PS Spotlight: Sandère Junior

“I remember when I was in primary school, when I heard someone talk English. I said, ‘Wow! I like that sound. How can I do it?” recalls Sandère Junior, 26. Fast-forward, and Junior has progressed so far in his language studies that he’s posed to graduate from the final level of the RFF English program, along with his 15 other classmates.

Though he spent two years learning English in Les Cayes prior to his studies at the RFF Learning Center, Junior said he found it hard to focus with few opportunities to practice speaking outside of the classroom. For Junior, it was already difficult to find someone to have a long English conversation with around his home in Laforsse, so he was disappointed when he would overhear fellow students from English class speaking Kreyol around campus.

“They’d say, ‘Oh, you know, we’re in Haiti.’ But I say, ‘No. You’re learning English. You need to focus exactly in your English,” he said.  

This focus, he says, is why he finds the program at the Learning Center valuable.

“When you come here you need to be on time; you don’t need to be late. If you’re late, if you miss three days, you cannot come here anymore,” he said.  “I like that. So me, I like discipline, more serious students that can help me in my life.”  

Always looking to practice his English, Junior is excited by any opportunity to engage with foreigners and hear the language from the mouths of native speakers. Laughing, he explained a memory in which Joan Conn, RFF’s Executive Director, came to the Port Salut Learning Center and spoke little English, as she was trying to improve her Kreyol, disappointing Junior who had been hoping to practice his English.

“Me, I know Kreyol. I don’t need to speak Kreyol again,” he said. “Me, I just focus only English.”

The ultimate goal now that he’s finishing with his class at the Learning Center?  To go to the United States to further perfect his language. “I need to go to the United States to improve my English, to find Master’s in it, to be good in English and come back. This is my dream,” he said.  He expressed the desire to join his brother among the sizable Haitian population in Boston as he continues his studies. After, he hopes to eventually return to Haiti—Port Salut, specifically—and teach English or work with the local radio to report news.  

“I congratulate people who take part in this organization,” he said. “It’s a good thing that they’re putting in Port Salut.”

Written by: Andrea Van Grinsven, 2015 RFF Summer Intern