Life funny eeeh? Plenty supposedly bright people in Jamaica still busy arguing that Jamaican creole (or patois or dialect or whatever unnu want fi call it) has no place in the classroom.

Yes, the debate continues about whether Jamaican language should be either taught in school as a subject by itself, or used as the language of instruction for other subjects. But the debat is happening mainly in Jamaica. Elsewhere in the world, people not debating, deliberating or waiting, dem moving wid di ting! Fi real man. If unnu think is lie me a tell, ask a man name Clive Forrester!

Jamaica Creole!

Clive is a Jamaica scholar currently working at York University in Toronto. He's a research fellow at CERLAC - the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean and he's a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. And guess wha him a teach at di big, big university? Him teach Jamaica Creole! One introductory course and an intermediate course - and him class dem always oversubscribed because everybody want learn wi language and culture except we.

When I asked him what kind of people generally sign up for the course, Clive said 'some folks who were born in Jamaica, some whose parents are Jamaicans, and some who just love jerk chicken'. There are also quite a few young ladies doing the course so they can better understand their Jamaican boyfriends.

appreciation

Whatever the reasons, Jamaica creole sell off a Canada. There's also an international English creole programme for elementary school students in Brampton, Ontario, that encourages appreciation and awareness of the languages spoken by Caribbean immigrants, and Clive is very involved with that as well.

Yesterday Clive and I had the pleasure of making presentations at a Black History Month event called 'Grounding with my Brothers' put on by Chinguacousy Secondary for the black males at the school. It was inspiring to sit in a room full of young black males talking about history and blackness and ambition and progress. We also had some exciting discussions about violence and masculinity and negative stereotypes. What I found most amusing, was how the students - some of whom came from Somalia, Nigeria, Eritrea, Dominica, etc, all enjoyed, understood and valued Jamaican language.

years of slavery

It was also very interesting and encouraging to hear some of the views of the youths on the whole black history month thing. One young man suggested that after 400 years of slavery if all we get is one month (the shortest and coldest month of the year at that) then that's not enough; we should have 12 months!

Wha unnu think?

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'There are also quite a few young ladies doing the course so they can better understand their Jamaican boyfriends.'