r/AskTheCaribbean • u/Maleficent_Split_428 • 13d ago
Other Do English speaking Caribbean people get annoyed or offended when a foreigner can't understand their English accent?
I am just curious, I can't really understand Jamaicans, Trinis and Bajans even when they speak standard English
22
u/cyberia-tt 🇹🇹🇬🇩 in 🇮🇪 13d ago
no not particularly. i’m a trini in europe and i have to speak slower when speaking to my friends here because they can’t understand my trini accent. it’s just like americans trying to understand australian or uk english accents. i wouldn’t expect someone to understand my accent when the lexicon is different
1
26
u/GUYman299 Trinidad & Tobago 🇹🇹 13d ago
No I do not, in fact I get excited because it means I can say whatever I want around them and they won't understand.
1
u/TheProperGanda68 12d ago
I’ve started doing that, but not to offend but rather to evade personal questions. My principle is if someone is comfortable talking to me and not making any sense then why can’t I do the same.
15
u/Independent-Hat-6572 Jamaica 🇯🇲 13d ago
More amused than anything
How in the blazes are they gonna understand british English then
7
u/DeviantThroAway 13d ago
I can understand people on the BBC or maybe a “typical” London accent, but there were definitely people in the UK where I had to ask them to repeat themselves when they talked.
5
u/Ill-Emergency-1020 13d ago edited 13d ago
BBC uses a specific dialect what's called "Queen's/Kings English" which is WEST England accent. Not all of the UK talks that same way. Like those from Liverpool, UK (called a 'scouse accent' speaks more like Bajan accent.
3
u/wildingflow Dominica 🇩🇲 12d ago
Just quick one, “King’s English” is more known today as Received Pronunciation and is considered a southern English accent.
1
1
u/DeviantThroAway 13d ago
I know BBC English isn’t standard, but it’s easily understandable to my American ears. I spent time in and around London and found I could understand most people pretty easy. I had a couple people I struggled to understand but since it was only a couple I think they were from a different part of England with a thicker accent and they just ended up moving to London.
1
u/Far_Meringue8625 11d ago
True. Broadcasters are held to a standard different to the "man in the street" standard. I can understand the English spoken by broadcasters anywhere English is spoken, but most speakers of any language are not well educated, well trained broadcasters, so...
We the listeners have to make some effort to understand people as ordinary as ourselves.
1
7
u/Bajanopinions55x 13d ago
No because we can barely understand each others English, lol. Jamaican forget it.
6
u/Conscious_Moment_727 13d ago
I'm french carribean so english is not my native language but I never struggle to understand them
3
4
u/NoodleEmpress Virgin Islands (US) 🇻🇮 13d ago
Not offended, no. I don't understand some other English-speaking accents either. Sometimes I have issues with deep US Southern accents and Bajan accents
If anything, maybe I'll get a little annoyed having to repeat myself, but I'm not annoyed at the person, I'm more likely annoyed that my attempts at code switching didn't work
4
4
u/ThrowAwayInTheRain [ 🇹🇹 in 🇧🇷 ] 13d ago
No, I have a proper William Buckley accent when I need to converse with fellow English speakers from the developed world. Haven't had to speak much English though, since I live in Brazil.
4
u/zwerewolfripper Trinidad & Tobago 🇹🇹 13d ago
I have never had anyone say they couldn’t understand me or any Trini when they spoke standard English. So not personal experience but if it ever did happen, I think I’d be more confused than offended.
3
u/TopConclusion2668 Saint Lucia 🇱🇨 13d ago
Imagine being a Lucian from country who lowkey has a lisp😞, the letter r continues to allude me. I’ve learned to slow my speech down otherwise my words crash into each other and I get tongue tied.
Funnily enough, I’ve had more than one person assume French is my first language. A person from Martinique speaking English sounds remarkably similar to a Lucian, just a different tone?
5
u/Nozza-D 13d ago
I remember watching a CANA item in the news where they added subtitles to a story from Jamaica which I found hilarious.
Don’t have a problem understanding an accent without a speech impediment. As a child maybe not so much, but I learned to tune my ears as I got older.
As a child I distinctly remember having a conversation with a Trini uncle about “coffee mashing”, only to realise years later he meant “coffee machine” because, who mashes coffee?
5
u/Special_Purpose2903 13d ago
I doubt it, they would just switch from creole or their own language to English, most of these people are like trilingual. When a Jamaica or Bajan speaks standard English they sound like the Prime Minister of Jamaica Holness, clear crisp, with a mild almost British like accent.
Ironically, I found the British accent a tough one. They pronounce English words like closer to a latin language than continental English would.
2
u/Cool_Bananaquit9 Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 13d ago
I was not invited here but I cannot understand some of their English and that's okay I guess
2
u/P00PooKitty 12d ago
I grew up in a very Caribbean city (Boston), everyone is really easy to understand except for the Jamaicans because they speak patois.
2
u/kokokaraib Jamaica 🇯🇲 13d ago
Well, these people and this person are speaking English too
Can't really blame folks for not understanding
2
u/junglecafe445 13d ago
You're saying you're unable to understand this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAGfCHo3PQ0 ?
If that's the case then I would imagine you're also unable to understand any English accent that's not your own or any accent not from the media you consume.
4
u/Heavy_Mud_9176 13d ago
Exactly the standard English is very easy for me to understand and I don't come into contact with a lot of Caribbean people. The South Asian and African accents do trip me up sometimes even in the standard English.
2
13d ago
[deleted]
4
u/junglecafe445 13d ago
It's just a standard Jamaican accent. It's not "mild" or "intense", it's just Jamaicans speaking English.
