projects you want to work on.
There are 3 projects specific to the OLPC/ Waveplace projects that we need help with.
Select one or all of the following

Etoys

OLPC Content
OLPC Software

Step 4:
Click on the “Translate” tab

Step 5:
Click on “Quick Translate” link

Waveplace has indicated that these tasks are their first priority

Our goal is to translate 100 strings of text per day for the next 2 weeks.

Let me know if you have any questions

Resources
*English /Creole dictionary: http://www.kreyol.com/dictionary/

*Haitian Creole page on English Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Creole_language

Thank You and God Bless!

For the Beginner

Maybe you grew up speaking Creole, but you’re not 100% sure about how to write it.
No worries! We can still use your help.

Translate what you can, we’ll point you to online resources to help you along the way.
Rest assured that our team of  experts will take a second pass at your work.

For the Experts

Not only can you speak but you’re also comfortable reading and writing Creole.
We’re lucky to have you!

Our big pool of volunteers is taking a first pass at translating the material,
We need your help, both in translating new material and taking a second look at others work.

Either way We have  a lot of opportunities for you to help
However we can use your help right away

Go to http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ht/

The projects related to our work are
*Etoys
*OLPC Content
*OLPC Software

Happy Translating!