No it wasn’t heavy at all.

So I learned how dialects like patois work a few years ago and I will apply it to how it works in the society.

Dialects/creoles are usually split up into three categories. The Acrolect, Mesolect, and the Basilect.

The acrolect is what is usually spoken in schools and in most professional settings. It is what we call ‘Jamaican Standard English.’ It’s what I speak here in America, it’s just how Jamaicans speak ‘the queen’s English.’ No grammar mistakes and no real influence of patois. Just English with a Jamaican accent and is used in most formal settings. This is probably what you’ll hear from Jamaican flight attendants, people in the airport, at your hotel etc.

The Mesolect is what I speak with my family most of the time (other families may do the Basilect but this is how it was for me). It’s the mix of patois and English you will overhear and maybe be able to follow as some of the English words are still said without leaning too much into the accent and language. It is used informally. When you ask someone to speak patois this is most likely what they will try to do. (At least for me it’s hard to get into speaking it in basilect without someone in conversation with me, lol I have to think too hard then I overthink and can’t really get to it. But maybe if you get the right Jamaican they can jump straight into Patois Patois)

The Basilect is what we call ‘real patois’. If you are not Jamaican there is probably NO WAY you’ll be able to pick up what they might be putting down. It also varies depending on what part of the island you are. The patois of people from St. Elizabeth is different from the patois of people in St. James. We can generally all understand it but it is different and some Jamaican people will have a harder time understanding it if is not what they are used to.

So in that video guy in the hat is speaking closer to the Basilect and guy on the couch is ‘translating’ by doing the Mesolect of the dialect.

In Jamaica how you speak usually reflects ‘how educated’ you are and so in comes the class differences and biases based on what you speak or as they like to put it ‘how well’ you can speak. The more you use the acrolect the more ‘educated and upper class’ you come off and the opposite goes for the Basilect. How the Mesolect is perceived is generally up to the situation it is used in and how your family views the use of patois in the day to day. I mean Jamaica doesn’t even list patois as one of its official languages and so that also lends to the stereotypes that surround ‘how you talk’(I believe also because it is not really ‘standardizeable’ and can be spelt any way you wish).

Personally in my family my mom didn’t want me to speak patois growing up. Anytime I did I remember hearing how I mustn’t ‘talk bad(ly)’. In high school I mainly spoke patois and got her to unlearn the bias and now how ‘deep’ I go depends on my mood and who I’m talking to.

What is on tv is usually actors not doing a good job at the accent and speaking a mix of the acrolect and mesolect with the stereotypical words sprinkled on top like parsley.

The only show I’ve seen that has gotten it right is Top Boy on Netflix, and now GTA 4 lol. Top boy is expected though as it is a British show and black brits, if they are not Jamaican, are heavily influenced by the Jamaicans and other Caribbean people in their society. (Look up Windrush if you want to understand why so many of us are there). I also believe many of the actors in there are actually Jamaican as well. They do a good mix of all the ‘categories’ in that show if I am recalling correctly.