Stephen J. Matlock's Blog, page 4

The Subtle Traps for the Unwary Learner

But then you start constructing your more complicated sentences and paragraphs, and it seems that every phrase has another chance to pick the not-quite-right grammatical construction or phrase or word

Bogs and marshes and slogs oh my!

Yesterday in class I read two pages of text, out loud, and then translated them on the fly, to the point where I was laughing out loud at some of the more ridiculous events in the story.

Safety monitors

That Good Samaritan did a good thing to someone in distress, and if the story stops there, then we have learned a good lesson, right?But what the story doesn’t tell us in the background, and doesn’t tell us “the rest of the story.”

De Kestyon, Reponn (Two Questions, Answered)

This kreyòl version is blunt: “Lè Josèf leve nan dòmi an, li fè sa anj Senyè a te di l la. Li marye ak Mari. Malgre sa, li te tann jouktan pitit la fèt anvan l te antre nan zafè sèks ak mari. Li rele pitit ki te fèt la Jezi.”—“When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He got married to Mary. Despite this, he waited until the child was born before entering into sex with Mary. He called the child that was born Jesus.”

Short stories and lengthy processes

This week’s follow-up assignment was to write my own story, in Haitian Creole, using the grammatical constructions, and build out a similar example of dialog, interaction, and choices. Then, after writing it, I had to read the story and record it, and send the recording to my instructor.

Binary confidence (Binè konfyans)

I have two states of feeling when it comes to learning a language–I am either exhilarated or I am in … More

Ayiti se yon lide—Haiti is an idea

It’s hard to overestimate the effects of that quake upon Haiti and Haitians. Twelve years later and so much has not yet been repaired. It was an earthquake that traumatized people—some who today cannot even handle being in a parking garage when a large truck drives by because the floors begin to vibrate and shake.

I begin “Chita Pa Bay”

So I’m really loving this book because I have to read it and understand it to know what’s going on – but even better than that is that the story is engaging and challenging and funny. I can just see the interactions between the valiant Mannwèl, who’s curious and active in solving problems, Jèvilen, who carries the anger of his family towards Mannwèl and his family, and Anayiz, who’s seen as someone who “belongs” to Jèvilen but who will make her own choices!

The Real 300

Haiti is called the first Black republic in the New World, and what is unusual about it is that it was not a nation established by colonizers (England, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and so on) but a nation established by the kidnapped and stolen population. Those who were treated as cheap and expendable labor found themselves and created their own nation, throwing France—their oppressors and enslavers—out of their own lands, setting up their own nation, a Black republic, differing in origin from all the other nations in the New World at that time.

Looking back 300 days

I feel really good that I’ve gotten this far. I’m still quite incompetent, but there are moments when it clicks.