Average customer rating:
- You should read this
- 1991 Nebula Award Winner, 4-1/2 stars
- One of my favorite SF novels of all time
- Fascinating, canny, and powerful
- Uneven - when its good, its good. When its not, its painful
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Stations of the Tide
Michael Swanwick
Manufacturer: Eos (HarperCollins)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
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Swanwick, Michael
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| Science Fiction & Fantasy
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General
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| Science Fiction & Fantasy
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ASIN: 0380730456 |
Book Description
The fiction of Michael Swanwick transports readers through thought and space; into dark, fantastic worlds teeming with awesome creations, characters and ideas. From the critically acclaimed author of Jack Faust comes an award-winning vision of cataclysm and transformation; an extraordinary excursion into questionable realms of morality and godhood.
The world of Miranda is dying--doomed to drown beneath the weight of its own oceans. In the final days before the unavoidable natural disaster, the race is on to locate Gregorian--a brilliant renegade scientist and wizard who, with his forbidden technology and charismatic magic, plans to remake the moribund planet in his own image. Gregorian must be found-- and stopped--before the rising Jubilee Tides obliterate his trail and Miranda is inexorably hurtled toward a terrifying confrontation with death and transcendence.
Brilliantly realized, suspenseful and compelling, STATIONS OF THE TIDE is speculative fiction at its provocative best
Customer Reviews:
You should read this.......2006-03-21
So let's see; I waited entirely too long between finishing this and writing it up, but we'll give it a try.
It's the future, and something very odd has happened to Earth, presumably due to runaway technology. Humanity has spread to other planets, and a bureaucracy with institutions named things like The Stone House and The Puzzle Palace has a division called Technology Transfer that tries to keep this, whatever it was, from happening to the rest of humanity. On the outskirts of the solar system, humans have carefully-controlled contact with Earth, in the form of a huge enigmatic Sphinx. After talking to Earth, you have to let the bureaucracy examine your memories and expunge anything they find disturbing there.
In this context, a bureaucrat comes to one human world, one which has tragically abused technology in the past and so has had even more of it than usual taken away, in search of someone who (probably, or perhaps) has smuggled in something forbidden and is abusing it. The world is a strange and rich one, and it's about to undergo a phase-change, in which the seas rise to engulf nearly all the land, and all the life on the planet transforms into watery alternate forms, or dies. There are wild last parties, cities being hastily disassembled, lost fortresses slowly sinking under the water, enchantresses and wizards and demons who may be technology-enhanced, or hallucinations, or only rumors. (There's also some nice memorable sex.)
So anyway, the bureaucrat moves through this world on this mission, assisted by his high-tech talking and transforming briefcase, and various odd and interesting things happen. Eventually he encounters the person he was searching for (more or less), and finds out just what is really going on (more or less). And he and the briefcase both undergo transformations of their own.
It's a good book, a memorable book, a book with fascinating images and ideas, where technology blurs into deity and myth, and I can't recall a single nit to pick. You should read it.
1991 Nebula Award Winner, 4-1/2 stars.......2005-12-12
Michael Swanwick's Stations of the Tide was like a breath of fresh wind into the science fiction field. And as refreshing as it was for SF readers, it was probably even more important to the SFWA, the organization that awards the Nebula, as after awarding the Nebula for four straight years to bombs they were able to retain some credibility, got their act together finally, and awarded a true deserving science fiction novel.
The novel is `only' 250 pages or so, relatively short in this era of 700 page doorstops. But there's an entire fascinating universe contained within these pages. Swanwick's writing is succinct; many concepts in few words. The first three pages of the novel are important to set up not just the setting, but the author's style of writing and it pays-off the reader by taking time to understand it. When the protagonist is talking to his boss, who or what and how is he talking to him. How does his boss after the conversation `return' to the corner and shut off? When you understand that the `surrogate' is an advanced form of telecommunication, you appreciate not just the set up of the plot but the level of technology in this novel.
