Description of my project
I’m interested in finding and developing teaching resources for the modern language courses, especially for less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean under the OER framework.
Students’ interests in LCTLs, especially Korean and Japanese, have grown a lot in the past two decades. According to the Modern Language Association, the enrollment of Korean language classes changed from 4,479 (Fall 1998) to 13,936 (Fall 2016) and the enrollment of the Japanese language classes changed from 43,141 (Fall 1998) to 68,810 (Fall 2016).
One major challenge among the LCTL courses is the lack of published teaching materials. Compared with the traditional modern languages such as Spanish, French, and German, instructors of LCTLs often do not have access to published textbooks and end up with developing their own teaching materials or select different teaching resources available online. In sum, there is a clear need of more systematic effort to develop teaching resources in the LCTLs and I am particularly interested in OER to explore how we can develop collaborative effort to create teaching resources.
Major takeaways from this project
- Some OER database cover materials for language instruction (such as Merlot) while others don’t (such as Open Michigan, Teaching Commons, and DOAB).
- There is a Natioanl Foreign Langauge Resoruce Center (funded by a USED grant) at the University of Kansas with a specific focus on developing OER resources for language instruction.
- There were multiple textbook-length OERs in Japanese and Korean. There were a few in Mandarin Chinese as well. Other LCTLs (such as Bengali, Uzbek, Tibetan etc) had very few textbook-length OERs.
If you are an instructor of a LCTL and are interested in OERs, I suggest:
- Try the OER database suggested below. These database have good coverage of OERs for modern language.
- Also, see the University of Kansas’s LRC website (see under OER Database). They have multiple OER projects for specific languages.
- I have listed a few book-length OERs in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Uzbek, Tibetan, and Haitian-Creole that have received positive reviews.
For inquiries or suggestions, please contact Tomonori Nagano <tnagano@lagcc.cuny.edu> at LaGuardia Community College.
Table of Contents
- Jump to “OER Database”
- Jump to “Japanese OER textbooks”
- Jump to “Korean OER textbooks”
- Jump to “Mandarin Chinese OER textbooks”
- Jump to “Portuguese OER textbooks”
- Jump to “Uzbek OER textbooks”
- Jump to “Tibetan OER textbooks”
- Jump to “Haitian-Creole OER textbooks”
OER database
I have selected some of the OER database services that have at least some language textbook selections. Quite a few major OER datbase (such as Open Michigan, Teaching Commons, OAPEN, DOAB, Open Textbook Library) do not have open-source textbooks for modern language courses.
- OpenEd CUNY (https://opened.cuny.edu/)
Description of the database: OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.
- MERLOT (https://www.merlot.org/merlot/)
Description of the database: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) was started back in 1997 at Sonoma State University. It is a community of staff, volunteers, and members who work together in various ways to provide users of OER (Open Educational Resource) teaching and learning materials with a wealth of services and functions that can enhance their instructional experience. There are a large number of OER resources, many of which come with detailed annotations.
- Open Language Resource Center (KU) (https://olrc.ku.edu)
Description of the database: The Open Language Resource Center (OLRC) at the University of Kansas is one of sixteen federally-funded National Foreign Language Resource Centers working to increase the nation’s capacity to teach and learn foreign languages. Founded in 2018, the OLRC focuses on the creation of Open Educational Resources for language learners at the secondary and post-secondary level. Center projects strike a careful balance between breadth of audience and degree of need, prioritizing projects that are of a scale to replace or significantly supplement commercial curricula. Project work is grounded in research on effective teaching strategies and is informed by engagement with the K-16 language community on issues of curricular reform and professional development.
Review: Click on “OER Project” and you will see several OER projects dedicated to Chinese, French, German, Kiswahili, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
- Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) Search (https://oer.deepwebaccess.com/oer/desktop/en/search.html)
Description of the database: The Mason OER Metafinder helps you find Open Educational Resources. Unlike other OER discovery sites (e.g, OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, OpenStax, etc.) with our Metafinder you aren’t searching a static database that we’ve built. Instead, the OER Metafinder launches a real-time, simultaneous search across 22 different sources of open educational materials as you hit the Search button.
- OER Commons (https://www.oercommons.org/advanced-search)
Description of the database: ISKME’s OER initiatives aim to grow a sustainable culture of sharing and continuous improvement among educators at all levels. In 2007, ISKME launched OER Commons, its digital public library and collaboration platform, informed by the organization’s pioneering efforts in knowledge management and educational innovation. OER Commons offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners. Diving into OER Commons is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with other educators and learners, at the forefront of a new educational era.
