16054: Dorce: Re: 15875: Allouard: Re: 15847: Dorce: French/Creole in schools (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 6/13/03 6:03:31 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Philippe
Allouard <allouard@libertysurf.fr> writes:

<< A mistake:   French is not the language of France... at least not in the
 meaning that it would be exclusive. Walloons in Belgium, Swiss from Valais,
 Canadians of Quebec and so many people in Senegal, Ivory Cost, Tchad and
 Gabon would strongly object to this idea that French is language of France.
>>
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It is true that many colonies and former colonies of France speak French,
probably along with other languages indigenous to each country.  I am not
speaking of those countries, I am speaking of Haiti.  Haiti is a former colony and
may choose to continue to use the language officially or not.  My problem with
French in Haiti is the divisive quality it has taken on by society.  I
personally love the French language and wish I could speak it fluently; alas I cannot.
 But in Haiti one thing I know is true: 100% of every Haitian speaks Creole
(Kreyòl) and a minority speaks, reads and writes French.  If French is Haiti's
language, why doesn't every Haitian speak, read and write it?  It is not the
fault of the non-French speaker that they are not able to access the education
necessary to become French speakers.  Why after 200 years is this so???  THIS
is my problem.  And of course it is Haiti's too.

Now, to go on, my opinion is, Kreyòl first, then French, English and whatever
as second, third and so on languages.  The stigma on using Kreyòl needs to be
irradicated.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
>>For exemple,  a work I would like to do is helping Creole
to touch abstract matters... I do believe it is not impossible to teach
philosophy in Creole..<<
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Kreyòl is wonderful for abstract ideas, it is so complex and interesting.  I
think more difficult are the sciences but still words in other languages may
be used for technical terms.  It's not out of the realm of possiblilty.  Or by
the time a student reaches secondary education, they will have learned French
as well as becoming literate in Kreyòl so certain advanced subjects may be
taught in French or English if necessary.  I do believe scholars are working on
textbooks in Kreyòl.  Some on this very list, in fact.

French is such a source of pride for some Haitians.  It is hard to give up
that pride and see that all Haitians become literate in French.  Does anyone
know the Dr. Seuss story of the Sneetches?  There were two kinds of Sneetches,
ones with stars on their bellies and ones without any stars (on thars).  The
star belly Sneetches were the best ones and the other ones were the losers.  A
clever guy comes on scene named Sylvester McMonkey McBean with his famous and
wonderful Star-On Machine.  So all the Sneetches without stars paid him to go
through the machine and soon  they all had stars on their bellies.  The original
star-belly Sneetches were furious!  How to tell who were the best Sneetches
on the beaches???  Sooooo...Sylvester McMonkey McBean introduced his famous and
wonderful Star-Off Machine!  Now the best Sneetches on the beaches were the
ones with NO stars on their bellies!!  So the star belly ones went through the
Star-Off Machine too and then everyone was putting them on then taking them
off in such a frenzy that no one knew anymore who was what and what was who!
Guess what.....they all had to figure it out who was good and who was not by the
content of their character.....see my point?  French can't be the method by
which a person is judged worthy of decent treatment.

Kathy Dorce~