Wednesday 29 August 2007

Dhivehi terms used for foreigners

Here in Maldives, where the population is 300,000+, a staggering 50,000+ foreigners are employed for various professions. So it ain't surprising that we've come up with a few terms such as

Bangaalhu Meehun: used to refer Bangladeshi ppl, who are perhaps the most common of all foreign empoyees here.

Loakuda Meehun: "Loa" means eye, "kuda" means little. Thus this is used in reference to East Asians from Japan, China, Thailand etc, who are easily distinguishable because of their eyes.

Guestun: Probably the most illogical of all the terms. This word was originally formed from the English word "Guest", & was first used in reference to European tourists during the days this country established the tourism industry. "Guestun" is commonly used to refer to whites by the elderly population.

Baburun: An old word, used to refer Black Africans. I don't really know why we decided to call them that. Can anyone help me?

Bangaalheen: Not to be confused with "Bangaalhu Meehun". This is a term that is unique; it refers to Indians, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis & more recently, even Nepalis. This word is, unfortunately used rather negatively, mainly from people who get disgruntled at the sight of Bangaalheen at the turn of every road & street in Male'. (come on admit it! dont u feel the same way??)

7 comments:

The Xostedenzyme said...

nice one ;)

shweetikle said...

absolutely true! and errrm..india orilanka meehunney ves kiyaa dho? =s
nice post!

.mini said...

hehe
salhi post!
and all of it so true!

we have to change those to respect people from other countries!

Imma said...

apart from "bangaalheen" & as shweet said "orilanka" i dont think we use the terms disrespectfully. though ur right mini i think its high time we maldivians learnt to be more cooperative with foreigners. i mean, some of us still have this rather apprehensive approach towards them.

white flower said...

hehhe... funny post :P

ab said...

Cool post... Our ppl realy should learn to respect others!

iecco said...

yeah orin ves ulhey dho...

nice post!