30 January 2013<\/p>\n
Languages, by Mayte Vizcaino<\/p>\n
Simon and Djilali arrived two weeks ago, they are the two people who together with me, form the \u00a0Aid\u00a0Volunteers team \u00a0in Haiti. Although the staff of International Solidarity is alive, I stop at the current situation to talk about a subject that sometimes makes me funny.<\/p>\n
I am in the Haitian office of a Spanish NGO working within a European project which includes also a German and a French NGO. Multicultural environment. And polyglot. Indeed, in the office are 8 Haitians, three Spanish, one French, one German and one Italian. The languages in which we communicate are not as varied but sometimes they do cause a bit of mess. The \u00abofficial language\u00bb of work is French, with my Spanish colleagues I speak Spanish, unless some Haitian is there, when we changed to French, but between them they speak Creole, and my French and German partners talk to each other often English. I read documents in French and Spanish mainly but some in English slip in sometimes, and due to my lack of knowledge I do not decipher others that I receive written in Creole.<\/p>\n
In two weeks I begin classes to learn this language that I consider basic in this country where only who has gone to school knows French. In Jacmel I manage but having planned field trips and wanting to increase my communication with others (motorcycle taxi drivers, neighborhood, women who run some little shops I usually buy …), the learning of Creole becomes a necessity to me. So I will attend Creole class, while Simon, my German fellow, takes French classes and Djilali, French fellow, seems to be interested in improving his Spanish.<\/p>\n
When we met outside the office the scenario is that of an exchange to speak the language of your choice; there are groups talking in any of the languages above mentioned, so this may be, and indeed often it is, a reason to choose who to be with. Luckily there is rotation. Maybe I missed more Creole..<\/p>\n
And so, being enriched with languages, cultures and histories of lives, goes by my stay in Jacmel.<\/p>\n
Idiomas, por Mayte Vizcaino<\/p>\n
Hace dos semanas llegaron Simon y Djilali, las dos personas que junto conmigo conforman el equipo de\u00a0Aid Volunteers<\/em>\u00a0en Hait\u00ed. Y aunque el personal de Solidaridad Internacional es algo vivo, me detengo en la situaci\u00f3n actual para hablar de un tema que a veces me hace gracia.<\/p>\n Estoy\u00a0 en la oficina haitiana de una ONGD espa\u00f1ola dentro de un proyecto europeo del que forman parte tambi\u00e9n una ONG alemana y una ONG francesa. Ambiente multicultural. Y pol\u00edglota. En efecto, en la oficina estamos 8 personas haitianas, 3 espa\u00f1olas, 1 francesa, 1 alemana y 1 italiana. Los idiomas en los que nos comunicamos no son tan variados pero un poco de lio s\u00ed que hay a veces si sabemos que el \u201cidioma oficial\u201d de trabajo es el franc\u00e9s, con mis colegas espa\u00f1oles hablo en espa\u00f1ol, salvo\u00a0 si est\u00e1 presente alguna persona haitiana, situaci\u00f3n en la que cambiamos al franc\u00e9s, aunque entre ellos hablan creol, y mis compa\u00f1eros franc\u00e9s y alem\u00e1n hablan entre s\u00ed a menudo el ingles. \u00a0Leo documentos en espa\u00f1ol y franc\u00e9s principalmente aunque tambi\u00e9n se cuela alguno en ingles, y por falta de conocimientos no descifro otros que me llegan en creol.<\/p>\n En dos semanas comienzo clases para aprender este idioma que considero b\u00e1sico en este pa\u00eds donde solo quien ha ido a la escuela conoce el franc\u00e9s. En Jacmel se apa\u00f1a una pero teniendo previstas salidas a terreno, y porque quiero aumentar mis posibilidades de comunicaci\u00f3n con otras personas (conductores de las mototaxis, vecindario, mujeres que regentan algunas tiendecillas en las que suelo comprar\u2026), aprender creol se me hace necesario.\u00a0 Simon, mi compa\u00f1ero alem\u00e1n empez\u00f3 las clases de franc\u00e9s la semana pasada y Djilali, el franc\u00e9s, parece que tambi\u00e9n va a animarse a mejorar su espa\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n Cuando nos juntamos fuera de la ofi el escenario es el de un intercambio para hablar el idioma que prefieras; hay grupos hablando cualquiera de los idiomas antes mencionados, as\u00ed que este puede ser, y de hecho a veces lo es, una raz\u00f3n para decidir estar con una gente o con otra. Por suerte hay rotaci\u00f3n. Quiz\u00e1s eche en falta m\u00e1s creol.<\/p>\n Y asi, enriqueci\u00e9ndome con idiomas, culturas e historias de vidas, se desarrolla mi estancia\u00a0 en Jacmel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 30 January 2013 Languages, by Mayte Vizcaino Simon and Djilali arrived two weeks ago, they are the two people who together with me, form the \u00a0Aid\u00a0Volunteers team \u00a0in Haiti. Although the staff of International Solidarity is alive, I stop at the current situation to talk about a subject that sometimes makes me funny. I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[56,54,55],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti","tag-creol","tag-haiti-2","tag-idiomas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n