What people like him fail to realise is that people who would talk like that, traslating literally from Maltese (if the cases quoted are at all true, that is) are certainly not, as he would put it, “tal-pepe”.

To the contrary, it is actually people who feel they have to speak in English when in Sliema or around people they themselves consider “tal-pepe” who would often talk more-or-less in that way, thinking in Maltese and translating into English.

Oh, and by the way – there are no stationers along the front, unless he meant the newsagent’s (not stationer) at the Snoopy’s end of Tower Road…

“And so many of these prayer-group types are poor ambassadors for their faith”

Oh yes, absolutely, and quite frankly they give me the creeps! More often than not they do not even interpret their faith correctly, just like Muslim extremists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Most of these “Catholic fundamentalists” are little better even though thankfully they don’t kill (and this is because of circumstance as the inquisition, not to mention the Millgram experiment aptly proved).

Actually some anti-abortion extremists even do kill especially in the U.S. and some claim to do so in the name of their faith!

Like I said these so called Catholics, of which Malta is choc-a-block, don’t even understand their own faith. I meet countless people (my family included) who still believe papal infallibility means whatever the pope says is infallible for example (It doesn’t). I still meet countless people who believe Limbo is actually a place (it’s not). Amongst these countless people one even finds nuns and priests by the way!

These people do a great disservice to their faith. Genuine Christian charity is also a value so sorely lacking in many of these so called Catholics – they will openly donate to people in Africa, as long as they stay in Africa. They forget the Christian message “I was hungry and you fed me, I was homeless and you took me in”

For an example of Catholic extremism I strongly recommend the film “The Magdalene Sisters”

What about – “Ejja nmorru nghamlu sleep” or “Mur ghamel sit”

“What these people fail to realise is that “tal-pepe” people would either speak proper English or proper Maltese, but would rarely intermingle the two, except, for example, when using common expressions like “u ejja”.

Agreed, 100%, and as a Sliema born and bred person I was often laughed at when speaking English OR Maltese (not that I gave two hoots)

Kind of like a person speaking cockney laughing at a person speaking queen’s English!

What really pissed them off was in fact (and I hate to say it) envy!

Well sometimes (too often) religion becomes addictive and then like any addiction it becomes dangerous!

It is one of the reasons I refuse point blank to send my children to “tal-muzew” when they are old enough to go. I remember having refused to go and was finally dragged there (literally – to St Dorothy’s in Sliema) by the parish priest and my mum for the last couple of weeks before my confirmation – which today I see as useless as at NINE YEARS OLD I didn’t have a clue what it was about.

I passed through my atheist (completely) years in my teens and early twenties but was drawn back to the fold since I didn’t have anything rammed down my throat.

Today you probably consider me a conservative religious old fogey :)

[Daphne – And so many of these prayer-group types are poor ambassadors for their faith. On Saturday morning I met an elderly Dutch lady who has been in Malta for many years (I have known her for the last 20 years or so). She explained that she had been confined to her home for most of the summer because of illness, and all her shopping and errands were done by those of her alley neighbours ‘who don’t speak English’ and who drafted in their English-speaking daughter to interpret. She was overcome with gratitude. Her English-speaking (Maltese) neighbours, on the other hand, who belong to one of the ‘smart’ prayer groups (because there are smart ones and beyond-the-pale ones, apparently)never once dropped by to check whether she was still alive/needed anything. The only time she ever saw them was when they rushed past her window like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, muttering “Must rush. I’m late for mass” (they go to church morning and evening, seven days a week).]

Neither did it make a person “tal-pepe” simply because they lived or were born/bred in Sliema 30/40 years ago. I have always said to people who make reference to “tal-pepe” that they show that they have never heard of or seen “lazy corner” or many of the other side roads …

The Sliema of 30 years ago has changed, thanks to the people who despised “tal-pepe” and yet, at the same time, wanted to emulate them.

My parents’ road is full of blocks of flats inhabited by many such people. Only two days ago one such woman was hanging out her clothes (in the balcony overlooking the street, almost at street level, if you please), and called out to her daughter in the road below “Ghandhek il-black dress. Trida?” Rest assured that the “black dress” bit was for my ears. Why talk like that?

I simply can’t stand these people who are oh-so-obviously more comfortable speaking Maltese, and who yet insist on throwing in the odd English word or phrase to give the impression that they are like the people they hate so much.

I absolutely hate it when I hear people saying, for example, “Ejja ha’ mmorru school” or “Ghamilla bye il-girl”.

What these people fail to realise is that “tal-pepe” people would either speak proper English or proper Maltese, but would rarely intermingle the two, except, for example, when using common expressions like “u ejja”.

One thing I’ll never forgive the nuns who taught me for
doing is not making the teaching of Maltese compulsory
till 1964, the year I left school. I’ve taught myself to
read but my writing is riddled with spelling mistakes.
Although I lived abroad for 23 years, I’m told I
speak Maltese well. I still would never take part in any
programme on radio or tv for fear of not finding the right
word and breaking into English.

[Daphne – I haven’t read his article, but one of my sons read out some bits to me, and he made exactly the same point – that there is no way anyone, let alone a tal-pepe person, would have used the expressions he quotes, and that they sound like urban legends or stuff he must have invented. I love the way that people who are not even remotely tal-pepe try to describe the way we speak and get it all wrong. Tal-pepe people speak perfect or near-perfect English, and my parents’ generation also speak perfect Maltese, far more perfect and idiomatic than that of the self-appointed experts from lower-middle-class or working-class backgrounds. I hate to sound like a classist snob, but people like that really ask for it. The Maltese spoken by working-class people is the equivalent of the English spoken by working-class Britons.]

[Daphne – I wouldn’t take it too seriously. He fell out with me some months ago after I edited an article he had written for one of my magazines. Apparently, he knew better than the editor and both his use of English and his style of writing are better than mine. That taught me to avoid dealing with people whose egos are a lot bigger than their abilities.]