Swanwick's characterization is superb and his characters, whew, can be from off the beaten path. When the protagonist meets one, the description of the character when he's sucking on some candy of some sort and `liquidly' moves it around in his mouth drives a mental picture of this character from memories of others that had done the same, I just never have read anyone that just even attempted to describe it. Also when the protagonist meets the mother of Gregorian, the person he's searching for, she's this obese women that barely can move, you can picture her and imagine her as someone you've read about in the news that was so heavy and never moved that when she died in front of the tv, they had to cut her away from the couch upholstery which became embedded in her skin. And this woman's arrogance on her past beauty when she's way, way past that time but still acts like it when all that's left are some photos of her from years ago that she shows off reminds one so clearly of other people one has met in real life.
The planet, Miranda, that the protagonist, the bureaucrat, is on, as he searches for Gregorian, the antagonist who is believed to have stolen some piece of forbidden technology, is in the last few days before being flooded in one of the periodic planetary effects. Planetary celebrations are ongoing and you can feel the buzz in the air, like Mardi Gras before an impending thunderstorm (this meant in a positive way). And labeling the bureaucrat as competent is severely understating his abilities and the events he goes through. He is of course human. He meets this `witch' who embellishes his life, teaches him forms of tantric sex (which, um, I've tried and actually does work) and falls for the woman, but to her he is emotionally meaningless. The scenes are heartwrenching when he occasional sits down and cries over her, but eventually gets up and continues his quest, because afterall it's his job and his responsibility.
It is a confrontation between magic and science. Magic is such a subtheme, and the occurring events are so unorthodox, that towards the end when the protagonist is trekking on a path to a final confrontation with Gregorian, you're blindsided by the reality of when (paraphrasing): `white objects, measuring a few millimeters in diameter, began dropping from the sky', because at this point you don't know if it's manna from heaven, pieces of paper, or a swarm of living entities. Like a short story, the novel is not concluded until the very end. It is a triumph for science. For those whose careers are in the field of science, this ending is a reminder of all the reasons one entered the field; that it's not a religion, it's the hope and power and promise of science.
One of my favorite SF novels of all time.......2005-09-22
This is a truly bizarre and haunting book, and one of my all-time favorite SF novels. A nameless bureaucrat (accompanied by his sentient briefcase) is sent to a backwater planet whose decaying human civilization is about to be obliterated by a cataclysmic, millenial flood. The bureaucrat is hunting a self-proclaimed mage named Gregorian, who claims he can transform the human colonists so they can survive the coming flood, and who is accused of stealing and using proscribed technology. The plot is basically the story of the bureaucrat's frustrating search for Gregorian, which leads him on a meandering journey across the planet Miranda during its last days of human habitation. What propells the book forward isn't the momentum of the plot, but the exploration of this doomed society, where technology is both so powerful and so inaccessible (it's hoarded by the off-world agency that the bureaucrat works for) that it's essentially the same as magic. One of the wonderful things about this book is the off-hand way in which this dazzling technology is described, as though the reader were an inhabitant of the bureaucrat's universe rather than our own, and therefore wouldn't need to have everything explained.
This aspect of Swanwick's writing style can be confusing or frustrating, but by *not* spelling everything out, he creates an atmosphere of disorientation, of things kind of falling apart. This elusiveness also helps build a powerful feeling of mystery and wonder, where things are not as they seem on the surface, which is a major theme of the book. In trying to make sense of what's happening on Miranda, you follow in the footsteps of the main character.
This book is a meditation on science and magic, decay and renewal, and office politics. Well, maybe it's not a meditation on office politics, but there's plenty of that in there, along with some breathtaking, incredibly imaginative images and ideas. The ending, in particular, is something special. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Fascinating, canny, and powerful.......2004-04-11
I finished reading STATIONS OF THE TIDE last week; I would have written about it sooner, but it's taken me this long to process and digest my thoughts about the book into something approaching a coherent whole.
