The way I usually explain this to my students is to start with the basics:

Many people think that our sense of rhythm (both for music and language) comes from hearing our mothers' heartbeats in the womb.

The heartbeat would go:
lub-DUB / lub-DUB / lub-DUB / lub-DUB / lub-DUB /

This rhythm has one unstressed beat (lub) that is followed by a stressed beat (DUB). This pattern of unstress & stress is referred to as an Iamb.

The English language--as well as many others--falls naturally into the pattern of iambs.

What a trochee does is simply reverse this pattern, so that you have a stressed beat followed by an unstressed beat:

LUB-dub / LUB-dub / LUB-dub / LUB-dub / LUB-dub /

So, in musical terms, a trochee is simply a syncopated iamb.

And one of the things that makes Cajun music distinctive is the improvisational syncopation that players often add to the music. By syncopating the beat, we get a rhythm that feels pushed forward and that has a slight jarring effect that gets people's attention.

Probably more than anyone wanted to know, but I hope it helps.

Class dismissed.
Jude