Both my children were born in Jamaica my daughter being almost 7 years older than her brother speaks patwa and understand patwa like a true Jamaican. There was a time however, that she would ask me to speak "properly" when her friends came to visit. Now I see some of these friends who comes over and say Mrs. RR. we love to hear you and daughter talk and try to speak like us to our amusement. On the other hand, my son who came here at age 4 can not speak patwa at all...at least when he tries I tell him to stop he sounds like his sister's friends trying to 'talk patwa'. He understands the language very well though as a youngster he knew he was in deep trouble when mummy only spoke the language to let him know that was forming the fool. So, it will die if we dont take care. So that is where my concern lies in getting the language down for prosperity. So EW, we will agree to disagree in that yes, I think for our education system to make it a mandatory subject is short sighted for practicality in todays world. Then again, if we dont market it some one else will *just like our reggae music* so, there is some value but not in the sense that students should be taught this as a compulsory subject for todays market place.