Learning to speak/read/write/hear Haitian has not only opened a door to a new language but also opened a new world of culture and history and social organization and food and music and art and religion that I simply wasn’t aware of. #Haitian #Kreyòl

The more I dig into this language the more I find that I do not know anything at all. My initial appraisal of the language and the way to learn it is nearly entirely false. The initial methodology of saying simple phrases is helpful to build confidence, but Haitians do not talk like that.

And as language is used to mark who's in and who's out, so it is used in context between those who are within the culture of Haiti and those who are, like me, without.

The best way to learn is to simply do. I'm trying that. I first must try out the first moments of wobbling on this bicycle, afraid to hit the ground, but determined to go on ahead.

Goodness, I am so tired. I feel, again, like I just can’t absorb any more, and it’s all mush in my little head. I have two instructors who challenge me every time to go just a little bit further. (Well, to be honest, one of them pushes me to go way way further!) I kinda enjoy the challenge, but it’s not like I have some reserve of language skills that I’m not using. I’m just at a loss so often because I just don’t have the vocabulary for myself, and so many times when the language is spoken just a little too quickly I lose connection at some point and…

Kreyòl ayisyen has five ways to say the singular "the." And now I know them!

I'm pretty happy with hitting another level of understanding. The lessons are enjoyable again, even though yes they're still tough.

M pa gen mo, y'all...

The title of this post comes from a popular expression in Haiti: Behind every mountain is another mountain. (Literally, behind mountains are mountains.) Haiti is a mountainous country, so it makes sense on one level, but it also is a truth that when you see a mountain and climb to the summit you will see the next mountain to climb. There is no “last mountain.” It’s climb, achieve, rest, stretch, climb…over and over. So let’s have a summary of the past four months. Started from scratch in the last few days of February, and have been learning/practicing kreyòl ayisyen every day, for one to three hours a day. (One hour…

Haitian Creole / kreyòl ayisyen is already a very simplified language in both spelling and pronunciation, making it easier to learn than many other languages. But there are still a few things that can trip you up!

In which I pick up a new set of language skills - and a new friend.

M praktike kreyòl pou yon edtan chak maten. Jodia m ap praktike envèse fraz tankou: /k/ Kisa Joj ye pou ou? /r/… Joj se kouzen mwen Kouzen mwen Joj ye Se kouzen mwen Joj ye Tèt mwen fè m mal! / Tèt chaje! I’m inverting responses to the question-form “What/who is <person> to you?” with the relationship given in the question. So it’s a great way to learn two things: What is the relationship? How to invert a sentence so that you can use either “se” or “ye” (both forms of “to be,” used in different positions in a sentence), or even both. So … Kesyon (question) “Kisa Joj ye…

Yowza. I think today broke my brain! Last week’s lesson was on family relationships — mother, father, sister, brother, sister-in-law, cousins, grandparents, and so on. Like any language, there are ways to name each member of our families and declare their relationships. I just have to memorize them, and of course there are many variations of each to remember. Grann, Granmè, Grannma, etc. But with some work I can do it. Add to that, then, this week’s lesson on what I can only call “sentence inversion.” Here’s the jist: When you have a relationship with someone, you are something with them as well. So, “I am your friend” can also…

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’m not one to complain… Well, maybe a little. This last week we went from parts of the body (Pati a pou kò a) to “common and popular” idioms and proverbs that use parts of the body to make the point. And I’m telling you, it was like going from 0 to 60 in three seconds because understanding the meaning of idioms in any language is hard. English has them, of course, so it’s not like it’s unusual for kreyòl to have them. But holy cow, was it trè difisil to wrap my head around them to figure out what they meant. Even reading the explanations for what they mean…

So as part of my efforts to learn Haitian Creole I signed up for a few resources that would connect me with people. One is italk.com, which I’ve talked about before. It is a middleman that connects people who want to teach a language with people who want to learn a language. I found it to be effective, with a caveat that I’ll talk about later. The other is Lingbe, which does something similar but connects you with people who just want to have a conversation in the language that you want. I signed up but have never used it. The reasons for my not using Lingbe are part of…

So this last week (Tuesday) I had my first full hour of tutoring in kreyòl, and zanmi m, it was glorious! We spoke almost entirely in kreyòl, with just a few lapses, mostly by me when I was trying to ask a question (and I can and should ask them in kreyòl!) or when I was fumbling for the right word or reacting to my mistakes. (I mumble to myself that I should know the word!) My tutor a few times jumped in to explain a new word or word usage on some tricky parts, but really, as horrible as my accent is, and as hacky as my grammar is,…