- Open Educational Resources at Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/education)
Description of the database: The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.
- OASIS (https://oasis.geneseo.edu/)
Description of the database: Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 117 different sources and contains 388,707 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library.
- BCcampus OpenEd Resources (https://open.bccampus.ca/browse-our-collection/find-open-textbooks/?search)
Description of the database: The B.C. Open Textbook Collection is home to a growing selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.). The database include resources for Arabic, Cree, French, Korean, and Punjabi.
Review of the Selected OER Resources
Japanese Language
- Musubi A New Approach to Japanese Language and Culture
- Title: Musubi A New Approach to Japanese Language and Culture
- URL: https://oer.hawaii.edu/project/musubi-a-new-approach-to-japanese-language-and-culture/
- Authors: Tomoko Iwai, Emi Murayama, Miki Ogasawara, and Yuka Wada
- Institution: University of Hawaiʻi
- Copyright: CC-BY
- Description (by the author(s)): Designed as a modular language learning course, this project will build on the existing first volume of Musubi: A New Approach to Japanese Language and Culture by creating a set of for use in the JPN 102 course. The collection of modules is part of a larger review and renewal of curriculum materials by the Japanese section of the Department of East Asian Language and Literatures.
- Review: This is probably the only complete Japanese textbook that is available under the OER framework. The textbook has been developed by a group of Japanese language instructors at the University of Hawaii with support from the UH’s OER initiative. The textbook has two separate sections; one for literacy (reading and writing) practice and the other for oral (speaking and listening) practice. The textbook is intended to be used for the elementary-level (1st year) Japanese classes.
- Preadvanced Japaense
- Title: Preadvanced Japaense
- URL: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/preadvanced-japanese
- Authors: Emiko Konomi
- Institution: Portland State University
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. Unlike textbooks written primarily for students, whose content largely centers on student life, this book focuses more on social and professional life beyond school. This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of an online course, or as a traditional college course. As a beginning level textbook, this book includes many elementary grammar patterns (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Levels 5 and 4), but the vocabulary and situations are selected specifically for working adults. Explanations are kept concise so as to only cover key points. The main focus is on oral communication.
- Review: TBA
- Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1
- Title: Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1
- URL: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pdxopen/6/
- Authors: Emiko Konomi
- Institution: Portland State University
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. Unlike textbooks written primarily for students, whose content largely centers on student life, this book focuses more on social and professional life beyond school. As a beginning level textbook, this book includes many elementary grammar patterns (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Levels 5 and 4), but the vocabulary and situations are selected specifically for working adults. Explanations are kept concise so as to only cover key points. The main focus is on oral communication and the accompanying audio is to be used extensively. This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of an online course, or as a traditional college course.
- Review: TBA
- Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2
- Title: Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2
- URL: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pdxopen/17/
- Authors: Emiko Konomi
- Institution: Portland State University
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): This is Book 2 of the textbook series Beginning Japanese for Professionals. The series is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. It focuses more on social and professional life beyond school. This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of an online course, or as a traditional college course. As a beginning level textbook, this book includes many elementary grammar patterns (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Levels 5 and 4), but the vocabulary and situations are selected specifically for working adults. Explanations are kept concise so as to only cover key points. The main focus is on oral communication. This textbook was originally written for the beginning Japanese courses in the graduate program of Masters of International Management in the School of Business at Portland State University. The goals of the Japanese courses are to provide students with a foundation for acquiring future business language skills and to increase students’ knowledge of Japanese culture within 150 instructional hours. This is the first edition that has been piloted in the program and will be replaced with revised editions in the future.
- Review: TBA
- Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 3
- Title: Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 3
- URL: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pdxopen/22/
- Authors: Emiko Konomi
- Institution: Portland State University
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): This is Book 3 of the textbook series Beginning Japanese for Professionals. The series is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. It focuses more on social and professional life beyond school. This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of an online course, or as a traditional college course. As a beginning level textbook, this book includes many elementary grammar patterns (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Levels 5 and 4), but the vocabulary and situations are selected specifically for working adults. Explanations are kept concise so as to only cover key points. The main focus is on oral communication. This textbook series was originally written for the beginning Japanese courses in the graduate program of Master of International Management in the School of Business at Portland State University. The goals of the Japanese courses are to provide students with a foundation for acquiring future business language skills and to increase students’ knowledge of Japanese culture within 150 instructional hours. This is the first edition that has been piloted in the program and will be replaced with revised editions in the future.
