Ladle? It's a supermarket in Hal Luqa
Published:
October 9, 2008 at 11:30pm
A young friend has just started training at the Institute of Tourism Studies. On one of the first days of term, an instructor gathered the new entrants together, and by way of breaking the catering ice said: “Do you all know what a ladle is?”
The non-English-speaking members of the group – which means by far the majority – went into a rugby huddle to discuss the matter. My young friend overheard the discussion: “Ladle mhux dak is-supermarket li hemm Hal Luqa?”
This is a true story.
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to many maltese people, the maltese language is their 1st , 2nd and 3rd language. not everyone went to a private school where it was frowned upon (or penalised) if you spoke in maltese . and not everyone was raised in an area where english was the 1st, 2nd and 3rd language of the majority.
[Daphne – This business about church schools punishing those who spoke Maltese is more of an urban legend than the truth. I went to one of the two leading church schools for girls, and most of the pupils there spoke Maltese when chatting between themselves. We were obliged to speak English only during lessons, and that was because it was the language of instruction. Nobody was punished for speaking Maltese. I have yet to meet anyone of my generation who went to a school where there were penalties to be paid for speaking Maltese. St Aloysius College has had a majority of pupils who speak Maltese as a first language for the last four generations at least. De La Salle in my time was almost entirely Maltese-speaking and St Joseph definitely was too. St Aloysius was last a school for privileged boys when my grandfather and his brothers were there, and that was during the First World War. Languages are not learned at school, sad to say, but at home.]
My sister went to St Francis school in 1968 and yes she and others were punished for not speaking English. She had to pay a penny for every word she spoke in Maltese!!! In fact she only lasted there a year as both my parents did not agree with what was going on. She was moved to a public school where she still got a good schooling of English without getting punished for speaking her native language.
[Daphne – Bloody stupid of your parents. That method was used to ensure that children from homes such as yours would nonetheless learn how to speak proper English. It was not used to denigrate Maltese. Tal-pepe people spoke Maltese and still do, so I can’t imagine why you think there’s some kind of ‘native language’ issue there.]
Unbelievable – I used to attend a Church school too and both my maltese and english are very good. We never spoke English at home but I managed to obtain very good results in all my subjects. People do not learn English or any other subject because they are simply not interested AND NOT BECAUSE THEY DID NOT ATTEND A CHURCH SCHOOL!
My mother aged 82 was punished if caught speaking Maltese
at the Sacred Heart- that’s some 75 years ago. I wasn’t
taught Maltese but not punished for speaking it.
Jesus tapdancing Christ. We’re talking about a word as basic as “ladle”, not the complete works of Shakespeare. And some people go off on a tangent. Quite apart from the whole issue of an IST student not knowing what a ladle is.
I went to a nun’s school, and no, we were not punished when we spoke our native language……….anzi we were encouraged to learn Maltese very well. Most of us sat for our A levels in Maltese in Form 5. We spoke English during English lessons, Italian during Italian, and French during French. We spoke English too duing mathematics, geography and European history. When it came to Maltese history we used the Maltese language.
Ignorance and the bastardisation of language is a common trait in many parts of Europe… What surprises me, however, is how on earth can anyone go through with so much ‘education’ for so many years and still be semi-literate and totally uncultured.
I know of many young people who have never read any book out of school and who barely know how to read or write and still aspire to ‘hitting it big’ in the ‘arts’ – Arts here being singing, dancing and drama NET TV and Super One type…
No wonder we have a country which is filling up of all sorts of yobs and slobs.
@HP Baxxter. Il-Kliem bhac-cirasa.
During a Maths lessons, Junior College students were asked if they knew what word could be used instead of ‘symmetry’ – one answer was ‘grave yard’.
This is what happens when you get hopeless ministers of Education year after year after year. I’ve heard from a very reliable source that the newly appointed minister refuses to use English in public – even though her knowledge of the language isn’t bad. She didn’t seem to mind using English in my area during the pre-election house visits.
Around 2% of the population use English as a first language… so why is this still considered to be a threat to our national identity?