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Originally Posted by WhiteRastaman
Well im white and i love jamaican culture i went there on a trip with my sisters boyfriend im 17, and he knows the language but can someone just give me a few words in the the language that might help me in the long run
and can u give me this sentence in the language
Bring the love and peace brotha man
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Hello WhiteRastaman,
Thought I would offer you a perspective/opinion that might help you out:
I am white, and can speak/read Jamaican patois fluently. I've learned it through exposure --- both in the U.S. and Jamaica over the past 20 years or so. And while I might write a few words in patois on here and do write some poetry in patois, I very rarely ever speak it to anyone. Why? Because I personally feel that it is not my language to speak, and I feel that I am being more respectful by not doing so. There are a lot of 'wanna-be' white people who try to do this, and I think they sound just straight up silly (Now...if I were to LIVE in Jamaica, I would most likely eventually begin to speak it, as it would help me to survive and acclimate...a whole different thing!).
I do believe that you will learn more, and that people will embrace you more genuinely if instead of trying to be 'down' with them by speaking their language, you approach as an observer/student. I sometimes see white Americans in Jamaica trying to communicate by using cliche phrases...and I cringe (Irie, yeah mon, one love, etc, etc...ugghhh)! Many people are very insulted by this, even as they won't say so. Study on your own by reading (the novel The Harder They Come is written almost entirely in patois), listen to music (the dub poets such as Mutabaruka are a good place to start), and watch movies (there are copies of Jamaican movies that have subtitles) I'm interested to know opinions/perspectives of Jamaicans here on this topic.
A funny story:
Last year when I visited Jamaica, I stayed with a friend of mine that I've known for a couple of years. One night she and I were up late talking. We were tired and feeling silly --- laughing and joking. At one point, I started to rattle off some patois to her. I'd never done this before...and while she knew I overstand it, she didn't know I could speak it (I used the word 'overstand' on purpose here, as that is Rasta talk...not to be confused with Jamaican patois. However, a lot of Rasta language has mixed in with patois, and you often hear non-Rasta people using some of it as a result). Her eyes got big, she looked at me and said, 'Bwai, Nancy, mi nevah did noh yu can chat patois so!' The next day in the presence of a friend of hers, she said, 'From las night mi find out someting bout mi friend Nancy. Is pure patois she can chat, yu noh!' And her friend said, 'Fe true? Yu nah lie?' She responded, 'No sah, mi nah lie. She can chat, yu noh! Me woulda tink she a Jamaican if mi did jus hear her pon de phone.' And I knew by the way she said it, that it was with respect.
Also, she is quite fascinated by American forms of English, especially Black English (not slang, but forms of speech)...as so often in it there are similarities to Black English in the Caribbean (patois --- even as many don't call it 'patois'...a whole different topic for later). If you study the history, you will learn that this is so because when African people were enslaved and forced to speak English (and stripped of their own), African languages mixed up with English, Spanish and French --- and the result was the many forms of Black Englilsh that you hear from North Carolina all the way down to Guyana in South America, and Belize in Central America. Also remember there is the language, and then there are slang words/phrases within the language...just like with the English language you and I speak. For example, I read a thread on here about the word 'flex.' Flex is a slang word, not patois, but the word is used by patois-speaking people. Yu nah see it? (That means, 'do you get it?')
Much of the beauty of patois is in HOW it is spoken, rather than what is actually said...the inflections in the voice of the speaker, etc. It is a very dramatic and creative language that puts our old, boring white American English to shame! And...when you read patois, many words will vary (you have probably already seen that in these threads), because it is a language that has never been 'formally' written down or defined on paper.
I hope you find this all helpful/insightful. Good luck in your studies!
I'm marrying that Gentleman
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