No Yardy...she did not use that word but she used a lot more that could not by any stretch be reduced to patois. And that, I think, goes to the heart of this national debate. How do you standardize patois so that it can be reduced to written form with nonvariable English equivalents? It's impossible and we should leave well alone.

When I pressed her about her failure to respond to the practical problem I raised in my letter, she made a very interesting response. She said the young man's inability to get a job because he can't speak understandable English is no different from a Japanese person having the same problem in America.

I concede that she has a point except that we, as Jamaicans whose native tongue is English, are in a better position than the Japanese to avoid this language trap. I recall an American who lived in JA in the 1970s telling me that she had never heard anyone in America read the news as well as Marie Garth did on RJR. That is the standard we should strive for in our schools instead of seeking to dumb down education by teaching in patois.

We have to agree to disagree on that one Sis RR. Believe me, I am not against appropriate use of Patois. My wife and I speak it at home all the time, especially when we don't want the kids to know what we are talking about!!!!