CREOLE LESSON ANYONE???

Creole is one of the many languages spoken here and although it is predominately made up of English, to the untrained ear it is foreign indeed.

So here is a lesson in Creole people.

- You greet people by saying “How de do?” Or “How you de do?” Please speak as fast as humanly possible.
- You never say “I don’t know”, replace this with “I no know” or “me no know”, again at great pace.
- Replace “us” with “we” all the times for example, come with us becomes, come with we.
- Never say “him” or “her” replace these in a sentence with “he” or “she”, ie, Im going with he.
- In many cases you preface what you are about to say with “Makeame”. For example, Makeame show my homework, or makeayou get homework. Generally this rule applies if you are about to do something or you are asking some else to do something.
- Rather than saying “other” or “another” say “next”, ie, do you have another one? Becomes, do you have a next one?
- When giving directions you don’t say “there”, “here”, “left” or “right” you would replace these with “So”, ie, when you get to the mango tree, go down “so”. I went down there, becomes I went down “so”. In effect you could end up saying “ Go so then so and then straight then so but don’t go yonder” they really direct you by pointing as they speak but, hmmmmm you wouldn’t want to be blind!
- At the end of a sentence when describing something or making a statement ie the grass is green you would add “No true” so you would say in Creole, “the grass is green, no true” This is not a question it is a statement.
- To say “can I have some please” you would say “Please some” and that’s it.

An example of a Creole conversation is this, try it out and don’t forget to speak super fast and with a slight Jamaican accent:
“Where you de go?”
(Where are you going?)

“Me no know, makeayou show me”
(I don’t know can you show me)

“You go down so at de first street and then go straight, then go so and then so.”
(You go left at the first street, then go straight, then take a right and then a left)

“Is there de next way?”
(Is there another way?)

“I no know, just go so! When you de get there, you meet we, and we go”
(I don’t know, just go the way I said. When you get there you will meet us and then we can go together)

“Ya maan, you have some drink? Please some pop?”
(Oh, you have some coke, can I have some?)

“Naah maan, this be mine, you get de one from de Chine”
(No, this is mine, go get one from the Chinese store”

“The Chine down so on de corner, no true, me go go”
(The store on the corner, I’ll go get one.)

I hope that gives you an example of Creole, well sort of anyway. We laugh cos its so fast and very foreign sounding. So folks, that’s your very first lesson in Creole, please try it in your vocab and see what reactions you get and then let me know what happens.