[Olpc-Haiti] our Haiti translation site's now in English + French + on Facebook too!

[Michel DeGraff]

There seems to be some deep confusion here about Haiti's and Haitians'
general linguistic profiles. So let me try and clarify a bit---there are
key linguistic issues to keep in mind as we go forward.

Re whether French-speaking translators are needed for  XO projects in
Haiti at this point:

I myself had not imagined that "Haitians speaking French in the diaspora"
would be the target of our efforts at this stage.  Instead I was thinking
about the numerical majority of Haitians in Haiti whose _only_ fluent
language is, effectively, Haitian Creole.  I had assumed (or hoped)
that, this time around, there would be increased focus on Haiti's
majority population (i.e., those who are _not_ fluent in French).  Given
my own experience as a Haitian who grew up in Haiti and a Haitian
linguist in the diaspora, the majority of "Haitians speaking French in
the diaspora" can certainly read English.

Given limited time and resources and given current priorities related to
the urgent situation in Haiti, I had imagined that those children who
are (effectively) monolingual Kreyòl speakers should be the main
beneficiaries of efforts toward making the XOs relevant to education in
Haiti.

For further discussion of this and related issues, please consult the
article by Professor Yves Dejean on "Creole and Education in Haiti":

http://www.fayerweather.org/About/Matenwa/_Default/Finaldejean2009.pdf

I hope this helps,

                                 -michel.
_____________________________________________________________________
MIT Linguistics & Philosophy  77 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge MA 02139
degraff at MIT.EDU http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/degraff
_____________________________________________________________________



----- Message from meta.sj at gmail.com ---------
    Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 16:03:44 -0500
    From: Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com>
Reply-To: Samuel Klein <meta.sj at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Olpc-Haiti] our Haiti translation site's now in English +
French  + on Facebook too!
      To: Michel DeGraff <degraff at mit.edu>


> Many Kreyol speakers and writers read French as a second language, not
> English.  So yes, translations into French of the pages asking for
> help make a big difference.
>
> SJ
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 2:21 PM, Michel DeGraff <degraff at mit.edu> wrote:
>>
>> French translation volunteers for Haitians?!?
>>
>>                                 -michel.
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> MIT Linguistics & Philosophy  77 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge MA 02139
>> degraff at MIT.EDU http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/degraff
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Message from holt at laptop.org ---------
>>    Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:18:02 -0500
>>    From: Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org>
>> Reply-To: Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org>
>> Subject: [Olpc-Haiti] our Haiti translation site's now in English +
>> French + on Facebook too!
>>      To: olpc-haiti at lists.laptop.org, Support Gangsters
>> <support-gang at laptop.org>
>>
>>
>>> /Thanks to the very dedicated work of the //http://olpc-france.org
>>> //volunteer community:/
>>>
>>> Subject:      Re: RE : [support-gang] TODAY: quick 4PM OLPC community
>>> conversation
>>> Date:         Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:21:17 +0100
>>> From:         Bastien <bastienguerry at googlemail.com>
>>> To:   Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org>
>>>
>>>
>>> Adam,
>>>
>>> Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Haitian_Creole_Translation_for_Education
>>>
>>> I'll forward this, thanks.
>>>
>>> I've translated this page into french:
>>>  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Haitian_Creole_Translation_for_Education/lang-fr
>>>
>>> I've just written a small blog entry to help recruit french volunteers:
>>>
>>> http://olpc-france.org/blog/2010/02/recherche-traducteurs-creole-haitienanglaisfrancais/
>>>
>>> There are many haitians speaking french in the diaspora, I hope this
>>> will help.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bastien
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Subject:      FYI: Call for OLPC/Haiti translators forwarded on
>>> interpreters facebook group
>>> Date:         Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:06:07 +0100
>>> From:         Bastien <bastienguerry at googlemail.com>
>>> To:   Adam Holt <holt at laptop.org>
>>> CC:   Samy Boutayeb <samy.boutayeb at olpc-france.org>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Adam,
>>>
>>> Samy pointed me to this FB group (thanks Samy!):
>>> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=245649094887#
>>>
>>> I allowed myself to send a message about OLPC/Haiti translation
>>> efforts.
>>>
>>> Congrats for building such a great proactive community!
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bastien
>>>
>>
>>
>> ----- End message from holt at laptop.org -----
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Olpc-haiti mailing list
>> Olpc-haiti at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-haiti
>>
>


----- End message from meta.sj at gmail.com -----