- Review: TBA
- Preadvanced Japanese
- Title: Preadvanced Japanese
- URL: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pdxopen/1/
- Authors: Emiko Konomi
- Institution: Portland State University
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): This textbook is designed for students who have intermediate competency in Japanese, roughly at Level 2 on the ILR (The Interagency Language Roundtable) proficiency scale, and are working on reaching Level 3.
- Review: TBA
- TextFugu
- Title: TextFugu
- URL: http://www.textfugu.com
- Authors: Tofugu
- Institution: Tofugu
- Copyright: Copyrighted (free)
- Description (by the author(s)): When you compare someone learning Japanese in a class and someone who’s self-learning, the problems that they run into are completely different. TextFugu focuses on the problems that self-learners have, which means a different way of explaining concepts, a focus on keeping you motivated, and no limit on how fast you learn and progress. In class, you move as fast as the slowest person there. In self-learning, you move as fast as you gosh-well please.
- Review: TBA
- Japanese Wikibook
- Title: Japanese Wikibook
- URL: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese
- Authors: Wikipedia
- Institution: Wikipedia
- Copyright: CC-BY-SA
- Description (by the author(s)): Development of this Wikibook began on August 11, 2003. It is an ongoing project that will evolve as users contribute to the content and layout of pages. The end goal of this project is to create an online resource for those wishing to learn Japanese. We will attempt to encompass all aspects of the Japanese language, including pronunciation, reading, writing, and grammar. Many textbooks and travel guides make use of ‘rōmaji’ (Romanisation of Japanese characters) to bypass the need for learning the Japanese characters. This Wikibook, however, aims to develop a well rounded student, and as such, will make minimal use of ‘rōmaji’ except in introducing pronunciation.
- Review: TBA
- First Year Japanese I – JPN101
- Title: First Year Japanese I – JPN101
- URL: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/first-year-japanese-i-jpn101
- Authors: Yoko Sato
- Institution: Mt. Hood Community College
- Copyright: CC-BY
- Description (by the author(s)): This is meant to be used in a classroom situation with a teacher. It was created for showing on big screen as well as individual computer monitor. Easy to use for remote learning. Many graphic images and activities as well as simple grammar and culture explanations. Worksheet set to go with this is also available. Source file can be requested by e-mailing Yoko.Sato@mhcc.edu.
- Review: This resource is a lot more like well-documented presentation slides rather than the traditional textbook.
- First Year Japanese II – JPN102
- Title: First Year Japanese II – JPN102
- URL: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/first-year-japanese-ii-jpn102
- Authors: Yoko Sato
- Institution: Mt. Hood Community College
- Copyright: CC-BY
- Description (by the author(s)): This is meant to be used in a classroom situation with a teacher. It was created for showing on big screen as well as individual computer monitor. Easy to use for remote learning. Many graphic images and activities as well as simple grammar and culture explanations. Worksheet set to go with this is also available. Source file can be requested by e-mailing Yoko.Sato@mhcc.edu.
- Review: This resource is a lot more like well-documented presentation slides rather than the traditional textbook.
- Irodori
- Title: Japanese Irodori
- URL: https://www.irodori.jpf.go.jp
- Authors: The Japan Foundation
- Institution: The Japan Foundation
- Copyright: Copyrighted (free)
- Description (by the author(s)): Nowadays, people travel and even migrate across borders all the time. In Japan, too, foreign workers work in a variety of fields, and the number is increasing every year. With the establishment of the Specified Skilled Worker residence status, it will become common for people from different countries with a variety of cultural backgrounds to live in the same community and work at the same workplace. The Japanese-language coursebook Irodori: Japanese for Life in Japan is a textbook for foreign people to learn basic Japanese communication skills that are needed for daily life and working in Japan.
- Review: TBA
Korean Language
- Learn to Speak Korean 1
- Title: Learn to Speak Korean 1
- URL: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learn-speak-korean1
- Authors: Sang Mee Han
- Institution: Yonsei University
- Copyright: Unknown
- Description (by the author(s)): This course is for beginner students who are familiar with the Korean alphabet, Hangeul. Through this course students will learn the skills essential for daily interactions with Koreans while living in Korea. This course consists of six modules, and each module is composed of five units. Each unit has vocabulary, grammar and expressions, conversation practice, video clips, quizzes, a workbook, and vocabulary lists. In order to assist students with their independent studies, Korean learning materials such as lecture notes, workbooks, and vocabulary lists detailing each day’s lecture are also provided. The vocabulary lists are accompanied by English, Chinese, and Japanese translations. I hope that you enjoy all this program has to offer over the next six weeks. After studying in this program, you will be able to have a real Korean conversation with your newly acquired knowledge of the Korean language. Thank you!
