Aah, yet another bugbear of mine - accents in books. I couldn't read Trainspotting (I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway) because of the accent stuff. I read everything with an Edinburgh accent already :-) The key thing for me is, does it matter what the speakers accent is wrt communicating the plot. Sometimes it's used, often egregiously, as a way of indicating class and status, which could be relevant, though it often isn't. Sometimes it's an indicator of being out of place which works so long as it's comprehensible. Your Jamaican example shows this - why do this if the reader has no idea what it says? You're not communicating. I doubt I would understand it even when spoken. Ultimately it's about your audience - who are they? Will they understand what you are trying to get across? If not then you're not doing the right thing. Say you're trying to show that someone is from newcastle and the other is from Sunderland. You could use accents but in reality almost none of your readers will get it. Easier to say it up front.
This a problem with watching movies in a language you don't speak. For example I believe that Almodovar sometimes has characters speaking with inappropriate accents but if you're not in the culture you would never know.
Aah, yet another bugbear of mine - accents in books. I couldn't read Trainspotting (I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway) because of the accent stuff. I read everything with an Edinburgh accent already :-) The key thing for me is, does it matter what the speakers accent is wrt communicating the plot. Sometimes it's used, often egregiously, as a way of indicating class and status, which could be relevant, though it often isn't. Sometimes it's an indicator of being out of place which works so long as it's comprehensible. Your Jamaican example shows this - why do this if the reader has no idea what it says? You're not communicating. I doubt I would understand it even when spoken. Ultimately it's about your audience - who are they? Will they understand what you are trying to get across? If not then you're not doing the right thing. Say you're trying to show that someone is from newcastle and the other is from Sunderland. You could use accents but in reality almost none of your readers will get it. Easier to say it up front.
This a problem with watching movies in a language you don't speak. For example I believe that Almodovar sometimes has characters speaking with inappropriate accents but if you're not in the culture you would never know.