Like most Caribbean parents, growing up with Jamaican parents is a very unique experience. Jamaican parents by nature are very strict and normally won’t hesitate to resort to a good old fashioned flogging if have the overwhelming urge to act rebellious or ill-mannered. From early childhood, Jamaican Parents urge their children to excel academically and athletically and also encourage them to be discerning in regards to the company they keep.

In this lesson we will be discussing the different ways of giving directions in Jamaican patois.

Gyalis - English Translation: Player Definition - Slang term for a male who is skilled at seducing women, normally by tricking them into thinking they are the love his life, when in reality, only sexual favours are desired from these women. He manages relationships with multiple women, normally with each woman being oblivious that there are other women in his life. The literal translation for gallis is “girl-list”

People of different nationalities have developed certain expressions which they use to comment on situations, give advice or warning, without using the day-to-day speech of ordinary conversations. These expressions are of two types – Proverbs, which give advice and/or warning and Idioms. An idiom is an unusual way of stating an idea.

Rastafarian words and phrases are a combination of English dialect and Jamaican Patois spoken primarily by Rastafarians. The Rastafarian language is actually much easier to learn than Jamaican Patois because it’s mostly a play on English words (e.g. “overstand” for “understand”,“downpress” for “oppress”,“ I-ditate” for “meditate” etc…) rather than being an entirely separate dialect as with Jamaican Patois.

Wah gwaan -English Translation - What’s going on or what’s up - Definition Pronounced as “waa gwaan”, the literal translation is “what’s going on” but when used as a greeting, it can also mean “What’s up”. Different variation of “Wah gwaan” may be used but they all have the same meaning. These include; wah deh gwaan, whatta gwaan or waguan (pronounced wa-goo-ahn)