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#1145: Bilingualism: Dorce replies to Durran
From:LAKAT47@aol.com
In a message dated 11/29/1999 9:09:13 AM Pacific Standard Time, Mary Durran
<mdurran@colba.net> writes:
<< I quite agree with Greg Chamberlain on this. While in the long term
Haitians might want to work to have Creole established as the sole official
language of Haiti, we have to face that in the short term, practically all
the opportunities are available only to those who speak French.
>>
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I think people may be laboring under false assumptions here. Contrary to the
posts on this thread, the vast majority of Haitians who do not speak French
and live in various levels of poverty, DO NOT wish to be part of the
bourgeoisie. I use my husband as a reference on this and many other matters
that concern the majority class Haitian. He tells me that if you are Haitian
you speak Kreyol so therefore if a Haitian speaks French to him, he will
reply in Kreyol and considers the French as the Haitian equivalent of
"putting on airs." (By the way, he speaks French and will respond in French
to a French speaker given that (s)he is not Haitian) He said, "I am Kreyol
not French so that is what I speak." What non-French speaking Haitians
aspire to is the capability to make enough money to give them and their
families a decent life. (Much like most everyone in the world) Perhaps the
answer to this Kreyol/French conundrum is for the minority French speakers of
Haiti to stop devaluing Kreyol and Kreyol speakers as low class and a measure
of one's uneducated status. Integration of Haiti's two distinct
personalities needs to happen so that Haiti can become functional. That is
the importance of this thread.