I’m kinda excited for what’s about to happen. I started this journey back in February/March 2022. (The first week was really the setting into the process and it was a blur.) Duolingo was a great help to me to get me used to the sounds and grammar and words, but it is not really a useful tool for conversations for this language. Unlike other, more broadly used languages, Haitian Creole (kreyòl ayisyen) doesn’t have the bells and whistles such as conversations and stories and the like. So I’m paying full price and not getting all that other languages get. (But given that it’s in Beta and I am willing to…

WE DID IT! Today was the first time that my tutor and I had an actual conversation in kreyòl! Now, to be fair, after ten or so weeks it wasn’t beautiful and it wasn’t entirely correct. But we did talk about “stuff” and I was able to form sentences and respond to questions with almost no help on a missing word. I’m still terribly wrong on word order, and sometimes I just don’t “get” it. But we are doing well! And today we hammered out the meaning of sentences such as “Wi, se dòktè mwen ye,” which if you know the individual words can be confusing. But it’s one form…

Okay man, it’s getting serious now. In the previous weeks of lessons with my tutor, we did a lot of work on elementary parts of kreyòl—nouns, articles, verbs, connections, sounds, spelling, the alphabet, the numbers 1-100, then how to count higher, and some work on simple tenses (participle, past). A few of the lessons felt a little much, in that they were using some alternate ways of saying things, and that’s fine! That’s how it should be—show me some ways to say something. But then . . . we turn to the narratives of four people living in four towns in Haiti, talking about their families, their birthplaces, their jobs…

Okay, it’s been, what, ten weeks? I’ve found better and better resources to learn kreyòl ayisyen, and while I am in no way fluent, I was able to have a conversation with my tutor last week. Now, I did write out the narrative in English so I had a good idea of what I’d be talking about, but I translated on the fly from my English text to kreyòl, sometimes stumbling, sometimes mixing up sounds. (I don’t know what the confusion is called, but I would try to say something like “etidye” and it would come out “editye,” which are two different words and meanings.) I’m having trouble with size-comparisons…

I’ve been hard at work with my lessons in kreyòl on Duolingo, and on paper it looks good—Level 21 / 25! Super, right? Only I’m frustrated because it still seems so atomized. I’m learning words and some phrases, but Duolingo has limited flexibility to say things in other ways. For example, “Sa k pase?” which means “How’s it going?” (“What’s passing/happening?”). But the more common phrase in Haiti is “Sa k ap fèt?” which means “What’s up?” (“What’s the festival?”). Or even the short “Anfòm?” with the response “Anfòm” (“Fit” / “Okay?” “Fit” / “Yes”). It’s not wrong to say “Sa k ap pase?” It’s fine! But it’s more common…

Today’s lesson brought up what I’d seen in the past in a few lessons here and there. Let me show you this sentence in kreyòl: L ap akompli li. Based on what I’ve learned, the word for “he,” “she,” and “it” is “li.” Sometimes (well, to be honest, probably 98% of the time!) the “li” is shortened to just “l” when followed by a vowel sound, such as the word “ap,” which turns the verb “akompli” (accomplish) into the participle form “accomplishing.”  And it’s not a perfect 1:1 ratio. Sometimes it looks like it can’t be shortened, and I am not certain of the rules. I do know that the…

Let’s talk about what, exactly. So kreyòl has a whole interesting way to form words of interrogation/asking in ways that remind me of Esperanto. The key to the base of question-words is “ki” (pronounced “kee” but with a short vowel sound that’s hard to show in English—think of it in the way you’d say in Spanish “aqui”). So “ki” by itself is kinda just “what” or whichki tòti == which turtles? ki + moun == what people == whokilès is also “who” [I think the “lès” is an agglomerative noun of some kind, like “people,” but I make it a rule that I don’t try to go further than where…

There has been a couple of things I’ve been keeping notes on as I’m learning, and one of them is the mystery of the final “a/an/nan/lan” in some sentences referring to “my thing.” For example,“Èske ou bezwen pa m nan?” which is to mean “Do you want mine?” It parses out fairly easily as “Do” (Èske) “you” (ou) “want” (bezwen) “my thing” (pa m, short for pa / pou mwen, meaning “for me”), but that final “nan” was just mysterious. In this context “nan” is standing for the idea of “that” or “the.” Example, “dam nan” (or “dam lan”) is “the lady.” You can see the connection with “Dame” and…

Week 4 of learning Haitian Creole and things are kicking up a notch. Now it’s getting into “ownership” (how to say that something is mine or yours, such as “my father” or “your cat” or even “mine” or “yours.” It is not what I expected, and previously used words now are used in very new ways. It is at once easier—no new words to learn!—and harder—hey, some words have entirely different meaning now! Which is like English, of course, but I’ve been speaking/writing/hearing English for my whole life, and it just “makes sense” that English can verb nouns with ease & we pick it up. So, onward and upward! Èske…