Response to the Consequences of French in Haiti video (HHA msg 12)

Hi guys.

(sigh)

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

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

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

in my description box.

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

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

the prevalent counter arguments I received

Here are the main points I made
in that video:

"French hinders comunication in
self-expression among Haitians

It divides the Haitian population and
fosters an inferiority complex for the

majority of the population.

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

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

than the language they used to say in.

And lastly, Haitians by and large cannot
speak French.

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

of eliminating French as one of the two
official languages of Haiti.

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

address.

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

Here is my issue with that point.

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

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

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

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

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

on is extremely relevant.

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

in French, far from.

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

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

language is to our own detriment.

It is pedagogically impractical and
frankly at this point pretty irresponsible

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

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

them French, Spanish, German, Italian,
everything.

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

Of course.

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

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

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

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

Haitian speaks.

Luxembourg has 3 official languages.

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

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

for them so to speak.

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

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

and then French.

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

graduation from secondary school.

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

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

languages meaning their important
legislature, and official national affairs

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