Patois

[gregandkelly63]

Do you have any Jamaican friends in the North?

We live in rural Tennessee. Most of these people couldn't find Jamaica on a map!

[Bluez]

Another great way to learn is to go on youtube and do a search for "jamaican movies 2014 latest full movies" not only will you learn a lot of patois, you will learn a lot of the way things a gwan

[Lorax2]

Rosetta Stone jamaican is the way.....
http://youtu.be/uhEEPRTUb30

[Lola]

After hearing some DJ cd's a million times, some of the words started to come through. When I heard this I had to ask:

"sniper bottle" ???

What is a sniper? I say things like terrorist, threat, gunman, intimidating...

Wicked, a sniper is wicked! Oh, yeah. And wicked can mean very bad or very good.

She had a hot body!

[Lola]

A slice of life:

"Yo So-and-so, a dat breadfruit." This is a rare but not unusual conversation in my yard.

Breadfruit? I ask, from where? Multiple scenarios come to mind, a nearby tree that we'd recently discussed, a bounty of being in the right place at the right time, a relative brought them by or a request was made to go buy some for us. But we never cook with breadfruit so I couldn't put anything together that made sense, in the few seconds this transpires.

A small black lada bag arrives, with a blocky, non-breadfruit shape to it ~ let alone breadfruit isn't usually handed over in a bag unless it had been sent for at the market.

He pulls out a dasheen and a slice of yellow yam!

Hahaha

[Lola]

There is a simplicity in the language. Also, it is very visual. "One love" is a more beautiful way of talking about community unity.

[Kahuna3]

You've probably heard of the Rosetta Stone way of learning a language.
They now have a Rosetta Stone for learning patois. Its really quite good.
Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhEEPRTUb30

[68Stang]

that was funny Kahuna

[thepegboy]

I knew it was only a matter of time until Rob Ford made this post!
Note: this is NOT typical of Canadians or Torontonians!

[djwreckd]

After being a Dj on my first trip I incorporated Dance-hall music into my sets and slowly words became clear. From there it was phrases then sentences, and now after years of immersion I can say I understand and can sing much more than I can speak but I can speak enough to get by.....