Learning a new language . . . quickly!

How duolingo came about

Being in Haiti has encouraged me to learn a new language as quickly as possible but learning my new job has taken precedence over everything else. I have been in Haiti for almost a year and I still have only the basics of Creole under my belt. With some help from the online version of Rosetta Stone, I now how a few French words that I use, but for me, none of this is happening quickly enough. 

This morning, I came across another option to learn a new language called DuoLingo and the best part is, that it's free!  Gotta love the sound of that, right?  So, I dug a bit deeper to understand what DuoLingo is and how it came about. What I found was fascinating.  Professor Luis von Ahn from Carnegie Mellon University has helped create DuoLingo with his Computer Science team.  DuoLingo is a quick, easy and free way to learn a language in a short amount of time and the best part is that while you are learning, you are actually helping to translate the Web in every language. If you are interested in more information, check out the video at http://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html

Over the summer months of 2013, I will definitely be checking this out and I'll let you know what worked better for me - my expensive Rosetta Stone or the free DuoLingo. (I'm thinking the later).

The people of Haiti

Haiti’s people are incredible.  They are strong, brave and resilient.  I look around my school campus and not only have I begun to learn the names of hundreds of faces that belong to young, middle and older students, teachers and administration, but they are beginning to share their life stories with me and some of these stories are inconceivable.  I won’t go in to detail but there are not only adults who have stories of survival but children as well.  Yes, they all have their pivotal moment of where they were during the cataclysmic earthquake or the earth-shattering hurricane, but as if that wasn't tragic enough, they have horror stories of crimes against themselves or their loved ones.  Some of their heartbreaking stories are of kidnappings, where they were held against their will until a ransom was paid by their families or stories that sound like something from a movie such as “bad” people breaking in to homes and shooting at “good” people.  There is a story of a young woman who was abducted for several days, who is safe now and is looking forward to attending college in the next few years. There is a young elementary school boy whose father was shot and killed and who witnessed the entire moment of loss.  There are so many of these stories and those lucky few who don’t have personal encounters with heartbreak, still share in each other’s losses.

What amazes me as I learn more about my new school and my new home of Haiti is how amazingly self-sufficient most people are in this country and it is obvious to me why that is.  Most times, they have to depend on themselves and their families to help and protect each other and this not only makes them stronger but more compassionate. Someone told me the other day that Haiti’s self-sufficiency has led to their own complacency. I couldn't disagree more. If anything, it is their strong willed, independence that have made them who they are . . . . a loving, tenderhearted and considerate proud people and no matter what other catastrophes either political or natural that chooses to tear at the core of Haiti, no one will ever be able to break down a true Haitian man, woman or child.