WEBVTT

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Hi guys.

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(sigh)

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

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

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I published this in April and I have the 
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 
that post and it seems like I really hit a

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nerve for some people so I'm dedicating
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 
in that video:

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"French hinders comunication in 
self-expression among Haitians

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

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majority of the population.

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

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intelligence.Haitions fail to realize that
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 
speak French.

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

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

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But many didn't want to hear it and here 
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
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
in Haiti is dire, that has always been the

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

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

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

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The medium that allows you to communicate
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
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
Haiti and this isn't breaking news to

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anyone. But the fact that we are insisting
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 
frankly at this point pretty irresponsible

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

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

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them French, Spanish, German, Italian, 
everything.

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

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Of course.

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

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

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

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of Haiti and instead prioritize Creole 
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 
never heard of, it's called Luxembourgish

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and it is the language that is indigenous
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 
Luxembourg use it, that is the language

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

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and then French.

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And proficiency and all three of their
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 
to pull off a

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

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languages meaning their important 
legislature, and official national affairs

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