The book's plot feels like nothing so much as an SF take on Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS. Like that book, its protagonist is a nameless functionary (he is called simply "the bureaucrat" through the entire length of the novel) sent to a backwards hellhole (here, a decaying colony world) in search of a dangerous renegade. The world, called Miranda, has an erratic orbit that causes its ice caps to melt every couple of centuries and drown every inch of dry land; the native life has evolved to thrive under these conditions, but the human settlers have not. As the inept and corrupt local government tries to evacuate the populace in the last few weeks before the flood, the renegade - a man called Gregorian, who claims to be a wizard or magus - gains a following by offering to remake the Mirandans into amphibious creatures capable of surviving the deluge, for a price. The offworld authorities aren't sure if Gregorian is a simple fraud, murdering his followers for money, or if he's employing forbidden offworld technology; either way, he must be dealt with.
The book is difficult to get into at first, and part of this is because Swanwick respects our intelligence enough to throw us into the deep end right from the beginning. As with Mamet's movie Spartan, rather than giving us exposition, he expects us to follow along and patiently assemble the facts of the story by picking them up in context. Once we get over not having everything spoonfed to us, the sense of discovery as the text progresses is intoxicating. The prose is finely-honed and cutting, getting to the truth of a scene in a few skillfully-chosen words. These two factors combine to keep the book brief but dense - it clocks in at less than 250 pages but feels as packed with character, ideas, and incident as a book twice its size.
Swanwick is a disciple of Gene Wolfe, and this is most evident in the way the book's plot takes (or at least seems to take) a backseat to the meandering travelogue of the world on display. And that's fine, because Miranda is a fascinating place: kept forcibly low-tech by the offworld authorities for reasons that are not immediately made clear, it is a planet of swamps and rotting manor houses and superstitious villagers, where travel is effected not by spaceship or hovercraft but by zeppelin, motorboat, or foot. The local religion is a strange blend of voodoo/tribal ritual with Aleister Crowley/Grant Morrison/Alan Moore-style sex-and-drug "magick", and secret brotherhoods of witches and shamans are more feared and more obeyed by the locals than the ineffectual planetary government - but as the planet's watery end approaches, the locals increasingly ignore all authority and give themselves over to either lawless violence or frenzied, nihilistic partying. The resulting atmosphere could best be described as Sci-fi Southern Gothic, like William Faulkner remixed by William Gibson. The bureaucrat doggedly slogs through this milieu, encountering smugglers of alien artifacts, looters, shamans, a family straight out of a V.C. Andrews novel, and possibly a shapechanging alien.
Despite its charms and fascinations, the novel isn't fully emotionally engaging for a lot of its length, and much of this has to do with the rather unsympathetic nature of the main character. The bureaucrat seems to be everything his title would imply: a colorless, charmless, unimaginative automaton, meticulous in the performance of his job and utterly inattentive to everything else. Even his talking briefcase has more personality than him, and his detached blandness makes the starkest possible contrast to the fascinating and intricate world he moves through. Nobody cares about the bureaucrat's mission but the bureaucrat, and despite his dutiful, passionless persistence he seems ever more unequal to his task: the local authorities will not cooperate with him, everyone he talks to lies to him and stonewalls him simply out of spite, he is armed with apparently no knowledge of the world or its customs and culture, and Gregorian's followers are fanatical, ruthless, and seemingly know his every move even before he does.
But this is science fiction, and science fiction is about overturning expectations. Nothing in this book is what it seems; not the central conflict, not the bureaucrat, and least of all the plot, which is about as "meandering" as a Swiss watch. The chief pleasure of the novel, aside from Swanwick's prose, lies in seeing a million utterly disparate threads skillfully drawn together before our eyes and woven into something much greater than the sum of its parts, something not only intellectually engaging but emotionally powerful: we know the bureaucrat at the end, and against all odds we care for him, and his fate moves us. So many SF novels peter out in the final act, but the last fifty pages of STATIONS OF THE TIDE are among the most intensely satisfying I've ever read. We leave the book with a feeling of profound contentment and toe-tapping joy, as if we've satiated a need so deep-seated that we were heretofore unaware of its existence. It's one of the best reading experiences I've had in a long, long time; it's one of those books that burns to be shared with everyone you know.
