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

[John Rigdon]

Thank you for the clarification Michel.

It has been my experience that most Haitian adults in the diaspora do not 
read Kreyol well, although they speak it because they were essentially 
educated in French before leaving Haiti.

It is only those under the age of about 25 who both read and speak Kreyol.

It has been my experience in visiting Haiti over the last few years that the 
majority of the schools are still being taught in French, and there is  a 
strong "class" bias to try to learn French and demonstrate profiency.  I 
hope I'm not being offensive here.  I really don't mean to be.

Happily the young children under about age 12 are really proud of their 
ability to read Kreyol and overwhelmingly they want to learn English and 
Spanish.  I think generally these younger children understand Spanish and 
English better than they do French.

When I first visited Haiti about 8 years ago, I identified 55 books in 
Kreyol at that time.  I think the universe of titles may be close to 400 
now - maybe double that if you include pamphlets, tracts, and brochures.

John Rigdon
www.ngohaiti.com