Excellent material but only 3 stars? Read on...
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This is an excellent course but it relies on tapes/CDs meant to accompany it.
Much emphasis is put on pronunciation and flow by way of dialogue repetition, answering questions, drills and other exercises. So the book alone is only of limited value. It also fell to pieces because of poor binding, hence I can only give it 3 stars. The audio will have to be acquired separately from Indiana University, Creole Institute.
The course was prepared for those likely to work in Haiti or visit often and is kindred to the US FSI courses prepared for diplomats, etc. It is NOT tourist phrase-book stuff. It comprises 25 lessons, each dealing with one or more points of grammar, verb tenses, etc, besides vocabulary. On completion, a student should be equipped to comprehend and engage in simple conversations. It is a no-nonsense course without lengthy introductions and speaking in English is kept tp a minimum.
The dialogues and drills in the early lessons are simple, acting as a vehicle for grammatical points. But the pace accelerates and by around lesson 10, dialogues are delivered at close to normal conversation speed. Though some early lessons may seem trivial they cover the tricky basics of grammar very well: the definite and indefinite articles; demonstratives, plurals, object pronouns, their short-forms and so on, all of which are a little complex at first. Master these and students are on their way to mastering this language. So it's important to be completely au fait with each lesson before moving on, even if the subject doesn't appeal. As they progress, the lessons cover many subjects: asking one's way about town, restaurants, clothiers, health, domestic situations and a fair amount of Haitian culture.
My concerns are:
1) that the material is slightly outdated - a small point as this does not detract from what you do learn. It's based around rural situations. The longer-term visitor to Haiti should soon pick up enough town lingo to supplement what's in the book but chapters/lessons on visiting a bank, a supermarket and booking a hotel, making complaints, etc, would have been useful.
2) if you have the CDs, the text doesn't always accurately follow the audio - another minor point as the errors are easy to spot, just a surprise there are so many.
3) my copy of the book started falling apart after about a month - not good considering its price.
My suggestion is, get the audio material when you get the book. It's a thorough grounding in Haitian Kreyol. It has one competitor, the condensed Pimsleur set which is more aimed at the tourist and barely scratches the surface. With Pimsleur you will know what to ask for in the coffee shop but you may not understand the responses you get! A last point. Much Kreyol derives from French so if you speak French you have a head start on vocabulary. Otherwise expect to take between 6 and 18 months depending on how much you put into it.
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