Uneven - when its good, its good. When its not, its painful.......2003-04-28
The hero of this Nebula Award-winning book is a bueaurucrat. That Swanwick would choose someone with such a job as his hero, and then leave him unnamed for the entire book, is indicative of the nature of the narrative. It's at times quirky, fun, enjoyable, but also irritating, confusing, and silly.
This future world has that the galaxy colonised by humans (and one other intellegent race) who have enormous technological abilities. However, much of the tech is proscribed, especially from the peoples of the colonial planets. This leads to resentment on these colonial worlds, one of which is Miranda. It is this planet's fate to suffer a planet-wide flood (due to a shift in its axis of roation). A 'magician' named Gregorian has appeared, apparently with access to proscribed technology. He appears (to the tech controllers) to be murdering people in the guise of "metamorphosing" them into sea-dwelling creatures. Thus, the bureaucrat is dispatched to investigate.
We follow as the bureaucrat tries to track Gregorian down. There are some neat touches, especially his sentient briefcase/matter transformer, a 24/7 soap opera that everyone is watching (that we see in parallel with the characters), and a system of "surrogates" - remote controlled robots that project the image of the person they are representing. Unfortunately, the system of surrogates leads to a great deal of confusion because the characters (and author) treat each surrogate as the real thing, and multiple surrogates are possible. This leads to a number of unnecessarily confusing passages of "himself talking to himself, while his real self listens in".
Another unfortunate characteristic of the book is to leave interesting ideas dangling. For example, resentment of the people from whom technology being withheld is ubiquitous, but nowhere is the bureaucrat's rationale for withholding it justified or even explained. Likewise, bizarre (and scientifically impossible) events are described in detail as being true, presumably because the author thought they were too good an image to drop. This, to me, is lazy writing in a science fiction book, and is especially irritating because long passages are very good/interesting but they alternate with long passages that are confusing/annoying.
At any rate, it's an interesting read, with some neat ideas, and worth the cost of the paperback. I would not consider it a classic, in spite of its Nebula Award.
Product Description
This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A548293. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: This thesis develops an adaptive controller that actively suppresses a single frequency disturbance source at a remote position and tests the system on the NPS Space Truss. The experimental results are then compared to those predicted by an ANSYS finite element model. The NPS space truss is a 3.7-meter long truss that simulates a space- borne appendage with sensitive equipment mounted at its extremities. One of two installed piezoelectric actuators and an Adaptive Multi-Layer LMS control law were used to effectively eliminate an axial component of the vibrations induced by a linear proof mass actuator mounted at one end of the truss. Experimental and analytical results both demonstrate reductions to the level of system noise. Vibration reductions in excess of 50dB were obtained through experimentation and over 100dB using ANSYS, demonstrating the ability to model this system with a finite element model. This thesis also proposes a method to use distributed quartz accelerometers to evaluate the location, direction, and energy of impacts on the NPS space truss using the DSPACE data acquisition and processing system to capture the structural response and compare it to known reference signals.
Average customer rating:
|
Red tide (Ace science fiction special)
D. D Chapman
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B0006W5A2A |
Book Description
Two CD set pronunciation practice guide accompanies the book Creole Made Easy. Ideal for students of the Creole language, newcomers, and visitors to Haiti. The CD set covers:
How to pronounce Creole letters and words, the basic elements of Creole grammar, sixteen easy 15-20 minute lessons, and easy practice exercises in English with Creole translation.
