Your Language Connection:

Do you know someone from Haiti? If you live or work in Lancaster, there is a good chance you do. Many Haitians have chosen to make Lancaster their home. There is so much more to Haiti and the people from Haiti than the disasters that are prevalent in the media.

Creole and French are the official languages of the Republic of Haiti (since 1987), although only a small minority of Haitians can speak French fluently. Haitian Creole has only been equipped with an official orthography- a standardized form of writing – since 1980.

Haiti is a shame/pride culture. If a person makes a mistake, it is better to talk to them in private than to call them out in front of others. However, in the case of children, they believe that children will work harder to perform well if they are humiliated. Thus, in a classroom, teachers will often make fun of a child’s answer or parents will mock the way a child does something. But, to mock an adult breaks trust.

When being reprimanded, a child will drop his eyes, otherwise it shows defiance. For a teacher or principal to tell a child “look at me when I speak to you” would be very hard for that child.

When a Haitian says “it isn’t my fault”, it literally means, “I didn’t do it on purpose”. If someone is cleaning and a vase breaks, they will say, “it isn’t my fault”…. this often frustrates Americans who want people to take responsibility for their actions. However, what the Haitian is saying is, “it fell out of my hands, but I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Greetings are very important in Haiti. If you are on your way to a meeting and meet someone in the street you haven’t seen in a while or who just had a birth, death, or other event, you stop and talk for a few minutes. People don’t get upset if you are “late” for a meeting. Relationships are the most important thing and take priority over everything else. The people are event oriented; what is important is that the event happens rather than when it happens.

Life for the Haitian people is very hard. Where some families live, the children get up at 3 in the morning to go for water. This may take them anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on which water source has water. They do it in groups … always finding opportunity to enjoy their friends. Then, they have to take the goats to find a pasture. Today offers many challenges, so they don’t plan ahead for crisis that may happen. They live in the present and help each other through it. The Haitian people live and survive as a community. It is not an individualistic culture. In Haiti, when you ask someone their name, the start with their last name, allowing you to know whose family they are from. People don’t talk about me and mine, but rather us and ours. If they have a small commerce, they will allow people to buy on credit rather than to not have what they need.

Being a very poor country, many Haitians don’t have work. They look for anything they can do each day. So, when you meet a person, you never ask them what they do.

The Haitians make great friends. They are kind and generous. They will sacrifice whatever it takes to help another. They have a positive attitude, love to laugh and make time with friends a high priority. They love to sing and dance and deal with the pressures of life by doing just that.