#1131: Bilingualism: Chamberlain replies to DeGraff and Bellegarde-Smith (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

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

Of course, there are other models. Algeria favored Arabic over French,
after its war of independence, then proceeded fairly recently to "crush"
the Berber language. In Cuba, all students learn English. We, Haitians, do
not have the difficulties faced by India (with Hindi, Urdu and countless
others) and Nigeria (with Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and countless others). The
Haitian upper and middle-classes are fluent in Haitian. These classes show
degrees of fluency in French. The problems lie elsewhere, as I tried to
indicate in my post responding to Chamberlain, DeGraff et al. Granting
there is no money, and Haitian education has been in a shambles since
1804, all things being equal, there is no logical reasons (once these
problems are solved), for us all to know Haitian, French, English and
Spanish. Might someone on the list have seen the percentages of Haitian
fluency in Spanish and English? How many thousands speak German, Italian
and Portuguese fluently in Haiti and in the Haitian diaspora? I keep
meeting compatriots and congeneers who know these languages.
	
			P. Bellegarde-Smith