The Creole words and sentences in each of the sixteen lessons of the book Creole Made Easy are spoken so that the student may listen and practice. The Creole words and phrases are first spoken slowly and deliberately for maximum pronunciation emphasis. They are then repeated at a slow speaking pace with slight inflection for better contextual practice.
Customer Reviews:
a great intro to Haitian Creole.......2007-04-03
I recently took a trip to Haiti, and in preparation for the trip I used the Creole Made Easy materials, including the Pronunciation Guide cd, and the Workbook. I used all three of them together, so I'll review them together as well.
Creole Made Easy is an excellent introduction to the Haitian Creole language. It provides the basic building blocks in terms of grammar and sentence structure from which to go further. This book is not an "emergency Creole" book, and didn't have anything by way of greetings, phrases to use while traveling, etc. Being in Haiti, those things were very easy to pick up, especially with some of the basic grammar under my belt. The Workbook is split into two sections, the first with exercises that correspond to each of the 16 lessons in Creole Made Easy. The second half of the workbook has more practical lessons like: numbers/time, months/days/seasons/weather, colors, family/friends, marketplace/food, around the house, and health and medicine. Indispensable to learning any foreign language is listening to it, and the Pronunciation Guide cd was excellent in that regard. I found that it was great practice for listening to the native speakers (though even then, I was listening too slowly most of the time) and great for understanding how to pronounce all of those nasal sounds. There were a couple of moments of frustration in using Creole Made Easy: there were a couple of misspellings; sometimes a word or phrase was used seemingly out of nowhere and wasn't listed in the mini-dictionary in the back of the book; a couple times a grammatical structure or phrasing was used and I had no idea why it was used that way, and it wasn't explained. This happened very few times, and can sometimes be a good problem-solving exercise that you need good practice for when trying to have actual conversations with Haitian people.
Of the eight people who went with me on my trip to Haiti, I was one of two who used Creole Made Easy, and the only one who completed all 16 lessons. I think some of the others used the Pimsleur cds (not any books). I was by far the best Creole speaker/listener and felt like I was in a perfect position to learn exponentially more while I was there. I was told over and over again "ou pale Creole byen!" ("you speak Creole well!") which I shrugged off for awhile until it began to sink in that this was true. Also, I wish I would have brought Creole Made Easy along with me instead of the Hippocrene Haitian Creole/English dictionary, because I think the dictionary in the back had a better selection of words and phrases I wanted to say. The Hippocrene has no phrases at all, and often didn't have the words I was looking for. All this said, I would strongly recommend the Creole Made Easy materials to anyone interested in learning Haitian Creole.
Excellent intro to Creole!.......2007-04-01
I highly recommend this book for beginners! I use it everday along with the CD to assist me in proper prounciation of Creole words.
Mr. Turnball's patience shows in his pronunciation........2006-07-21
Although, I think the subject matter of the tape is a bit dated or is more relegated to country living ~25 -40 years ago, Mr. Turnball's pronunciation is impeccable. His pronouncing of each syllable provided to us, the listener is with great patience. I know whereever he taught, he loved the art of teaching. Even though much of the CD and the corresponding book have pratice pieces about archaic Haiti rather than the present times, listening and repeating after Mr. Turnball will help you with the language even when the subject matter makes you laugh. Would I recommend the book, I'm not sure that I could recommend it to someone that has more than an inkling knowledge of the language, but if you are just starting out as I was a year and a half ago, the book and CD will get you ready for the Haitian Creole CD/book I subsequently purchased by Pimsleur a couple of months ago.
Great accompaniment to the book.......2004-05-28
Great cd's. The speaker is clear, the quality is good. The phrases are repeated to give you time to practice. A lot is covered in the 16 lessons, if you master them you will be able to converse on a simple level. Vocabulary is included in each lesson so you learn the vocab as you go along.
If you get the book as well, you won't have spent much and you will be much further along in your quest to learn creole. I rarely have to call for a translator now when dealing with my patients.
