Being honest about Patois

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Gleaner’s editorial ‘Holy Trinity, Patois and reading’ made references to Patois advocates who have recommended using the Jamaican language to transition students from the dialect to standard English. This recommendation is in reference to students whose main mode of communication in their homes and communities is the Jamaican Creole, and may therefore encounter difficulties reading English as a fresh and unfamiliar subject.

But, if truth be told, it seems unlikely to materialise. The periodic interest in Patois is like bringing out dancers to entertain royalties, after which they should know how to retreat to their proper places. The proposal that the Jamaican Creole becomes a formal mode of instruction in schools, like a ladder to better access the English language, doesn’t seem practical with the general mindset of Jamaicans.

Such a recommendation is like booking ‘wan ole pap-dunge taxi fi teck yu guh airport, where, it’s not that it cannot make the journey, but because: ‘A who yu tink a guh disgrace demself a rowl guh airport inna beat up sitten?’

To advocate for the use of Patois to address the reading deficit in schools, is to go against the establishment and the many, many years of British indoctrination. Maybe the nakedness of the Jamaican dialect leaves people cringing and uneasy, and may reflect what Miss Lou once observed: That it ‘soun same like di sitten whey yu a chat bout.’ So, there is a lot of resistance among the natives about elevating the mother tongue in the classroom setting as a language of instruction. And it’s ironic that it is so regarded as a waste of time and resources, even while Jamaica is known as the land of Patois. However, the hypocrisy often slips through guardrails, where Creole bashers usually utilise it the most. Moreover, the dialect seems to allow for a more pleasing impact among upscale Jamaicans when the words are issuing from a mouth with a foreign accent: ‘Oh, it sounds so cute!’ Thus, the defiance that Patois is up against has, ironically, become a cultural obstinacy within the very environment that gave birth to the Jamaican tongue. It is the same resistance that people like Miss Louise Bennett and others encountered by promoting an unrefined and unconventional speech. So, whether or not Patois can be all things to all men is a separate discussion, but we should not discourage its use in teaching English.

For at the end of the day, the prejudice is more about sound than substance.

HOMER SYLVESTER

Elmsford, New York