Category: language

Day 270 of the Infinite Journey

What better way to find connecting with people than to learn their language well enough to listen to them, understand, and reply in their own language with the full context of their culture?

2-3-5 are prime days for learning

So much of what I’m reading now in my materials assumes a deep knowledge of Haitian culture and history, so that a simple phrase like “tèt kale” turns into a discussion about Haitian leaders and how the phrase is used not just to identify them but to make a pèsonifikasyon

M sispann!

I so much want to be able to speak and understand this language, but if I can’t do this outside the classroom, then I just don’t know the language.

Nou monte ansanm

Another update on my language journey: Last night I was given a text to read that I’d never seen before. … More

So much more

Listen, this is hard work. Not just the language. That’s hard because it’s new. Learning a new language means learning … More

Thoughts about the past six months

More than 190 days now of learning Haitian Creole.
A few things I’ve learned along the way, in no particular order:
#AprannKreyòl #KreyòlAyisyen

I are progressing!

Learning kreyòl ayisyen is a challenge, no getting around that. But eventually, it does come together!

To learn a language is to see a new world

Creole is the language of the people, made by the people. It’s not a language that was developed by the elites. It’s a language hammered out to help enslaved people from Africa find a way to communicate to each other as they were deliberately isolated from their own people to keep them incapable of resisting their enslavement by building a movement to overthrow their enslavers.

Not so fast there!

Now, I’m not dekouraje paske mo yo se difisil pou m konprann, Ignorance is part of learning, and I look forward to it. But this stuff still surprises me. Well, I’ll keep plowing/ploughing through this book, and I look forward to feeling ignorant again when the next book comes.
And I know I would drown in any secondary school in Haiti. Tèt mwen anpil chaje.

Almost half a year!

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

More and more mountains . . . sigh

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.

Get off my lawn!

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 fun of learning

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.

What is fluency?

Goodness, I am so tired. I feel, again, like I just can’t absorb any more, and it’s all mush in … More

I have mo words, yo

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

Dèyè mòn gen mòn

The title of this post comes from a popular expression in Haiti: Behind every mountain is another mountain. (Literally, behind … More

What’s Shakespeare got to do with it?

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!