Today I had my first “street conversation” nan kreyòk ayisyen.
Well, not on the street, exactly. It was a phone call with someone who wanted to talk in kreyòl with me through an app I’m using.
Lingbe is an Android and Apple app (no Windows/browser support) that enables you to contact people around the world and have a conversation in your native language (as a helper) or in your learning language (as a learner).
I set up my account a few months ago, but found the interface a bit daunting. And then I also was very wary of just letting some stranger call me or just talk to some strangers. I was concerned that it might look like I’m stalking someone or that I’d get some weird request for a meeting and then it turns out to be a request for money or a request for a “personal” relationship.
But I had a great conversation today with someone from Lingbe about it (they reached out to me after I mentioned this in my comments), and that conversation was enough to get me to be open to that call.
And so I did! I had a great fifteen-minute-long call with someone on the East Coast, a native-born Haitian living in America. It was a bit difficult because of course they were very excited that someone wanted to learn their language, and sometimes their speech was very, very fast. Plus the common parlance in Haiti/among Haitians is to use a lot of abbreviations, slang, and slurring of words together, so I wasn’t always sure of what I was hearing. But we had a great time, and plan to talk again.
Next up – making myself available to take calls from people who want to learn to talk in English.