They want to run the country and they can't even sort out their news website
Jason to Glenn: I think you're eligible for food cease. Those man-boobs are not a good look.
Here’s another gem from Maltastar:
Maltastar – 23 March 2010 20:05
According to Minister Dolores Christina, 101 single parents where investigated in the first two months of this year. According to Cristina, the Benefits Fraud Unit found 19 cases eligible for benefit cease.
Lie down and weep.
Benefit cease? Benefit cease? Eligible for benefit cease?
I feel faint at the thought of what sort of tangled mind might have come up with a sentence like that, and that this mind has pretensions to running the country.
It’s not only about lack of familiarity with idiomatic English -are they using the translation facility on the internet, or what?
It goes beyond that. To come up with a sentence like ‘According to Cristina, the Benefits Fraud Unit found 19 cases eligible for benefit cease’, your thinking must be upside-down.
Those 19 people were – and listen carefully here, Glenn Dangerfield, because you have a lot to learn and time is running out at your age – NOT ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFITS and not ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFIT CEASE.
Another lesson, Glenn: WHERE/WERE
WHERE: indicates location
WERE: third person plural past tense and second person singular and plural past tense of the verb ‘to be’ – they were; you were
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Not surprising at all! With Labour everything will cease and they will obviously blame the current government for the fiasco – roll on 2013.
lol you made me smile :)
Simply hilarious !
Hilarious yet sad, especially since Maltastar is THE Labour news site.
I think you’re being really harsh on them. I mean, speaking through their backsides – which is the only way they can communicate – is no mean feat. You ought to give them credit for trying.
Pathetically hopeless and incompetent. Just a bunch of conceited empty vessels. The future certainly does not bode well for Malta if ignoramuses like this are to be in the driver’s seat in the near future. Makes you baulk and wince at the prospect.
Bloody hell. Why don’t they rebrand to “Maultastar” and continue mangling the English language officially? What a bunch of pathetic amateurs. Jaghfgu kienu u jaghfgu ghadhom u jaghfgu jibqghu.
Well done, Glenn. Impressive.
I rather like the look and sound of MaltaRaTS. It describes their approach to news perfectly – take something, turn it around and sprinkle liberally with capital letters.
The Latin plural of ignoramus is ignorami. We need to be clear about this as we will be constrained to resort to this word on a regular basis as these highly educated and enlightened men and others of their ilk go on shedding their wisdom to our delighted gleeful appreciation.
[Daphne – I changed it from your ignorami (no such thing as a fixed ‘Latin plural’ as Latin nouns are declined) to the English ignoramuses because we using English here, not Latin. You will have noted that your computer underscores ignorami in red but doesn’t do the same to ignoramuses. I advise you to adopt the same approach to referendums, forums and octopuses (Greek, not Latin), though cactus/cacti is accepted.]
I suggest the Education Department suspends Maltastar and Di-ve for three months from 1st April. Both sites are a dreadfully bad influence on the thousands of poor students who will be sitting exams in the English language in May and June.
I would love to hear some comments from Evarist Bartolo.
In such instances one sticks to the Nominative hence ignorami, referenda and fora ( the latter two both being plurals of neuter Latin – Not Greek – nouns).
Your comment regarding octopus/octopuses is correct as the derivation is indeed Greek. I am not indulging in a hair splitting exercise . My endeavour is just to be correct.
[Daphne – English is a complicated language replete with nuances that trip up those who do not speak it idiomatically. At the risk of pissing you off, here’s some guidance: http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/plurals ]
You won’t piss me off as I am part of this game on an ongoing basis. One never stops learning, improving and refining one’s knowledge. One has to do it ‘ad infinitum ‘.
Not to adhere to such an approach would definitely render one ‘de facto’ obsolete.
[Daphne – Jolly good attitude; it’s a shame Dangerfield doesn’t share it.]
If you consult and refer to the Oxford Dictionary as well as the link suggested by you above all Latin nouns ending with an ‘um ‘ are neuter and call for a plural ending with an ‘a’ hence curriculum/curricula as your link aptly recommends.