Book Description
Creole Made Easy. A simple introduction to Haitian Creole for English speaking people. Sixteen easy lessons cover the basic elements of Creole grammar and how to pronounce Creole words. The lessons include simple exercises and translation keys. A thorough up to date dictionary of over 4600 words Creole to English and English to Creole word translations is included. A 2 CD set pronunciation guide is available separately.
Customer Reviews:
Great for learning the language.......2007-05-13
This book had easy lessons that didn't cover a lot of material and so could be learned one lesson at a time in short periods of time.
Great for pronounciation basics.......2007-04-10
Dictionary is helpful, pronounciation guides are helpful, phrases and practices are not commonly used phrases or very practical phrases.
a great intro to Haitian Creole.......2007-04-03
I recently took a trip to Haiti, and in preparation for the trip I used the Creole Made Easy materials, including the Pronunciation Guide cd, and the Workbook. I used all three of them together, so I'll review them together as well.
Creole Made Easy is an excellent introduction to the Haitian Creole language. It provides the basic building blocks in terms of grammar and sentence structure from which to go further. This book is not an "emergency Creole" book, and didn't have anything by way of greetings, phrases to use while traveling, etc. Being in Haiti, those things were very easy to pick up, especially with some of the basic grammar under my belt. The Workbook is split into two sections, the first with exercises that correspond to each of the 16 lessons in Creole Made Easy. The second half of the workbook has more practical lessons like: numbers/time, months/days/seasons/weather, colors, family/friends, marketplace/food, around the house, and health and medicine. Indispensable to learning any foreign language is listening to it, and the Pronunciation Guide cd was excellent in that regard. I found that it was great practice for listening to the native speakers (though even then, I was listening too slowly most of the time) and great for understanding how to pronounce all of those nasal sounds. There were a couple of moments of frustration in using Creole Made Easy: there were a couple of misspellings; sometimes a word or phrase was used seemingly out of nowhere and wasn't listed in the mini-dictionary in the back of the book; a couple times a grammatical structure or phrasing was used and I had no idea why it was used that way, and it wasn't explained. This happened very few times, and can sometimes be a good problem-solving exercise that you need good practice for when trying to have actual conversations with Haitian people.
Of the eight people who went with me on my trip to Haiti, I was one of two who used Creole Made Easy, and the only one who completed all 16 lessons. I think some of the others used the Pimsleur cds (not any books). I was by far the best Creole speaker/listener and felt like I was in a perfect position to learn exponentially more while I was there. I was told over and over again "ou pale Creole byen!" ("you speak Creole well!") which I shrugged off for awhile until it began to sink in that this was true. Also, I wish I would have brought Creole Made Easy along with me instead of the Hippocrene Haitian Creole/English dictionary, because I think the dictionary in the back had a better selection of words and phrases I wanted to say. The Hippocrene has no phrases at all, and often didn't have the words I was looking for. All this said, I would strongly recommend the Creole Made Easy materials to anyone interested in learning Haitian Creole.
The Perfect Little Helper.......2006-07-21
I went to Haiti this year and before I left I had bought this book. Thank goodness I did. It was my bible the whole time I was there and it helped me get by very easily and the back of the book has a very useful dictionary that is easy to interprate.
Kreyol phraseologist........2006-06-02
This is THE book if you have heard the CD, of the same name and/or have some understanding of how words are phrased and the ennunciation of the Haitian Kreyol alphabet. If you do not have those basics down, you might be lost. Some of the pronunciation might be familiar, if you have had French, but since some of the Haitian Kreyol words are pronounced completely opposite of what you might think, you and the person you're speaking to, still may not understand.
All in all, I do recommend the book, but with those above stipulations.
