Sometimes it just sounds like a different accent, but there are also some words that are different and they express things differently from English people with other backgrounds. I can understand them and I can copy them, but I've grown up with a bit of a Bristol accent, which my Mum thinks is better than a Barbados accent for getting on in Britain.

When I'm with my black friends we sometimes talk in our own kind of patwa. It's not like our parents'.... well, it's a bit like it but it's our own. It's something only other black youth can speak well. Also, it's different depending on where you live, like in different parts of the country, so it's like an identity thing. We use it in school or wherever if we want to be private, instead of 'normal' English. I wish white people wouldn't get all paranoid about it: when we're talking patwa we aren't always putting white people down!