Our young sportsmen and women

[Sir X]

Tell dem again Sass ...like I said !

4) Isnt patwa embraced already , why do you think these youths feel comfortable expressing themselves as such ? its embarrassing to the educated because it says our nation has failed to bring them up to English literacy standard of formality (interviews, speech , mannerism ) , not patwa standard, we are doing a damm good job and I am sure they would say the same.

[Jangle]

Sass, there is a big difference in being trained to handle an interview and sounding and being comfortable speaking your natural tongue. Since "patwa" is derived from the English language as its base, you can sound intelligent speaking it once you understand the fundamentals and the grammar of English. A perfect example is Yohan Blake. It is obvious, and I could be wrong, that he doesn't have a good grasp of the English language and its grammar from his early interviews. He has gotten much better now, maybe because he's being trained to handle interviews.

[Assasin]

"He has gotten much better now, maybe because he's being trained to handle interviews."

Most kids who have never done interviews before or not comfortable doing it so they will do it by instinct. The fact is many on here were critic of the young Yohan Blake.

If the kids were trained or used to been interviewed they would do much better.

[Sir X]

Xactly thats why I said I have no problem with them speaking english or patwa in any enviroment , they need to be trained how to answer the questions.

I would also add that when you listen to some of these small islands , no disrespect ,speaking good standard english , they are very hard to comprehend e.g barbadians. and guyanese, on par with patwa if you ask me, and its only an accent in pronounciation of sentences.

[TDowl]

Mo, you have initiated one of the best Threads for a long time, now give the Summary to resolve those short comings.

[Sir X]

My 2 cents the solution , make patwa the official language for the psyche of the nation and english the standard in all institutions .ESL languages are best learnt in early years, yes kindergarten so that tells us we are failing at english which is our unofficial 2nd language and doing damm good at our 1st language (unofficial national language) patwa.

The patwa teaching arguement kill itself long time , I keep asking what is it to teach about patwa and I cant get an answer, the ridiculous proposition is , we will learn to grasp english better ...nonsense! when we have a firm grasp on patwa already from our childhood.

[Peter R]

Interesting... I thought the T&F athletes of those that I saw (other than the girl who said "mi cyaan talk") did a pretty good job. If they had shown the rest of the interview after the first girl begged off, the other three gave a good account of themselves.

Usually the athletes when interviewed at Champs post race handle themselves very well. They didn't do that this year or if they did they ISSA didn't show it on their live stream.

As for Mr Seaton the footballer mi 'ope a nuh suh him chat wen him a get intaview inna 'merica. I actually don't have a problem with his interview as he is talking to a local audience. The athletes should definitely be aware of their audience and should act (speak) accordingly.

My son's football club had their U14 players practise interview etiquette as part of their training.

Besides the Trini accent most of them did reasonably well in this composite: My son is not in this BTW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPrpTxbUHkQ

[Assasin]

For one the same Journalists who criticize the youths need to have regular seminars with our athletes on how to handle the press and interview.

More effort needed from the schools and to have the importance of this. One of the thing needed is schools to do community outreach and small speaches.

We need speach professionals to work with kids with lisp and other form of speech problem.

Let them know it is ok to take pawta with their friends but slow it down and communicate to the public when tney have to. I could go a little more into this but I will later.

Major concern for me is that these kids are limited in the job market.

[Peter R]

Jangle, you're just a "cunning linguist" ha ha ha Anyway, my real point is that the reason why you and Seaton can make the switch is that you are both "immersed" in it. True? Most Jamaicans are only immersed in patois.Your surroundings have an influence on the way you naturally express yourself.

That is why the only way (for the vast majority of people) to gain oral fluency in a foreign language is to be immersed in it.

[Mosiah]

Besides the Trini accent most of them did reasonably well in this composite: My son is not in this BTW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPrpTxbUHkQ

Ah, Peter, why are they singing?

[Mosiah]

We claim we should not have to teach patois because that is what we already speak. Well, tell that to students in England and in Spain who have to study English and Spanish! Yes, I always thought it odd that one of my classmates who came from Belize and spoke Spanish fluently had to take Spanish at MC. And he wasn't even the best in the class!

Anyway, I am not proposing any teaching of patois. My wish is simply this - we should declare patois an official language, along with English if we have to. But we need to teach English as a foreign language, because it really is! Maybe we don't want to call it a foreign language, but we fail our students when we make them believe the two languages are almost indistinguishable, as if they operate under the same rules.

[Mosiah]

They are actually very impressive!

[Willi]

Pullen is KC!!!!!

[Mosiah]

Ok! Sorry!

[Sir X]

I agree we should declare patwa our official language but I disagree we need to teach English as a 2nd language .You have nations from Latin America that speak a hybrid Spanish and communicate through standard Spanish , Mexicans, Peurto Ricans and Dominicans have their own cultural form of Spanish , a perfect example is Brazil and Uraguay border states where they speak a portugese/Spanish dialect and communication for commerce or industry is dictated by the standard language.That said as in the states and the U.K people speak broken English, slang or cockney etc , the standard English again is used for commerce/industry.

I don't believe we fail them as you said, I am a 100% sure they know the two languages are distinguishable by the factors I listed , its use in a formal environment for commerce/industry.

I believe they also know we have failed them to bring them up to par in conversing in those industries where standard English is required, what I find disturbing is that some believe teaching patwa is a solution to learning English , when any educator will tell you ESL languages are best learned in childhood , which tells you the obvious, we are failing the youths because that is what is taught in kingergartens, basic , prep and primary schools, so why is patwa more learned by our youths who fall in a certain class ? Because as we know a middle class and upper middle class youth can converse in both interchangeable with ease.....look in the mirror.

The conclusion is our educational system has failed and its not because patwa being the dominant language , more so because we have failed to educate our youths from a certain class in English .......tearing the mask off the circus....we have gutted our educational system to the core and hidden behind all kind of nonsense to justify it.Teaching Patwa wont change a thing because we lack the resources to do so, like we lack the resources to teach English in those social classes.