24364: Vedrine (comment) The English language in Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: E Vedrine <evedrine@hotmail.com>

The English language in Haiti –

Last year Lemane Vaillant - a subscriber and a very active participant of
the Haitian forum: HAITIAN POLITICS, Haitianpolitics@yahoogroups.com -
touched on the issue of that English should become “a third official
language of Haiti”. First there is a reality around the world today when
they are talking about GLOBALIZATION (but in its good sense for me: the
world is one, we are all brothers and sisters and we need A COMMON LANGUAGE
to communicate).

In Haiti, we are quite behind on all issues, including APPLIED LINGUISTICS
(e.g., the teaching and learning of other languages, the methodologies
related…). I am not here to do any commercial for any imperial power whose
official language may be ENGLISH. Be clear on that! Not al all!! But
instead, I see a COMMON language that can unite all the citizen of the world
in terms of EXCHANGE at all levels. The reality is already ENGLISH as most
people would propose it. No need to invent a second artificial language as
ESPERANTO that has failed the test.

Segundo, having English as “a third official language of Haiti” would not
solve the country’s problems (which are "mountains behind mountains" as I
can quote from a well-know Haitian proverbs) or change the corrupted mind of
our leaders and of our bourgeoisie (which are among the worst in the world).
BUT ( big one), it would be quite a genuine idea to start THE TEACHING OF
ENGLISH FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN HAITI (as it is the case for French
though the teaching methodology of this one is still quite poor, due to lack
of teachers’ preparation and government investment in education in general).
Our neighbor, the Dominican Republic, is currently trying to work hard on
that linguistic issue - opening up to BILINGUALISM (Spanish, English).

Best,
E.W.Vedrine,
http://www.palli.ch/~kapeskreyol/bibliographie/vedrine.html