would like to learn patwa

Welcome to STX! And thank you for bringing your skills to this beautiful island and please stay awhile. We also hail from the Palmetto State and last lived in the "Holy City". I do miss the oysters and the shrimp-n-grits, but those I can make here with frozen shrimp. Anyway, welcome. There are a couple of ladies from down-island that work with my wife, I will ask if they be interested. may want a few $, don't know, will ask.
thank You and again welcome!
Cheers, Dan

gecheegirl, welcome to STX. I am from the low country. Crucian to me sounds just like Gullah only we have a southern accent. Crucian accent is beautiful and sounds like music but the grammar is mostly the same. They have different words for some things. Sometimes the emphasis is on a different syllable. If you are Gullah, or raised by the people as I was, you should catch on easily. I have a hard time when Crucians are excited or speak very fast and have to ask them to say it again. I have had no negative reaction when I speak Crucian. I do not try the accent but I have shown my Crucian friends my Gullah cookbooks to show them how much the language is alike. They, like me, find it interesting. St. Croix is the only island that I have found the language to be so similar. Even St. Thomas sounds different to my ear. Down islanders have a completely different patois.

And some people can get it, and some people can't. I can understand almost anything I hear on St. Croix. My husband, who has actually spent a lot more time in the VI than I, still can't understand people, particularly if he isn't looking right at them. Even then he has to ask them to repeat.