#1230: More on Creole : Bellegarde-Smith replies to Blanchet

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>

> 
> From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>
> 
> A major fallout from the promotion of Creole  will be the blossoming of French.
> 
> Once the vast majority of Haitians is well educated, the learning of French will be
> 
> made that much easier and accessible to that majority.
> 

	Blanchet's position parallels what a dean told me in 1964, when at
16 I had applied to the College (now the University) of the Virgin
Islands, as she accepted me. I had left Haiti in the equivalent of the
10th grade, and spoke almost no English. She said the college would take a
chance on me, since I had exhibited great talent in my own language, and
even "published" in it. It would be a simple step, she said, to go from my
language to English. She was right. The language she was referring to, I
must admit, was French.