- Review: TBA
- Korean Through Folktales
- Title: Korean Through Folktales
- URL: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/korean-through-folktales/view
- Authors: KyungAh Yoon
- Institution: Portland State University
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): Korean Through Folktales consists of four chapters and each centers on a famous Korean folktale. The lessons and values that famous folktales teach are embedded and permeated in various aspects of the Koran culture. Using folktales in the curriculum will provide an engaging way to expose students to a slice of the target culture that native Koreans are naturally exposed to at an early age. Through the selected folktales and various activities offered in the book, students can gain cultural knowledge and insights into traditional and cultural values while they are given linguistic lessons to reinforce their acquired skills and to apply the learned materials in an integrated approach. Korean Through Folktales is designed to accompany 1st-year, 2nd-year, and 3rd-year Korean courses offered at Portland State University. However, any Korean teacher can adopt this book to supplement his/her course materials at elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels.
- Review: TBA
- Sogang Korean Program
- Title: Sogang Korean Program
- URL: http://korean.sogang.ac.kr
- Authors: NA
- Institution: Sogang University
- Copyright: Unknown
- Description (by the author(s)): NA
- Review: A web-based textbook developed in the 2000.
- Beginning Korean. Activity Book 1
- Title: Beginning Korean. Activity Book 1
- URL: https://doi.org/10.25820/work.006127
- Authors: Jeehae Yoo, Joung-A Park, Sang-Seok Yoon
- Institution: University of Iowa
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): The Korean Activity Book 1 is designed to provide various useful materials for practicing Korean. This book is ideal for learners at the Novice Low to Novice High levels who want to practice writing and pronouncing hangeul, communicate in Korean by creating sentences using basic grammar and vocabulary, and understand and create simple conversations that are useful in everyday conversations. The Korean Activity Book 1 is not a textbook, so it does not include lengthy explanations on grammar or vocabulary. However, it includes a lot of resources of natural conversations and useful vocabularies that are commonly used in contemporary Korean. It also includes useful tips to clarify confusing structures and words & expressions to novice level learners.
- Review: TBA
- Pathway to Korean: Beginning Spoken Korean from Zero
- Title: Pathway to Korean: Beginning Spoken Korean from Zero
- URL: https://pathwaytokorean.osu.edu
- Authors: NA
- Institution: National East Asian Languages Resource Center
- Copyright: Unknown
- Description (by the author(s)): This project is to produce first-level materials for students with no previous exposure to the Korean language. Materials developed thus far include five units and more than forty lessons/stages. In the self-study format, these materials are composed of a “head-start” package, a print, audio program and video program. They introduce the true beginners to the Korean sound system, instructional expressions, performances of basic personal interactions, and Hangul, the Korean alphabet. A demo of Units 0, 1, and 2 is now available on line. QuickTime multimedia player is needed to browse these pages
- Review: TBA
Bengali Language
- LangMedia: Bangla in Bangladesh
- Title: LangMedia: Bangla in Bangladesh
- URL: https://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/lbc-topics/30/86
- Authors: Five College Center for World Languages
- Institution: Amherst College
- Copyright: Not known
- Description (by the author(s)): Language by Country videos focus on practical aspects of everyday life. They were filmed by Five College international students between 1999 and 2002. Some cultural information is out-of-date, but many of the videos remain linguistically useful. Transcripts and translations are provided. We aim to provide examples of authentic language spoken in its natural cultural environment so that students of all ages can better understand the interplay between a language and its culture. The videos were filmed with handheld camcorders and microphones provided by the Center. The video and audio quality varies. Students should be aware that we have tried to remain true to the language our subjects actually uttered. Therefore, we have not corrected grammatical errors and the videos sometimes show highly colloquial language, local slang, and regionally-specific speech patterns. At times, we have noted the preferred or more standard forms in parentheses. Most of the transcripts and translations were prepared by the same students who filmed the video, although in some cases the transcripts have also been edited by a language expert. The videos and other materials were produced by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages with funding from the National Security Education Program (NSEP) and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) of the U.S. Department of Education.
- Review: This is not a textbook, but the resources are probably useful for elementary- to intermediate-level Bengali classes.
