Hi. I married a wonderful Jamaican man in October of last year. could any one help me learn to speak his language fluently? Or at least learn enough to understand him when he is speaking to others? I can understand some but not everything.

If he's not teaching you then he might not want you to understand it.

Search on youtube for how to speak patois or take you index finger and poke him in the chest and tell him that you feel it's rude of him to not speak English around you.

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There's no book, no you tube video, no tutorial on the planet that will help. The best way is through immersion. I bought a book, online lessons, watched every video and listened to every .wav file from here to Timbuktu and discovered that like with most languages, the best way to learn is to just jump in and listen to it. As a matter of fact, I had a phone conversation today with a friend of a friend and didn't understand half of what he said to me. LoL Lord knows what I agreed to.

Good luck to ya with that. I still struggle but I promise - it'll get better. I agree with Ecotours - except I wouldn't use my finger and poke him, I'd take my hand and smack him on the forehead.

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I don't think that dialect is a language to be taught, as Mair said you need to be around it for a while before you can actually pick it up.

@ Eco.

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There is no such thing as a Jamaican "language". Our local dialect is no more cryptic than many of the slangs spoken across the United States.
There are many books that help you to understand the key phrases, but nothing replaces direct contact with the spoken words. If you can,spend as much time around him when he is speaking to others. Take a trip (if possible) to Jamaica. As you lissen and become more familiar with the "rhythm" you will gain eventual understanding.
Last....start listening to Jamaican music. That helps as well.

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I agree with all the things the other posters say. One of the most important things during your learning period is to ask him to repeat or explain what he just said when you don't understand. Asking him to explain what certain words and expressions mean is also helpful.

I still have a hard time understanding my husband when he is talking to his friends. I get bits and pieces, but not every word. He talks in a mix of patois and English to me, definetly different than his friends or other tourists. When he gets mad he slips into heavy patios to me, but I just let him go off and tell myself ignorance is bliss. Or sometimes when I do want to understand what he is saying, I tell him "Speak English".

There is an opinion that "Jamaican" is a language. Not because it has a dictionary, but because the basis underwhich it operates is not that of the English language. For example, the system to express plural (two man) is different from that of English (two men). Much simplier.
Note, Jamaican is actually in a process of development. The spoken is more advanced than the written. This is normal in the development process.

Part of the reason for the inconsistencies in English is that the language was being developed by three "factions". They could not agree on all issues so they settled for a compromise, thus we have stuff that seems to contradict itself in English. That did not stop the British from spreading it all over the globe.

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The opinions expressed by Samba are not the official opinions of ETJ or its owners.

I think your partner should help you learn.

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There are books you can buy as well to help you with some individual words. And, web sites. Then, yes, hang around Jamaicans, watch movies, videos, listen to music. You'll pick it up eventually. You wont' even realize you know till you are sitting there shaking your head during conversations.

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..hummm.. trying to think of something you could say in Jamaican that would make him scared and want to teach you.....allow me to put on my evil Jamaican cap for a moment....

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If you can't understand when he speaks how didja know he asked you to marry him????

How did you 'court' if you couldn't understand....????

How long have you been together???

Best way I've learned is like others have said..to immerse yourself. When I first went to Jamaica, I hardly knew anything as far as what they were saying. I made friends, spent more time listening to the music, immersed myself in everything Jamaican. Plus I had some friends who were in the country in JA, and had super thick accents so I kinda had to learn if I wanted to have more than a thirty second phone call consisting of " huh"??? LOL!

Now I can understand most things, I can type a fair bit of it...and can speak a little very terribly!!

You can't really be "taught" patois....I've seen people type the same sentance thirty different ways...it's kinda one of those things you just have to learn through being around it!

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SIDEBAR:
The argument for or against Patois being a language versus a dialect could be debated ad infinitum. My personal reason for "erring" on the side of a dialect is that traditionally, the depth and extent of patois usage in Jamaica was relative to the area (parish) one lived as well as (apparently) the relative distance one resided from the "corporate" areas.
Objectively, that could easily also be said of the variations in accent between Southerners and Northerners in the United States as well as the relative differences between individual States. For instance...A car in CT and Southern MA is usually pronounced "Kar" with the "r" emphasized. In NY and NJ, its a "Kaw". CT = "New Yurk" and "New Jursey", NY/NJ = "Nu Yoak" and Nu Joisie". (Right, HotTeach?)

Even without a distionary, a language traditionally has standard words to describe an object and an established grammar; Patois does not, but seems to dynamically "borrow" words from the English language depending on the speakers, recipients and the types of conversation being interchanged.
I believe that the push to consider patois as a language is based less on established definitions and more on a need for cultural recogition and independence.
Still...it no mattah tu mi. Mi a chati same way.

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"In this great future, you can't forget your past. " Bob Marley (1945 - 1981)