ARUBA LANGUAGES

Papiamento was developed in the neighboring island of Curacao in the 1500's to enable African slaves to communicate with their owners. In addition to their own language, Portuguese and Spanish missionaries, Dutch merchants, South American traders and Indians added additional words.

Dutch is the official language of Aruba due to the fact that Aruba is a Dutch colony. All documents and government papers are in Dutch and lessons at school are also given in Dutch. Papiamento is the native language, only spoken on the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao). Most of the inhabitants speak Papiamento at home or on the streets with friends.

English is recognized as an international language and all inhabitants of Aruba are obliged to learn English as early as the 4th grade in primary school. Spanish is also taking on equal importance since Aruba is located just off the South American Continent. Spanish is also taught as early as the 5th grade of primary school. French is taught in high school as an optional language.