When I first applied to go on this service trip to St. Martin, the place was described to me as a “linguist’s heaven.” Having just changed my major to Linguistics, I was excited to see what I would find there. I expected to be immersed in a combination of French, English, and some sort of island creole; so I knew I wanted to pay attention to how these languages interact with each other and in what domains they are spoken.

I did not anticipate the lessons I would actually learn about language from a local Rastafarian leader—Jah Bash.

Every morning that we were in St. Martin, we took the bus to give a helping hand in Jah Bash’s garden. A garden that he started himself with other members of his community in a place where it had been determined nothing could grow. It was beautiful. When the sun got high and it became too hot for us to work, Jah Bash would sit us down and teach us a lesson about his lifestyle, his culture, the history of the island, or his own research. On one of my most memorable days, that lesson was about the language of the Rastafari.

While we sat in the shady, man-made gazebo-like structure, we listed to Jah-Bash explain his views about how the language we use affects how we think and act. He explained how words have a lot of power to him and other Rastas. He told us that in English, there are approximately 150 basic negative words. We watched as he pulled out a piece of paper with handwritten words on them, and read off words like “sadness, anger, hate, frustration…”

He explained that every time he thinks or feels a negative word, he just replaces it with a positive one. He then read off words such as “happiness, love, joy, patience, kindness…”He also never curses, or speaks harshly towards anyone. He told us “If you have a farm, and you plant 100 negative seeds and only 50 positive seeds, which will take over?” I was fascinated by this. Here was a man who said he never got angry or sad, simply by his language use. I recorded him reading some of these words, and you can listen to this here: Good and Bad words JahBash.mp3

After this experience, I thought I would try my hand at only using positive words in my speech. I started to notice whenever someone I spoke to was negative, and how negativity affects my relationships. Granted, I only lasted less than a week using only positive words, but it is something I will now always be conscious of, thanks to Jah-Bash!

-Jae Lee