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Hi guys.

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(sigh)

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This is a response to my video "Les [br]consequences du Francais en Haiti"

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which I did it in French talking about the[br]consequences of French in Haiti.

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I published this in April and I have the [br]link to it up here and down there

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in my description box.

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I got some really strong reactions to [br]that post and it seems like I really hit a

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nerve for some people so I'm dedicating[br]this week's message to response and debunk

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the prevalent counter arguments I received

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Here are the main points I made [br]in that video:

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"French hinders comunication in [br]self-expression among Haitians

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It divides the Haitian population and[br]fosters an inferiority complex for the

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majority of the population.

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Haitions sustitute someone's ability to [br]muster a few words in French for wisdom or

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intelligence.Haitions fail to realize that[br]what they are seeing is more important

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than the language they used to say in.

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And lastly, Haitians by and large cannot [br]speak French.

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These are fairly common and well-known[br]issues I presented to support my proposal

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of eliminating French as one of the two[br]official languages of Haiti.

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But many didn't want to hear it and here [br]are some of the responses that I want to

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address.

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The first one is that the problem of Haiti[br]is one of education not of language.

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Here is my issue with that point.

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Everyone knows that the state of education[br]in Haiti is dire, that has always been the

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case in Haiti but have you stopped to [br]think that language is the basis of

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learning and education, so if you are [br]attempting to teach in a language that is

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cumbersome, unnatural and foreign to kids[br]then you keep them at a disadvantage.

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The medium that allows you to communicate[br]the knowledge you are attempting to pass

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on is extremely relevant.

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My experience as a student in Haiti was[br]that many of my teachers were not fluent

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in French, far from.

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So yes, there is an educational crisis in[br]Haiti and this isn't breaking news to

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anyone. But the fact that we are insisting[br]on sticking to French as the academic

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language is to our own detriment.

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It is pedagogically impractical and [br]frankly at this point pretty irresponsible

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The other thing people say that kind of [br]goes along with the lack of education

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argument is that well, we shouldn't just [br]limit our kids to Creole we should teach

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them French, Spanish, German, Italian, [br]everything.

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Ok, well, do I want our kids to learn [br]multiple languages?

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Of course.

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I would like every little Haitian out [br]there to know as many languages as the

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human brain can retain and my argument has[br]never been to eradicate French from

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Haitian schools but rather to repeal its[br]status as an official language of the

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of Haiti and instead prioritize Creole [br]which is the language that every last

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Haitian speaks.

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Luxembourg has 3 official languages.

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One of them I'm sure most of people have [br]never heard of, it's called Luxembourgish

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and it is the language that is indigenous[br]to its people, the language of the heart

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for them so to speak.

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Even though, not many people outside of [br]Luxembourg use it, that is the language

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that kids are taught in the first year of [br]primary school before switching to German

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and then French.

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And proficiency and all three of their[br]official languages is required for

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graduation from secondary school.

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Now as you can see they are somehow able [br]to pull off a

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trilingual educational system to go along[br]with the fact that they have 3 offical

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languages meaning their important [br]legislature, and official national affairs

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are recorded and reported steadily in all[br]3 of these languages,