Mandarin Chinese Language
- OER Beginning Chinese (初级汉语课本)
- Title: OER Beginning Chinese (初级汉语课本)
- URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bSOIvGgl0SEc7M8hxOIwJw3mMigMROgT
- Authors: Central Oregon Community College
- Institution: NA
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC-SA
- Description (by the author(s)): Thank you very much for being interested in the OER (Open Education Resource) Beginning Chinese textbook. The electronic textbook has both .doxc format and .pdf format available in the Google Doc platform. When you access the .doxc format files, make sure you download the files to your computer and use Microsoft Word software to open the files. As you know, Chinese character fonts in Microsoft Word files are incompatible with Google Doc files. If you open and preview the Word (.doxc) files in Google Drive, without downloading, you might find the Chinese characters in the files show with different fonts, and some charts in the textbook are corrupted. The .doxc format files are convenient for teachers to edit and use to generate teaching materials, such as PowerPoint slides, vocabulary flash cards, quizzes, and tests. The .pdf format files are convenient for learners to print out, and to explore the contents on all kinds of electronic devices, such as Windows, Mac, iPad, Chromebook, and so on. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email me at lhong@cocc.edu. I will appreciate your comments and feedback.
- Review: Developed by Lin Hong at Central Oregon Community College in 2018.
- Wikibook Chinese (Mandarin)
- Title: Wikibook Chinese (Mandarin)
- URL: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/chinese-mandarin/view
- Authors: NA
- Institution: Wikibook
- Copyright: CC-SA
- Description (by the author(s)): Welcome to the Chinese wikibook, a free Chinese textbook on the Standard Mandarin dialect. This page links to lessons using simplified characters (used in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia). There is also a Traditional Character Version available (used in Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong).
- Review: TBA
- Gateway to Chinese
- Title: Gateway to Chinese
- URL: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/chinese/
- Authors: COERLL
- Institution: University of Texas, Austin
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC
- Description (by the author(s)): This site offers a collection of free interactive language learning resources for beginning Mandarin Chinese. Students now have the option to practice pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, listening, and reading skills at their own convenience. Gateway to Chinese resources are designed to give students the valuable feedback they need to improve language skills in the critical early stages of learning. An extensive number of interactive exercises allow students to practice what they learn. With these tools, instructors can utilize valuable classroom time to do what they do best: teach!
- Review: TBA
Portuguese
- Baticum! Curso avançado de português brasileiro, língua estrangeira, a partir de textos da MPB.
- Title: Baticum! Curso avançado de português brasileiro, língua estrangeira, a partir de textos da MPB.
- URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10531
- Authors: Antonio Roberto Monteiro Simoes
- Institution: The University of Kansas
- Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND
- Description (by the author(s)): Baticum! is a textbook for advanced learners of Brazilian Portuguese. It is divided into chapters, each with its own table of contents. This record contains the entire work in one file, as well as the work divided into chapters for easier downloading. It is anticipated that changes will gradually transform this printable textbook into an internet-based course taking greater advantage of the multimedia and interactivity available on the web. The project is the result of a 1999 grant provided by the United States Department of Education under the International Research and Studies Program, when José L. Martínez was the program officer
- Review: TBA
Uzbek Language
- Uzbek Concise Thematic Dictionary (Uzbek)
- Title: Uzbek Concise Thematic Dictionary (Uzbek)
- URL: https://ctild.sitehost.iu.edu/ConciseThematicDictionary/ConciseThematicDictionary
- Authors: The Center for Turkic and Iranian Lexicography and Dialectology (CTILD)
- Institution: Indiana University, Bloomington
- Copyright: Not known
- Description (by the author(s)): Concise Thematic Dictionary is a unique resource that compares the lexical features of the contemporary Uzbek literary language and the Tashkent dialect.
- Review: TBA
Tibetan Language
Haitian-Creole Language
- Chita pa bay: elementary readings in Haitian Creole with illustrated dictionary
- Title: Chita pa bay: elementary readings in Haitian Creole with illustrated dictionary
- URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10931
- Authors: Bryant C. Freeman
- Institution: Institute of Haitian Studies, University of Kansas
- Copyright: CC-NC-ND
- Description (by the author(s)): Once the beginning student of a foreign language has acquired its rudiments, the need is felt for elementary reading material to reinforce what has been learned. Unfortunately, very little material at this level exists in Haitian. The great majority of texts available are designed either for the native speaker just learning to read, or for the accomplished one who already reads Haitian with ease. Both categories, however, enjoy a wide range of vocabulary far beyond that of a beginning non-Haitian student. Thus it was to provide more relatively elementary readings, which we hope will be both interesting and challenging, that these selections were assembled.
