Haitian Creole Translators

Need a rough translation from Creole to English (or English to Creole)?

www.translate.google.com Google’s free online translator is actually pretty good for rough translations. On the page choose “Haitian Creole” and “English”. The “flip-flop” arrow allows you to change the direction of the translation.

This really works best if you are starting with a block of Creole text and you need to understand the gist of it. For example, maybe a friend sends you an email entirely in Creole. Google’s accuracy rate is probably about 80% or a bit less as it struggles with idiomatic expressions, slang words, and more conversational constructions. But it’s perfect for gaining a rough understanding.

Have a specific Creole question you want to ask a real native speaker?

www.sweetcoconuts.blogspot.com
Mandaly Louis-Charles is a multi-lingual Haitian blogger living now in the US. She runs all the wonderful resources at SweetCoconuts including the “Ask Anything” feature on the left-hand side of the homepage.

If you need to know how a native Creole-speaker would say a specific sentence or two (or if you’re not having any luck with Google Translate), submit your question to Mandaly and within 24 hours your question will be posted to the blog’s homepage along with her expert answer!

Have a bigger job that you need a Haitian Creole translator for?

Outside of Haiti

Stephania Desir-Alexis
Stephania is a friend of HaitiHub’s based in Raleigh-Durham, NC. (You might recognize her voice from the audio recordings in the modules!) Stephania offers professional translation services on the side and is a great resource for groups and orgs looking to translate materials before their trip!

https://www.langworld.org/
Langworld is a South Florida veteran owned and U.S. based translation company. They offer a wide variety of translation services including certified, academic, and business documents as well as documents required by immigration or other legal entities.

www.freelang.net
The community at FreeLang is a good place to get a native speaker to help you for free with a longer block of text. The length limit is 800 characters and the terms of use state you cannot use your translation for commercial purposes. If you use this free service, understand that your translator is a volunteer, should be thanked for his/her time, and may take up to 3 days to send back your translation.

If you have a longer document that needs translating, you can use the paid service at freelang.net to get the job done professionally.

www.altalang.com
Alta Language Services is another good paid alternative for professional translations. Alta can be a bit more expensive but they are very good and on-time.

In Haiti (Port au Prince, specifically):

If you or your organization doesn’t already have a working relationship with a Haitian translator, the best move is to call one of the more popular, reputable guest houses in the capital to request that they set you up with one of the translators they work with regularly.

Matthew 25 Guesthouse (run by the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas)
https://www.parishprogram.org/matthew-25-house

Heartline House (run by Heartline Ministries)
https://www.heartlineministries.org/ourministries/theheartlineguesthouse.php

Trinity Lodge Guest House
http://www.trinitylodgehaiti.com/