Hee! Seems like there are so few Jamaicans here ... we should stick together. Or at least feed each other.

At her baby shower, there was a whole table that she called "Kingston". All her Jamaican friends. That she met here. Personally, I'd love to hear the two of you speak patois to each other. I love the sound of it.

I don't speak patois often. Not unless I'm mad, really.

Can I just say how much I'm pleased by Sharapova? Finally a pretty enough slim blonde Russian tennis player who can actually win shit. Okay, maybe not today, but still. She's real deal.

And Federer! God, there's a man made sexy by his excellence. Perfectly unremarkable to look at, unless I know how masterful his tennis touch is. Mmmm.

don't speak patois often. Not unless I'm mad, really.

What if someone just started? Would you answer not in patois?

Nope. I learnt to speak in Canada, and my mother was pretty adamant upon our return to Jamaica that I only speak standard English around my baby sister. I'll use vocab reflexively, but not grammar or rhythm.

Ah. Sorry for assuming.

Nah, I'm the freak with the plastic accent. Teaching's really making it obvious -- I'm not always sure why some looks flicker across everyone's faces. But apparently the way I say "teeter totter" is distinctive. Which means I have to do the whole "Where I'm from" speech, and get the "But you don't have an English/Jamaican/Canadian accent! You just pronounce everything perfectly!"

Which is a weird distinction, so maybe I should just say "seesaw" instead.

I like "teeter totter" cause a) I like the owrds "teeter totter" and 2) I like the way you really annunciate your "t"'s. I'ma guess it's from years of being called "ida".

It would make it easier, I suppose.

But apparently the way I say "teeter totter" is distinctive.

I suspect my gf would pronounce it similarly to you, ita, and she's from Texas. She over pronounces her "t"s often

t /gf likes carrots