According to Christopher Columbus Jamaica is ‘the fairest isle that eyes have beheld’. He was the first who sighted the island in 1494. Would you like to read about a contemporary fairy – tale love story in which main characters are a young beautiful woman from Jamaica and a man from Poland ? Are you interested in getting to know Jamaican culture and Jamaican Patois known from Reggae music lyrics ? Are you looking for a professional English tutor and tutorial on Regaae music lyrics via e – mail ? So, go on read the article below.
Ms. Dianne Francis is fun – loving and gregarious. She likes to think of herself as easy – going and simplistic. Right now, she is 21yrs old, a second year MA Psychology student and a mother – to – be. She is an English tutor working in Warsaw, Poland.
Contact :
Ms. Dianne Francis
Private English Tutor (Native Speaker).
Jamaican in nationality but versed in both the Queen’s English and American English.
B.A. in Linguistics and Languages at the University of the West Indies.
Much experience in working with both adults and children alike.
Email: dianne.lorrainne.francis@gmail.com
No.: +48600887020
Currently, based in Warsaw, Poland.
A fairy – tale love story
This love story of two coach surfers is very famous in Poland. Even the most popular Polish TV stations, among them TVN 24, mentioned about that contemporary fairy – tale love story. Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckrykEd1h58
– Robert and I met in Jamaica in Oct. 2008 when he took a trip and I hosted him for his birthday. Before we knew it, I was in Poland that Christmas and we have been together ever since. Now, we are 5 months pregnant expecting our daughter and still together. My friends joke that our relationship is rather fairytale-like as he just saw me and swept me off my feet – says Dianne. – We decided to move to Poland as Robert and his father ran a web – mastering business together and that was his livelihood. It would have been a lot easier for me to uproot and resettle than for Robert to settle in Jamaica as his job was here and for him, the visa situation would have been too hackling. Plus, at the time, I was transferring universities so the only thing I left behind practically was family and friends – she added.
Jamaica
Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea with an area of 10, 991 square km. The national capital is Kingston. Christopher Columbus, after discovery in 1494, called it Santiago. Its indigenous Arawakan – speaking Taíno inhabitants named the island Xaymaca, meaning the ‘Land of Wood and Water’, or the ‘Land of Springs’. In 1655 the island it became an English, and later a British colony, and since that time it is known as ‘Jamaica’.
The island’s various Spanish, French, and English place – names are remnants of its colonial history. The great majority of its people are of African ancestry, the descendants of slaves brought in by European colonists. Jamaica became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962. It remains a Commonwealth realm.
People and Language
Spanish colonists had exterminated the aboriginal Arawak Indians by the time the English invaded the island in 1655. The Spaniards themselves escaped the island or were expelled shortly afterward. The population of English settlers remained small, but they brought in vast numbers of African slaves to work the sugar estates. Today the population consists predominantly of the black and mulatto descendants of those slaves, with small groups who trace their ancestry to the United Kingdom, India, China, Syria, Portugal, and Germany. In recent years, immigration has increased, coming mainly from China, Haiti, Cuba, Colombia, and other Latin American countries. About 7,000 Americans also reside in Jamaica.
English, the official language, is commonly used in towns and among the more privileged social classes. Jamaican Creole is also widely spoken. Its vocabulary and grammar are based in English, but its various dialects derive vocabulary and phrasing from West African languages, Spanish, and, to a lesser degree, French. – The national language in Jamaica is English. We speak the Patois as this was our tongue from the days of slavery. The Patois is a mixture of French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Afrikaans with a very heavy African accent. The mixture is comprised of these empires as Jamaica was colonized by all four in the past and our slaves were mainly from Africa. There are vocabulary from Chinese and Indian dialects as they too came as indentured labourers
Some joke that Patois is basically these 5 languages spoken together just with an African accent and they are not far from true. The fact is that when these empires dominated, the slaves were forced to speak their language and with the Africans phonological predispositions, it was rather hard for them to sound exactly the same, so Patois was born ! – explains professionally Dianne Lorrainne Francis.
English – African Creole language known as Jamaican Patois has become known widely through the spread of Reggae music.
Maya Kowalczyk
To be continued …