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LOCAL Tuesday 30 July 2024

Aruba Tourism Authority honored loyal visitors at Aruba Beach Club!

The Aruba Tourism Authority re- consecutively visiting Aruba)
cently had the great pleasure of
recognizing Emerald Ambassadors The honorees were:
of Aruba. The honorees were re- Emerald Ambassadors
spectively honored with a certifi- Mr. Glenn & Mrs. Rafaela Sewrajs-
cate for their years of visits, loyalty, ing from Curacao.
and love for the island of Aruba.
Mr. Jorgino Willems representing
The honorary certification is pre- the Aruba Tourism Authority, and
sented on behalf of the Minister staff members of Aruba Beach
of Tourism as a token of apprecia- Club bestowed the certificate
tion and to say “Masha Danki” to upon the honorees, presented
guests who have visited Aruba 10, them with gifts, and thanked them
20, or 35 years or more consecu- for choosing Aruba as their favor-
tively. ite vacation destination, as their
home away from home.
The three levels of honor are as fol-
lows: The top reasons for returning to
Distinguished Visitor (10>years con- Aruba provided by the honorees
secutively visiting Aruba) were: • Aruba’s Beaches our sincere gratitude and appre-
Goodwill Ambassador (20>years • “Vacation, Family and ciation to the honorees for their
consecutively visiting Aruba) Friends” On behalf of the Aruba Tourism continued visits to the “One Happy
Emerald Ambassador (35>years • “Very friendly staff” Authority, we would like to express Island”.q

Papiamento words and phrases you may want to know!

(Oranjestad)—Aruba is a melting least, not officially. We often just and Spanish, some of these phras- Yes…no…maybe?
pot of different nationalities, cul- use the English “hello” or “hey”, or es may look very familiar. The affirmative and negative ex-
tures and languages. Primarily for Dutch “hallo” to greet someone. pression is very simple in Papia-
this reason, the average Aruban We do however, always follow it up 1. Bon dia is used in the morn- mento. Just like Spanish, our yeses
can understand and speak Dutch, with “con bay?” or “con ta?” Con ing, up to about noon. Bon dia es- are “si” and our no’s are “no”. Pret-
English and Spanish relatively well. bay is a shortened version of “con sentially means good morning. The ty easy right? If you want to gain
However, as much as we pride ta bay?”, which essentially means word “bon” means “good”, and some extra points from younger lo-
ourselves in being able to com- “how are you?” while “dia” does not directly mean cals, you can also say “se”, which
municate with almost everyone, “morning” in English, it is used often is a more casual affirmative used
we cherish our native tongue Pa- The word “con” in Papiamento to refer to the morning time. mostly by the younger generation.
piamento above all else. Want to means “how?” and is pronounced 2. Bon tardi. In the afternoon However, do note: some older
learn some common words in our with a rounder “o” sounds, like in to early evening hours, we use generations may find this improper
language? Here are a few basic the English word “cone”. “Ta bay” “bon tardi” to greet people, which and not respectful, so keep that in
words and phrases that can get refers to how you are doing. means “good afternoon”. “Tardi” mind.
you a hat tip from an Aruban. actually comes from the word “at-
When we say goodbye, we use ardi”, which directly translates to Thanks man…
When you arrive at the airport in the word “ayo” (not like the Ayo “afternoon”. However, the short- Lastly, a word that we can also
Aruba, one of the first words in Pa- Rock Formation, but also…kinda?). ened “tardi” is used to keep the say more often is “danki”, which
piamento you may encounter is We may also use “te oro”, which rhythm on the phrase. And the means literally “thank you”. “Dan-
“Bon bini.” Bon bini in Papiamento means “see you later”. same could be said for our last ki” is derived from the Dutch word
means welcome, and is probably greeting of the day. “bedankt”. Though we don’t really
the most famous Papiamento Greetings during the day 3. Bon nochi. You guessed it, have a translation for “I appreci-
word for tourists. Most, if not all, languages have dif- “bon nochi” means “good night”. ate it” in English, we do use “masha
ferent ways to greet according to Just like “tardi”, “nochi” is actually danki” to convey the message.
Hi! Bye! the time of day, and Papiamento the shortened version of the word “Masha” means “a lot” or “very”,
To be fair, there is no unique way is no different. Since Papiamento is “anochi”. so “masha danki” means “thank
to say “hello” in Papiamento. At heavily influences from Portuguese you very much”.q