Talk Jamaican

So while on holiday in Croatia I heard a lot of italian speakers around me and as you do, well as I do anyway, I listen in and see what I can understand. The answer was pretty much nothing. Hubby was not surprised as he explained that they were pretty much speaking in dialect. Well that is how it is with most languages right...

When we first arrived in Glasgow it was only slightly difficult at times to understand what people were saying. Actually a lot of times hubby still does not understand what people are saying. When my mother came to visit she thought a group of children she heard at the museum were speaking a foreign language. Working with children I had to pick up on the accent and lingo pretty quick, otherwise I was at a slight disadvantage. Once I was asked to give what I thought I heard was a piece of jam to a child for breakfast, only thankfully to realise this was simply a jam sandwich!

So kind of coming full circle, having been in the UK for so long now, traces of any sort of Jamaican accent are usually rare. Unless of course I have just got off the phone with my mother or I get angry, though even now I am starting to do that in Italian. Many people think I am Canadian or some say even Irish. I got a bit upset the other day actually when I read on a friend's facebook status "Today's pet peeve: Jamaicans who migrate as ADULTS and yet feel the need to lose their accents! Cyaan understand it at all!..SMH..." For me I did not so much feel the need so much as it just happened. When people say to me that I don't talk Jamaican I just kind of shrug my shoulders. I certainly ain't going to force anything out of my lips that don't come natural to me and speaking patois now would probably sound rather false and humurous.