Customer Reviews

Basic Course in Haitian Creole

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I purchased the set of books and tapes in 1997. The book originally was published in the 70's (Duvalier years), so some of the material is dated (how to send a cable, find a telephone, etc.). However, the cassettes provide almost 24 hours of audio. With repetition of audio, and doing the written exercises, I was able to command a large chunk of the language. The spelling, however, is in the pre-1985 format ('ou' instead of 'w', 'in' instead of 'en', but a phoneticist will be able to figure it out! I highly recommend this series.

I purchased this book many years ago, before I really learned Kreyol. This is a very old textbook that teaches an old version of Kreyol - more of a French version. The teaching format is good, but the material is not applicable to current language usage in Haiti.

This book is a reprinted version of Dr. Valdman's book. It still uses the older version of Kreyol, which is not used today. Example: The english word "receive" is spelled in this book as "resevoua". Today, with the new version of spelling, the word is spelled as "resevwa". Another example: English "fish" Old Creole "pouasan" New Creole "pwason".

So if you want to learn Haitian Creole and spell Haitian Creole as they do today, you would be better off getting a more updated version of this book; or look for another Haitian Creole book.

Other than that, Dr. Albert Valdman is considered one of the leading professors in our country with respect to Haitian Creole. He teaches at Indiana University and runs the Creole Institute there.