Creole Translation

Due to high level of illiteracy in Haiti, content of translations from English or any other language into Haitian Creole will not reach a substantial segment of the Haitian population. The creation of Creole audio texts will definitely have a higher impact when combined with written translation. Haitian Creole Translation.com, - division of Alpha Translation Svcs, Inc. - has been encouraging several of its clients to also create Creole audio, audiovisual materials to go in conjunction with written translation. It is inspiring to see that our suggestions have been well taken by a couple of state, federal agencies, NGO and international organizations.

Indeed, important documents such as health pamphlets, legal documents... translated into Creole fail miserably to convey the intended message when distributed to Haitian population or even Haitian immigrants. It fails not only because some of the translations are inaccurately done by Second generation Haitians living either in the United States, Canada, France... but also some of the terminology needing explanations in Creole are simply transliterated. Transliteration –due to a lack of Creole dictionary resourcefulness –does not do a good job. Just imagine a Haitian immigrant -who can barely read - is given a pamphlet in Creole from the Health Department with several medical expressions…We need to go one step further by explaining or creating a dictionary

The effort to translate into Creole is certainly laudable, but the agencies that are helping definitely need to go one step further by understanding the educational challenge if not unique faced by the majority of Haitian Immigrants. It is not just a matter that Creole and French are spoken in Haiti; therefore, let us just translate into Creole. The Haitians who speak French more likely are proficient in English. Yes, the Haitian case is different from the majority of the Hispanic population who can read Spanish, and with a more advanced educational level. The Haitian case is almost unique. Is there a way that written Creole translation can go together with audio materials?