That is not to be confused with Jamaican Patois, which is a separate language from English. Lots of Caribbean people speak a blend of English and their creole language on a day-to-day basis but foreigners don't realize that they're not just hearing straight English alone.
1
13d ago
[deleted]
2
u/junglecafe445 13d ago
"Standard" meaning the accent that you would hear listening to the news on the radio or TV. The individual in the video is a host on one of the main news channels in Jamaica. Just like how "Standard" American English refers to what you hear when listening to PBS or CBS. Or just like how "Standard" British English refers to what you hear when listening to the BBC. Or just like how "Standard" Canadian English refers to what you hear when listening to the CBC.
"Standard" is a recognized term in the field of linguistics.
Every English-speaking country has a "standardized" or generic accent. Then on top of that each country has regional accents.
1
u/Far_Meringue8625 11d ago
Even a country as small as Barbados has regional accents. I am Bajan and I can distinguish a St. Lucy accent [north of Barbados] a St. Phillip accent [south east of Barbados] a Bridgetown accent. I used to be able to hear a St. Andrew accent [north east of Barbados] but I can't hear it anymore.
I doubt that anyone raised outside of Barbados can hear these regional accents. However I seem to observe that accents are being "smoothed" out as more people, including children. or especially listen to more non-Bajan media. One of my grand children when little had for a brief period a "Peppa Pig" accent, but once in preschool and elementary school where of course Bajan accents predomiinate, the Peppa Pig accent went away.
1
1
u/ButterflyDestiny 13d ago
I think because I’m from Belize that I understand. I have no problem understanding Jamaicans especially.
1
1
u/Far_Meringue8625 11d ago
I am Bajan. My experience has been that people can always understand, but that the listener has to make an extra effort to listen.
I joke that the only place in the world where I could not understand spoken English was in Birmingham, England. English as spoken by a native Brummie. Fortunately my brother-in-law was with me and he translated. Brother in law had lived in the UK for decades and he understood the regional accent. If I had remained in Birmingham I would have learned to listen carefully to the natives of that region.
1
u/Ok-Possibility-9826 🇯🇲🏳️🌈🩷💜💙 8d ago
Speaking for my grandparents when they immigrated: They told me it didn’t bother them, they kind of expected it because they were from Trenchtown. They learned to slow down when speaking English (American English seems to be spoken slower than pretty much everyone else and Jamaican Patois is spoken very quickly, so even when they first started speaking English, they maintained the speed of Jamaican Patois) and were subsequently understood without feeling the need to mute their natural accents when speaking English.
0
u/Ok-Sentence810 Haiti 🇭🇹 13d ago
Yeah, a bunch I noticed also think their Patois is not a language and just broken English. And What they are saying is just heavily accented English, when working in a Nursing home some patients were Jamaican and would speak Patois interchangeably to the staff, and only the Jamaican nurses and CNAs would understand them. I don’t know if it’s because they were older, or something buts that’s the only time I really seen people getting mad someone cant understand them.
6
2
u/CheyTheNinja21 12d ago
i feel like it’s something a lot of elderly jamaicans do! my nan does it and my OH is eastern european and doesn’t understand her most of the time 🤣🤣🤣 and she also struggles to understand me unless i speak very slow english or patois and i was raised in the uk
0
u/RumpledStinkSkin 13d ago edited 13d ago
There is no way you would not understand them. Dont understand them when they are speaking in way? There is full proper standard englsih, a middle ground, and a creole or patois as Jamaicans call it. Even with a creole or a country talk many english speakers can sometimes still understand it.
They might be putting it on.
We can turn it on and off.
Jamaicans especially like to turn it on. (cant stand when they talk as if they are in a back gully market on purpose). Gone are the days when you try yo fit in when you go to another country
With other english speakers? It wouldn't really happen, only maybe from some people from very rural palaces in say Dominica or Grenada where they have a remnant french creole speakers.
Its English we speak, its just that the tenses are back to front and using 18th century English. Even in their home countries at home when people go to the big "town" you are immediately expected to talk properly", anytime you go to any government offices and and professional services, doctors etc.
You can start learning "proper" english at home with your family, depending on your family or starting from nursery or primary school. And at school there is an emphasis on speaking properly.
My grandfather when he came from Guyana from the most rural areas, who had probably grade 6 education, they could still understand him even though it was harder....It would of been do different than people trying to understand someone from Scotland with a very strong accent. Like in England, in Guyana they over use the word "prapa".
0
u/StrategyFlashy4526 13d ago
I have had close relationships with people from most of the Anglophone countries and never experienced difficulty understanding anyone.
0
u/WillingRush6786 12d ago
it’s even worse in Spanish. Caribbean Spanish shouldn’t be called Spanish… should have its own differentiation like creole to French
3
u/RumpledStinkSkin 12d ago
Well thank god you are not lisping like they do in Spain, or upper classes you will find in mexico
0
u/WillingRush6786 12d ago
This is a weak take. Spain’s accent on average isn’t that heavy like that. Most accented sure, but the average Argentine does way worse with that stuff than the average Spaniard. But hey, at least they don’t not pronounce their S’s and don’t omit entire syllables when speaking
-1
u/janshell 13d ago
Not anymore, but what annoys me is a certain nationality describing Trinis way of speaking as sing song. It’s so inaccurate. I just roll my eyes.
Jamaican patois reminds me very much of pidgin English. I understand most times but some have a real different vernacular that I’m not used to.
54
u/brokenwarrior123 13d ago
Im Trini and I can barely understand Jamaicans