Jamaican Culture

Jamaican Culture

The Hip Strip SHOPPING!!!

Doctors Cave • The water which is crystal clear has a temperature range, winter and summer from 78 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit, 22 to 28 Celcius.

Rose Hall Great House • The Great House was the home of Annie Palmer, known as the white witch of Rose Hall. She has been dead more than a century; Annie Palmer still stirs memories of her reign as the mistress of the Rose Hall Great House. Cursed by slaves, she turned a magnificent plantation into a house of carnage. Countless slaves fell prey to her torture while all three of her husbands met death at her hands. The Great House is on the 6,600-acre plantation.

Luminous Lagoon • Experience a magical evening at Rock, just outside Falmouth, and home of the amazing "Luminous Lagoon". It is one of the most spectacular sights to be found in Jamaica. The water illuminates when agitated and you can see the outline of fish as they swim around.

Craft Markets • Harbour Street close to Sam Sharpe Square, and there are two smaller ones in the hotel area, one on the Hip Strip and another on Fort Street on the site of a 17th century fort.

Words I find interesting… • BUCKY- homemade gun or slave • CYA- to care; "donkya", don't care, careless; "no kya" means no matter, as in "no kyawehimtun", no matter where he turns • YAHSO- here • Science- oba or witchcraft • HITEY-TITEY- upper class, high tone, "stoosh". someone who pretends to be better than they are

Largest English-speaking island in the Caribbean Sea • I find this interesting since listening, for instance to One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish on the website, yes it was in English but the way their accent comes off some words are almost completely different I would think it wouldn’t be considered English, like how in England some people say they speak Old English.

Slaves? • By the late 17th and early 18th centuries the island was virtually divided. Colonial planters and their slaves inhabited and worked in the costal plains, while high up in the Blue Mountains there lived fugitive slaves, the free community of the Maroons. • Ethnic make-up - black 90.9%, East Indian 1.3%, white 0.2%, Chinese 0.2%, mixed 7.3%, other 0.1%

Observations • Trust: It has been said they have a healthy distrust in certain people, I want to observe if the children are the same, depending on age. I want to see if they will trust us coming from another country, or if even at first they will shy away. • Religion: since we are going after Christmas I’d like to find out about their traditions and how they celebrate.

Observations Continued… 3. How people greet each other, especially us being new. • How they say words, accent, compared to ours. If they can understand/ think we have accents. Since Jamaican speech, even in English, has a distinctive rhythmic and melodic quality • The way everything looks, how they live, fancy or not. Differences in color, building structure, ect.

UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE • State of blissful ignorance. You are unaware of cultural differences. It does not occur to you that you may be making cultural mistakes or that you may be misinterpreting much of the behavior going on around you.

CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE • You realize that differences exist between the way you and the local people, though you understand very little about what these differences are, how numerous they might be, or how deep they might go. You may start to worry about how hard it’s going to be to figure these people out.

CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE • You know cultural differences exist, you know what some of these differences are, and you try to adjust your own behavior accordingly. It doesn’t come naturally yet—you have to make a conscious effort to behave in culturally appropriate ways—but you are much more aware of how your behavior is coming across to the local people. You are in the process of replacing old instincts with new ones.

UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE • You no longer have to think about what you’re doing in order to do the right thing. Culturally appropriate behavior is now second nature

5 Lessons to bring home: • How to more open and less object able to other peoples culture and way of life. I want to be able not to judge right away and just be open to new things before even walking in the room. • I’d like to appreciate what I have and where I come from.

Lessons continued… 3. I’d like to try and see similarities in the culture although theirs is different from ours. Like compare values and see which ones are important like ours. 4. I’d love to learn about the food, the different types or at least experience their food and what they eat that is different than us.

Last Lesson 5. I would love to bring back a tradition in the Jamaican culture that they do during Christmas time, and incorporate it in my Christmas celebration next year.

Concerns: • I will offend someone • They wont be able to understand me, since I often talk fast. • Being in a country that I am unfamiliar with, With a language that I don’t completely understand.

Resources • http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/jamaica.html • http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/culture/pdf/chapter5.pdf • http://wws.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/culture/pdf/chapter6.pdf • http://www.montego-bay-jamaica.com/index.html • http://niceup.com/patois.html

Jamaican Culture