Product Description
This is a workbook that goes along with the 16 lessons of Creole Made Easy. In addition, the workbook has 7 additional chapters containing survival Creole. These chapters include Numbers and Time, Months, Days, Seasons, and Weather, Colors, Family and Friends, Marketplace and Food, Around the House, Health and Medicine. Each chapter contains additional explanations to Creole Made Easy chapters, practical lessons with worksheets to see how you are doing, and insightful glances into the Haitian culture and language. Also included is a final exam. All worksheets and exams have a corresponding answer key. This is a must have to the Creole Made Easy series.
Customer Reviews:
Great for learning the language.......2007-05-13
This book was an excellent resource to learn Creole. It gave me suggestions for how to pronounce things and is in simple, easy lessons that don't cover a lot at once and so are very manageable.
a great intro to Haitian Creole.......2007-04-03
I recently took a trip to Haiti, and in preparation for the trip I used the Creole Made Easy materials, including the Pronunciation Guide cd, and the Workbook. I used all three of them together, so I'll review them together as well.
Creole Made Easy is an excellent introduction to the Haitian Creole language. It provides the basic building blocks in terms of grammar and sentence structure from which to go further. This book is not an "emergency Creole" book, and didn't have anything by way of greetings, phrases to use while traveling, etc. Being in Haiti, those things were very easy to pick up, especially with some of the basic grammar under my belt. The Workbook is split into two sections, the first with exercises that correspond to each of the 16 lessons in Creole Made Easy. The second half of the workbook has more practical lessons like: numbers/time, months/days/seasons/weather, colors, family/friends, marketplace/food, around the house, and health and medicine. Indispensable to learning any foreign language is listening to it, and the Pronunciation Guide cd was excellent in that regard. I found that it was great practice for listening to the native speakers (though even then, I was listening too slowly most of the time) and great for understanding how to pronounce all of those nasal sounds. There were a couple of moments of frustration in using Creole Made Easy: there were a couple of misspellings; sometimes a word or phrase was used seemingly out of nowhere and wasn't listed in the mini-dictionary in the back of the book; a couple times a grammatical structure or phrasing was used and I had no idea why it was used that way, and it wasn't explained. This happened very few times, and can sometimes be a good problem-solving exercise that you need good practice for when trying to have actual conversations with Haitian people.
Of the eight people who went with me on my trip to Haiti, I was one of two who used Creole Made Easy, and the only one who completed all 16 lessons. I think some of the others used the Pimsleur cds (not any books). I was by far the best Creole speaker/listener and felt like I was in a perfect position to learn exponentially more while I was there. I was told over and over again "ou pale Creole byen!" ("you speak Creole well!") which I shrugged off for awhile until it began to sink in that this was true. Also, I wish I would have brought Creole Made Easy along with me instead of the Hippocrene Haitian Creole/English dictionary, because I think the dictionary in the back had a better selection of words and phrases I wanted to say. The Hippocrene has no phrases at all, and often didn't have the words I was looking for. All this said, I would strongly recommend the Creole Made Easy materials to anyone interested in learning Haitian Creole.
A great resource.......2007-03-11
I bought this set when I moved to Haiti-- I also got the "Creole Made Easy" book (different from the workbook) and the set of 2 CDs. They helped enormously in my learning to express myself in Creole. The CDs also helped my comprehension get off the ground, but it was really necessary to learn comprehension from Creole speakers since Creole has so many contractions, so much slang, and Haitians speak rather quickly. That said, I HIGHLY recommend this product for anyone who wants to learn the basics of Creole. You need to practice with Haitians to speak like a Haitian, but with this resource alone, an English speaker could learn to speak and understand other English speakers.
Book Description
Introducing the very best of Cajun and Creole cuisine, including all the classics, such as Seafood Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Bananas Foster.
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- The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
- The Allies of Humanity: Book Two, Human Unity, Freedom & The Hidden Reality of Contact
- The AntiChrist Version 666
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- The Conscious Heart: Seven Soul-Choices That Create Your Relationship Destiny
- The Cylon Death Machine (Battlestar Galactica, Book 2)
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Books Index
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