A wise author once wrote, “International travel will teach you more about business, politics, and law than all the degrees combined” (Buy Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Mine). As I continue to travel, I continue to learn. I am constantly reminded that I do not know everything, and that smugness is not a good quality.
My latest example is when I went to board my flight to Anguilla (see MIA-AXA: Almost Bumped on My Birthday). The gate agent pronounced it ang·gwi·luh. As a resident of Puerto Rico (see Despacito! TPOL Is Moving to Puerto Rico! Effective Inmediatamente) and a tremendous Spanish speaker, I could not help but feel embarrassed. It’s pronounced ang-gee-yah, obviously.
When I landed in Anguilla, the local immigration agent said, “Welcome to ang·gwi·luh.”
The second fun fact about ang·gwi·luh is how much money it is making from its website addresses. Anguilla owns the rights to ‘ai’ web addresses and sells them for a pretty Eastern Caribbean penny. Indeed, the Anguillian government says that in 2024 it earned 105.5m East Caribbean dollars ($39m; £29m) from selling domain names. That was almost a quarter (23%) of its total revenues last year. Tourism accounts for some 37%, according to the IMF (read How sheer luck made this tiny Caribbean island millions from its web address).
TPOL has contributed to the local economy of Anguilla both by visiting this beautiful island and by amassing a couple of .ai domains to ensure his humble rise to global dominance.
Did you explain it to them that they were pronouncing the name of their island wrong? Kind of like those annoying Jaguar car commercials where they pronounce it like jag-you-were.