1
00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:03,560
This message is dedicated to my fellow
Francophiles

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:08,626
who get alarmed or even offended at the
thought of eliminating French

3
00:00:08,626 --> 00:00:12,147
as one of the official languages of the
Republic of Haiti.

4
00:00:12,664 --> 00:00:15,984
I am speaking today as a Haitian who is

5
00:00:15,984 --> 00:00:18,483
truly madly in love with the French
language.

6
00:00:18,483 --> 00:00:24,303
I confess that my fascination and my respect for not only
the richness

7
00:00:24,303 --> 00:01:17,337
of the language but equally for those who
master it without boundaries.

8
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
However, these days, I reject the French
language.

9
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I look down on it as much as some of my
fellow Haitians

10
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
look down on the Creole language.

11
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Therefore, I have a lot of trouble expressing
myself in French.

12
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Some may even say that I'm losing my
French.

13
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think it is sad how Haitians always think
they are able to lose something

14
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that in no way and at no point in time
belonged to them.

15
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I say all that and still today I'm pushing to
deliver this message in French.

16
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's because I'm addressing those of us who
would have a hard time

17
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
taking me seriously if I had chosen to
share my ideas in my native language.

18
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I want you to understand the damage you
are causing to your country,

19
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to be fully concious of this damage and I
hope I'll manage to do that, in French.

20
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What I observed especially from the
Haitians living in Haiti is that

21
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
French isn't a tool for communication that
facilitates and allows the exchange of ideas,

22
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the passing of customs and culture or the
expression of convictions.

23
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
On the contrary, this languages diminishes the most
remarkable and precious aspects

24
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the human experience from us, which is
conversation.

25
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
French has become nothing more than one
more way

26
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to segregate the Haitian population.

27
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
To be able to tell from the get-go who
deserves your good manners

28
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and who you will snub, who you will barter
with, and who you will charge double.

29
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So it really doesn't help us to communicate properly.

30
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I've also witnessed the mistreatment
Haitians receive in Haiti

31
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
simply because they cannot speak
French; a colonial language,

32
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a language that we don't even teach to
most of our people,

33
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a language that is so foreign to us,

34
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a language that despite the fact that it
has dominated our educational system

35
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for over two centuries is still lost among
our people who are far from mastering it.

36
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So that is rather deplorable.

37
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I remember well that in Haiti, 
French was reserved for the formalities of meeting for the first time.

38
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It was the initial move to 
affirm one's social class.

39
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And to identify at which level a relationship 
could evolve between two people

40
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And it was not a language that
was used in familiar settings

41
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
or with those that we were close with

42
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There is a very restricted group of
people in Haiti who insist on

43
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
always speaking the French language,
but we consider those people to be

44
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
pretentious and full of it

45
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and often, their conversations remain
very superficial

46
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and because of that, they struggle
to maintain relationships with people

47
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
outside of that very restricted circle.

48
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So to say that French is an official language of the Haitians would be a huge exaggeration.

49
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What I can tell you is,
the percentage of Haitians that are able

50
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to easily and clearly express themselves
in french is probably less than those

51
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who can fluently speak German or Mandarin.

52
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Of course, there are Haitians in the
french diaspora like in France and Canada

53
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They speak french because that is the
language they speak in those countries.

54
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's like me, I speak English and English
has become my first language

55
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Because I am obligated to speak well in
English in the United States.

56
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But to say that Haitians speak French,
again, is completely false.

57
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What also happens in Haiti, is
that we substitute someone's ability

58
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to read a few phrases in French with their
intelligence or wisdom.

59
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We attribute the ability to get by in 
French as wisdom

60
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and now there are a lot of Haitians who
fall into this trap because they

61
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
kill themselves trying to learn French and
imitate the "elite" pretentious

62
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
francophones of Haiti.

63
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And they completely lose because
not only, are they not able to acquire

64
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the french language, but they're not fully
able to develop Creole which is their

65
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
native language.

66
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So what happens is we end up with a
population that is not able to properly

67
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
express themselves.

68
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And Creole loses in its vocabulary and
is constantly blocked by a stigma of

69
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
inferiority.

70
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So it's quite a bummer.

71
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If you have the intention to not agree
with what I'm saying, consider

72
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that to truly acquire a language,
you need to really learn it in advanced

73
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
classes, or even further in college
to really be able to manipulate a language

74
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
enough to be able to fully express your
ideas and to be understood.

75
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In Haiti, the majority of students do not make
it past elementary courses.

76
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And even if we obtain a High School
Diploma in Haiti, it's not a very

77
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
robust diploma.

78
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the ability of Haitians to really
express themselves in this forced language

79
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
becomes very minimized.

80
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So what I want to tell you and leave
you all with this message is,

81
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
think about communicating, think about
sharing your ideas.

82
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What you say is far more important than
the language you are using.

83
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We have to remind ourselves that
each time we talk to someone in Haiti

84
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
or another Haitian, we really need to think
about how what we say is what we say is

85
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what's really important.