Duke Haitian Creole Course Open to Professionals

Jacques Pierre

Jacques Pierre

Published January 5, 2011, last updated on March 20, 2013 under Education News

Offered through Duke’s Continuing Education department, this course is designed for health care workers and community volunteers with little or no knowledge of the language. Participants from similar fields will work together in class to facilitate a deeper understanding of Haitian Creole and culture that is directly related to their particular field. The class will also explore different aspects of Haitian culture through Haitian movies, art, and games and will feature guest speakers who have been working in Haiti in collaboration with Haitian medical teams as well as speakers who are working on such areas as restavèk and women’s rights issues.

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to communicate effectively and to use idioms and proverbs appropriately to work with Haitian co-workers on the ground without the need of an interpreter.

All classes are held at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Smith Warehouse.

Course Information
Section 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:00-7:30 pm, January 25-March 31, 2011

Section 2: Saturdays, 9:30 am-12:30 pm, January 29-April 2, 2011

Course Fee
The fee for this course is $550. There is a 20% discount available to Duke employees and a 10% discount available to those that register at least two weeks prior to the first date of class.

About the Instructor
Born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Jacques Pierre is a visiting lecturer in French, Haitian Creole and Culture with Duke’s Department of Romance Studies. He has studied Haitian Creole and French Applied Linguistics at the State University of Haiti and holds two master’s degrees from Kent State University. Before coming to Duke, he worked for six years as an assistant editor on the Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (2007) published by the Creole Institute at Indiana University.