8529: Re: 8501: learning creole (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: haiti wolf <haitiw@yahoo.com>

in response to senou's note about learning creole: i
applaud the sentiment; i am not sure about the
approach.  in northern ireland, where the irish
language is associated with irish nationalism and
liberation for the catholic populace, the
english-linked protestant hierarchy has made it more
difficult to get training in irish than in other
languages.  the result is that catholics _want_ to
learn irish, formed their own groups, learned.  in the
republic, which is mainly catholic, the government
decided people _had_ to learn irish, though the
english had long since extinguished its use in most
areas.  here it is imposed--one can't graduate high
school without irish--and is resented and met with
resistance.

how to inspire a joy of learning creole instead of a
feeling that you are having to do it to get your dad
off your back?  maybe the key is simply to _speak_
creole around them, to bring them to places where it
is spoken, to speak _to_ them playfully in creole so
that the foundation is there, and if there is never a
lot of tension around it, a sense that they are
letting their parents and their motherland down if
they don't pick it up, they will have the easy ability
and desire to become proficient in their own time.

casey wolf

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