Customer Reviews

Basic Creole (Kreyol): An Introduction to the Language of Haiti

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had heard of Library Journal's positive review and am glad tosay I concur. The course is well-packaged and extremely well-recorded and organized. It's a huge help for the visitor to Haiti and is reasonably priced.

40 bucks is pretty hefty for what you get. I expected that at least they would have used both sides of the tape. The rather thin book seems to have been put together at Kinko's.

I hope I have some measure of credibility in spite of the fact that my last name happens to be the same as the author's!

I have traveled to Haiti twice and feel the course is of inestimable value. The dictionary includes all the words I would need in normal tourist-to-Haitian conversations...and then some.

The voices on the cassette are well-modulated and easy to understand. The course itself is clear and well-organized. It seems to include all the information any traveler would need on a visit.

One criticism: there are no pauses on the tape, and it's difficult to assimilate the information without stopping the tape in several places. But that's actually not a problem.

I would rate this course 5 out of 5 because, although not exhaustive, the course includes much more information than I could ever use, the materials are attractively packaged, and the lessons are well-organized and easy to follow.

Maybe I've been spoiled by all of the great new language products, but this Basic Creole book and tape fall far short of my most basic expectations for a language series. The book and tape appear to have been assembled in someone's garage and the quality of the content follows suit. The sound is horrible, the design of the lessons is haphazard, and the scope of the grammar and vocabulary reviews is extremely limited. I would recommend that anyone interested in learning this language should get a firm grip on French and then find a Haitian friend and a good Creole dictionary, because this set will not prepare the student for a conversation. On the other hand, I am grateful that Moseley at least attempted to market a means of learning this beautiful language.

This book is entirely unhelpful. It does nothing to explain the Creole language. It seems to aim to confuse the listener. I learned more Creole in one day of travelling than this book taught me in several run throughs. If you want to learn Creole stay away from this book.

This is a very good introduction to learning Haitian Creole. There are very few language tapes available for Haitian Creole, and of those available, this is by far the most reasonably priced. The written transcript and dictionary are helpful to the novice. The tape is an appropriate place to start learning this beautiful language.

My first exposure to Creole and a good introduction, though I have since found a better, more cost effective book and set of CD's.
The tape is only recorded on one side. The English speaker on the tape is very clear, but the haitian speaker is quite low sometimes and hard to hear. I think the tape would be even better if time was allowed for listeners to repeat after the creole speaker, and if the creole phrase was repeated twice.
I think it would be very useful too, if on the other side of the tape, they spoke thru the English-creole dictionary included at the back of the manual, then users of the course would be sure of the pronounciatian, and would be able to study their vocab in their cars! :-)
Basic grammar is covered, then you are left to learn the vocab on your own. There are no practice exercises.
The dictionary at the back is basic but probably adequate for most simple conversations.

Not at all worth the price because the quality of the tape provided was so poor.