- Review: TBA
- Haitian Creole-English English-Haitian Creole Medical Dictionary
- Title: Haitian Creole-English English-Haitian Creole Medical Dictionary
- URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10892
- Authors: Bryant C. Freeman
- Institution: Institute of Haitian Studies, University of Kansas
- Copyright: CC-NC-ND
- Description (by the author(s)): The present bilingual medical dictionary is intended for the many English- speaking physicians, dentists, nurses, and paramedics treating Haitian patients. It is meant to serve as a corollary both to our Haitian-English Medical Phraseology and to Third-World Folk Beliefs and Practices: Haitian Medical Anthropology. The original intention was to present all three as a single work, but as the material grew, it became advisable to separate the parts into three more easily manageable volumes.
- Review: TBA
- Haitian-English Medical Phraseology
- Title: Haitian-English Medical Phraseology
- URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/12505
- Authors: Bryant C. Freeman
- Institution: Institute of Haitian Studies, University of Kansas
- Copyright: CC-NC-ND
- Description (by the author(s)): This work is intended for the many English-speaking physicians, dentists, nurses, and paramedics treating Haitian patients. It is a compendium of the questions and answers heard during the course of several hundred medical interviews which we had the privilege of attending in ten different medical institutions in rural Haiti. Naturally not every phrase one would like to use will occur here, but we hope that the more than 1,300 questions, answers, and instructions, together with the some 12,000 entries in the companion volume, Haitian-English English-Haitian Medical Dictionary, with Glossary of Food and Drink (Port-au-Prince: La Presse Evangelique, revised edition, 1997; 198 pages) will furnish the medical practitioner with basic linguistic tools essential for communicating with monolingual Haitian patients. In addition, we hope it can be of use to missionaries, Peace Corps volunteers, as well as anyone working in rural Haiti called upon at times to assist in primary health care or first aid. The accompanying tapes were recorded by Marjorie Acsenvil and myself. In addition to the Haitian medical dictionary mentioned above, our forthcoming Third-World Folk Beliefs and Practices: Haitian Medical Anthropology may well be of interest. It is intended to offer insights concerning the mind-set of the average Haitian peasant – through geography alone is rural Haiti located in the West.
- Review: TBA
- Survival Creole
- Title: Survival Creole
- URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10932
- Authors: Bryant C. Freeman
- Institution: Institute of Haitian Studies, University of Kansas
- Copyright: CC-NC-ND
- Description (by the author(s)): This work is intended as a brief, practical guide for speakers of English in Haiti on a short-term basis. As the title implies, you will find here only a very minimum of es- sentials concerning one of Haiti’s two official languages – but the only language spoken by all Haitians. It is hoped you will thus not be entirely at the mercy of an interpreter, who in any case will not always be available.
- Review: TBA
- Ti Koze Kreyòl: A Haitian-Creole Conversation Manual
- Title: Ti Koze Kreyòl: A Haitian-Creole Conversation Manual
- URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10934
- Authors: Bryant C. Freeman and Jowel Laguerre
- Institution: Institute of Haitian Studies, University of Kansas
- Copyright: CC-NC-ND
- Description (by the author(s)): Ti Koze Kreyòl is the tongue-in-cheek account of a generic John and Mary, or the story of boy meets girl (in Haitian Creole class!), and of their honeymoon adventures and misadventures across the Haitian scene. Mary is quite bright; John—although always with the best of intentions—is not. The first seven Conversations evolve in a scene familiar to the student, with repeated use of the terms of basic Haitian (e.g., ale, kounyeya, wè). Beginning with the eighth Conversation, the vocabulary of travel (e.g., avyon, lotèl, malèt) is introduced, and from this point on we have an informal travelogue on Haiti. The vocabulary widens to include more specific terms such as bòs, machann, pyas, and pye kokoye. The proverbial Haitian hospitality, Port-au-Prince, the Iron Market, the beaches, Cape Haitian, Sans-Souci palace, the Citadelle, all pass in review. In addition, we touch upon two basic subjects of which any student of Haiti should have at least some knowledge: foods, and Voodoo. In all, slightly over 1,000 words and expressions are used which will, we hope, give the beginning student greater ease with the language.
- Review: TBA
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
