Haitian Creole Translation As A Vital Service For Rebuilding Haiti

By Author: Julia Bennet
Total Articles: 1401
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Haiti is a nation in the midst of one the Western hemisphere's worst crisis in a generation and volunteers and donations have flooded onto the island full of good intentions to aid and assist the Earthquake and Cholera stricken Haitian people. If you are not able to physically go to Haiti or are not comfortable donating fund to opaque charities, there are many ways that you can help Haiti such as donating funds for Haitian Creole translation and other translation services.

Haiti has always been something of an outlier in the Western hemisphere. While it was the hemisphere's second independent republic, after the United States, it has taken a very different trajectory and today it is the hemisphere's poorest, most beleaguered nation. It is an outlier for other reasons as well, while English, Spanish, French and Portuguese dominate the hemisphere, through years of relative isolation, Haiti has developed a unique language of its own, Haitian Creole, which is both its glory and one of it's primary obstacles. While Haitian Creole is derived from French, it is a very different language, one whose rules and vocabulary are ...
... still in flux. The Haitian Creole literary cannon small and its libraries do not have sufficient materials translated into the Haitian Creole language. There are relatively few works of literature, for example, in Haitian Creole translation, though a number of translation services provide this service and can translate works from English to Haitian Creole at relatively low costs.

Instead of merely sending money, much of which is appropriated by unintended parties or simply wasted, people that would like to help Haiti can also take a longer view of the problem. Why not provide a Haitian Creole translation of a schoolbook or other resource so that Haitian children (and indeed its adult population) can have learning tool that might serve to help lift them from poverty by lifting their knowledge and understanding? While many educational works are copyrighted and their owners are likely to react poorly even to humanitarian translation services that distribute their content in another language, there are numerous books of history, mathematics, science whose copyrights have expired, so why not start there?

It's a very different take on humanitarian aid, to be sure, but when one stops and considers it, why not donate humanitarian translation services and especially Haitian Creole translation of literature and schoolbooks of all types so that the language barrier presented by Haitian Creole becomes more surmountable. After all, money can be wasted and misappropriated but a translated work of literature or schoolbook will serve Haiti forever.

If you are interested in contributing, you can find many translation services online, but only a relative few that have experience in Haitian Creole translation.