It’s just weird how the cycle works. I reach a point where I just cannot absorb another thing in kreyòl. I am tired. My head is full of mush. It is all just sounds, and sounds that all seem the same. Then in a few days—sometimes almost overnight—it just clicks. Again. Last time I posted (a week ago) I was unable to do anything more. I canceled my tutorial lesson, did the minimum each day in Duolingo, did almost nothing the entire week in my homework (the printed book we’re using for my lessons), and in general mostly just checked out. I hadn’t given up. But I was just .…

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.

Man, today was rough. My tutor and I talked lasted week about my lessons. (This is my third tutor.) I am okay with reading kreyòl—I can typically read a text and comprehend what I’m reading because I’m translating as I go, and I pick up a lot of context clues. But I’m seeing the words and phrases at a glance, and that helps me translate quickly. So I said to him, we should spend more time with you talking and me listening & then responding. That is, not using a text but instead listening to actual kreyòl being spoken. Now, all three of my tutors are very well educated, all…

I think I’ve hit another wall. The first wall was after the first month or so of learning kreyòl ayisyen (Haitian Creole, or HC) when I realized that Duolingo wasn’t doing enough for me. It was helping, sure! I gained the essentials of vocabulary and grammar, and as I continue to use Duolingo (I’m on Day 214) my vocabulary continues to increase to the point where I now “know” about 700-800 words. (To be fair, many of them are reusable words that have many meanings, so “pa” and “konnen” and “fè” and “mache” are doing a lot of work to hide a lot of what I know. And don’t get…

Another update on my language journey: Last night I was given a text to read that I’d never seen before. I read it out loud to my instructor, then answered questions about the text in the same language. My instructor said it was a pleasure to hear me read out loud. I got most of the questions right—we’re getting into the territory of idioms and figures of speech, and let me tell you, there is no other way to harvest that field without rigorous plowing and tilling—and we ran out of time not because I got stuck but because we were so deep in the conversation. Totally not saying I’m…

“Dèyè mòn gen mòn.” This is one of the very first phrases I learned in my Haitian Creole book. (In fact, it was on the same page as the other phrase, “Pale kreyòl, aprann kreyòl.”) As is with such sayings, there is the surface meaning (“Behind mountains there are mountains”) and then there are the more subtle meanings. Haiti, “The Land of Mountains,” has a history that is shaped by its physical structure as well as the underlying tectonic movements. Mountains and earthquakes have shaped Haiti, and still do. But it’s more than that. Behind the strong people you see, there are hidden people you don’t see. That’s another meaning.…

So I just had a most excellent lesson with my teacher today. We “met” on a Discord server in a group for people who are learning to speak and write kreyòl ayisyen. He was very kind, and suggested that we schedule a time to talk this week. Except for the unfortunately bad connection (there is just a problem with phone lines connecting during rough weather), we had good conversation. Apparently, I’m speaking a bit better than I thought. I want to work on my accent and rhythm, so we’ll spend about an hour a week. doing just that. That makes three teachers, with formal lessons three times a week with…

This is going to be a long post at the behest of some others who want to know what tools I have been using to learn Haitian Creole (kreyòl ayisyen). The first tool I picked up was Duolingo (duolingo.com, duolingo app on Apple/Android). This tool is an easy-to-use app that uses “gamification” to not just help you learn, but to get you to want to learn because you get points for consistency and accuracy, you find yourself in competition with others, and there are silly interludes that can make it feel like it’s fun to learn a new language. Duolingo has been around for a while – I first signed…

Listen, this is hard work. Not just the language. That’s hard because it’s new. Learning a new language means learning new sounds and rhythms, learning new ways to think about something because “they don’t say it that way” becomes more and more frequent. You don’t just assemble words and phrases to match English syntax and vocabulary. For example, there isn’t the idea of passive voice, so saying something in kreyòl ayisyen that’s expressed in English in the passive voice means rethinking what it is you’re trying to say. So learning the language is going to be hard the deeper you go because you’re going to have to learn how to…

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

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

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.

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.

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!