Linda, I like your proposal: each one teach one. But teach...

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Reply to Msg 12191

Linda,

I like your proposal: each one teach one. But teach them what?

In what language?

What is our goal?

What is our vision?

Education for what?

Haiti is a very complicated country with complicated issues.

No one has the perfect solution to each problem.

They say that it takes a village to raise a child.

Likewise, it will take all of us, Haitians and Friends of Haiti, our global village, to help Haiti.

We need each one to think of solutions.

Personally, I received all my grammar education in French in Haiti.

I could speak Creole.

But I couldn't write or read it. I learned Creole when I attended Faculte de Linguistique for two years and when I studied Interpretation at UNIQ.

I believe my French Education helped me but also hurts me. It was not only the French language.

It was the French content.

I was hurt because I was reading and writing about a reality that was different from mine. I couldn't relate to France and its chateaux.

I was helped because I have been able to pass my bacc I and II and I attended university.

But what helped me more than the French Language was the fact that I learned English at Christ the King Secretarial School.

When I became a Bilingual Secretary, I was immediately hired by UN agencies, by embassies and universities.

I became a Corporate Administrative Assistant not because of French but because of English and Creole.

In the meantime, I had friends and family members with university degrees who couldn't find a job.

My brother, Roosevelt Jean-Francois, worked for Tele-Haiti.

When he was reporting the news, he would report in Creole or French.

But when he is writing articles for the Associated Press, he would write his articles in English.

Roro Farrel, a professor that I met at Universite Quisqueya (UNIQ), creator of the segment: La revue economique with Radio Metropole, is known internationally because he can also use English beside French and Creole to communicate his expert view on the economy.

And right now, there are several universities in the United States with Creole Departments, including Miami Dade College and Florida International University (FIU).

Creole and Spanish interpreters are being hired by the court system in Florida.

Children in Haiti need to learn what they need to become independent and successful in life. Learning a language should be easy, not hard, otherwise it won't stick.

If they live close to Dominican Republic: Ouanaminthe, Fort-Liberte, etc...

they should receive a bilingual Creole-Spanish Education; if they live in Cap-Haitian, Jacmel, etc...

they should receive a bilingual Creole-English Education.

Children living in Port-au-Prince and other cities should have a choice of bilingual education: either Creole-French, or Creole-English, or Creole-Spanish.

Creole needs to come first because it's our core-language.

It relates to our reality.

We connect to Creole.

But Creole only isolates Haiti.

French only reduce our door openings.

Spanish would open just a few doors: the Caribbean, Spain, and South America.

English would open Haiti to the world.

English is spoken everywhere.

Education is the key to a better life. The key is not the goal. It's a tool we use to reach our goal. A language is just one material to make the key. If after 14 years in grammar school, our children can barely speak French, they can't write a decent essay in French, they can't solve an equation because they don't understand the language, then we fail them. We give them a key (French) that they can't use. The key is useless.

No door will open for them. We need to give them a set of keys: Languages, Science, Arts, etc. If one doesn't work, they will try another one after another (French, Spanish, English, Math, Agriculture, Water Management, Life Skills, etc..).

One of them will work eventually.

They will find jobs. They will create their own jobs because they will learn how to think, question, solve, interact with their environment.

They would speak with confidence either in Creole, French, English or Spanish because they would know what they are talking about.

They would find their own niche instead of living as restavek.

The years that I spent learning about all the kings of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Revolution, etc, would have been more useful to me if they were teaching me more about Haiti and its problems: our erosion problem, our agricultural problems, our water management problems, our energy problem, our linguistic problems, our social problems, our education problems, children living in domesticity problem, haitian orphans left to fend for themselves, health problems, haitian men abandoning women and children problem, etc..., etc..., etc...

I learned about all these issues while I was working for UNICEF-HAITI.

The international organizations are thinking of solutions for us because we don't think for ourselves.

When I got out of school, even though I had my bacc I and II, I was a complete ignorant of Haiti and Haitian problems like many Haitian students are. We don't know who we are, what we want and where we are going.

Our education didn't prepare us to serve Haiti, to help Haiti, to solve Haitian problems.

We feel hopeless.

We feel like we are left behind.

It's time that we realize our mistakes in Education.

It's time to make a 360 degre turn. We change education.

We change our mindset.

We change Haiti.

It's not a language problem.

It's a vision problem.

We need to have a vision for our children, for our country, for Haiti.

Then it doesn't matter in what language they learn what they need to succeed in life as long as they learn, as long as they build the skills they will need to be world-class citizens who are welcome everywhere, who can live anywhere they want, either in or out of Haiti.

That's what matters: having a vision.

Every single Haitian child should have a chance to become a future Kesner Pharel, Economist; a future Roosevelt Jean-Francois, Journalist; a future Marleine Bastien, CEO of FANM; a future Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassegue, Minister of Social Affairs; a future Rene Preval, President of Haiti.

Every Haitian child can learn.

PALE FRANSE PA DI LESPRI.

SE REFLECHI SOU LAVI POU POTE LAVI MIYO. (speaking French doesn't mean being educated.

What matters is critical thinking to help improve lives).

I hope I helped shed some lights on some crucial haitian issues.

From the bottom of my heart, Yanick Jean-Francois-Landess.

Miami.

12/29/08. I can be contacted via email: yanicklandess at yahoo.com.

Yanick Jean-francois-landess, December 29 2008, 6:43 AM

Topic: Haitians do not speak french

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61 - 70 of 131 « First  ‹ Prev  3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  Next ›  Last »
so true... still do not understand what is the mystery that some people are debating against. i agreed with you... read more >
Ralph Darbouze, 24-Dec-08 6:37 pm
Linda, I like your proposal: each one teach one. But teach them what? In what language? What is our goal? What is our... read more >
Yanick Jean-francois-landess, 29-Dec-08 6:43 am
i agreed with you yanick, i could have not lay it out as best as you did. 1000% right. i am in France right now...and... read more >
Ralph Darbouze, 29-Dec-08 1:46 pm
i agreed with you yanick, i could have not lay it out as best as you did. 1000% right. and again yes you are fight i... read more >
Ralph Darbouze, 29-Dec-08 1:51 pm
Once upon a time, there was a nine-year-old boy from a far away Haitian village who was given away to a very rich man... read more >
Yanick Jean-francois-landess, 1-Jan-09 12:19 pm
History gave Haitians French. Haitians gave themselves Creole and they colored French with some Creole flavor. Change... read more >
Yanick Jean-francois-landess, 1-Jan-09 2:38 pm
Well Well Well Meuf Yanick... that was a compelling, intelligent and a super argument but you fail to mention that all... read more >
Yves Salamanque Gren Son Nen, 1-Jan-09 3:22 pm
I don't agree with your comments at all. Haitians do speak French and they are accounted for at least 15%. However, it... read more >
Mathieu Derisse, 4-Jan-09 10:25 pm
Mr Derisse You are just repeating what I have been saying all along. I say, if after 200 years of Francophony your... read more >
Yves Salamanque Gren Son Nen, 4-Jan-09 11:14 pm
Mais mon cher vous avez raison, Le francais devrait etre la seconde langue pour les Haitiens, disons-nous donc, les... read more >
Zodevan, 5-Jan-09 12:06 am
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