[Daphne – Hey Zorro, I really don’t think you understood the gist of those guidelines I sent you. They were all about pedantry, archaisms, and what fits best with spoken English. You CANNOT learn idiomatic English from dictionaries and rule-books. It’s something for which you have to develop an ear. The Sunday Times (London) uses ‘referendums’ and The Sunday Times (Malta) uses ‘referenda’. That should tell you something.]
If you look up a hard copy of Oxford Dictionary the plural given for ignoramus is ignorami. Borrowing from another language does not require or imply or justify that the original be adulterated and does in no way detract from the idiomatic rendering of the language borrowing such.
When a particular word is, through usage, coined into the language no such problem is encountered as competent philologists and linguistic experts are bound to point out. Simply acknowledging the source of the borrowed word or phrase by being faithful to the original is not only idiomatic but scholarly and academic as well.
[Daphne – Zorro, at the risk of being really annoying this time, the difference between somebody who speaks idiomatic English as a first language and somebody who doesn’t is that the first sort don’t need to riffle through the pages of books to work out this sort of thing. When I used the expression ‘another think coming’ some days ago, I was inundated with slightly patronising/triumphant emails and text messages pointing out my ‘error’. I then had to email links to a zillion people explaining the origin of the phrase, though for heaven’s sake, you’d have thought the pronunciation would have given them a big clue as to the spelling. Then I remembered that lots of Maltese people pronounce ‘think’ and ‘thing’ the same way.]
Dangerfield, Daphne? Rodney Dangerfield?
“I met the surgeon general – he offered me a cigarette.”
“I remember the time I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof.”
“My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met.”
tadaa
Again, I beg to differ. Other reputable and up-market London newspapers such as The Observer and The Financial Times as well as broadcasting media such as the BBC use ‘referenda’ and ‘fora’.
[Daphne – No, they don’t. Media organisations of that calibre have style guides which they are bound to adhere to, so they will not switch between two forms of the same word – referenda/referendums, fora/forums. I don’t have time to check The Observer and I don’t read it. But a quick check of The Financial Times and the BBC, The Economist and the official UK electoral information and government sites shows the use of ‘referendums’ and not ‘referenda’ and ‘forums’ not ‘fora’. Fora and referenda are used mainly by foreigners speaking and writing English – in other words, they are no longer properly idiomatic.]
Citing the word ‘fora’ instead of ‘forums’ be it in a conversation or per a written rendering would certainly imply that the individual uttering or writing such, is erudite and way ahead of the uninitiated.
[Daphne – It actually implies the opposite, Zorro. It implies pedantry, misplaced pretension and a lack of familiarity with idiomatic English. And it marks you out clearly as somebody who has ‘learned’ the language and not quite properly. So I wouldn’t, if I were you. I can’t remember how many times I had this argument with politicians and others in the run-up to the 2003 referendum, when the pages of our newspapers were literally encrusted with references – mainly by speakers of an archaic form of Indian English – to referenda.]
Again, I must humbly emphasise that the reason for writing at length about this matter is not to be snobbish or to patronise but to modestly aspire to attain a high standard in the quest of elusive perfection. Not doing so would result in making do as minimalists. We should never rest on our laurels as we should constantly bear in mind that the competiton is a pathetic seventh-rater. The latter should never, at any time, be resorted to as our benchmark.
[Daphne – I can’t understand what you’re trying to do, honestly. Teach The Financial Times that it’s referenda and not referendums?]
Imma tinsewx li dawn ghandhom id-dikri!
Suspicion of a suicide pact.
Mur ara x’figura qata fil-Parlament Ewropew fil-ftit jiem li ghamel hemm fuq minflok Joseph Muscat. Kemm dahhak nies bih. Imn’alla kellu lil dak li jhambaq hafna (u li tawh daqqa ta’ sieq il-barra) tal-GWU biex forsi jaqalghu minn xi tabxa.
Ara ‘l min nibghatu jirraprezenta lil Maltin fi Brussel. Imma ghal flus kollox lesti li naghmlu.
“Portelli went on to ridicule Bedingfield’s unproductive year in the European parliament.
“Log into http://www.votewatch.eu and you will see… Glenn Bedingfield zero. Glenn Bedingfield zero. Everything zero. He did nothing. He did not write an opinion, a single report. And he wants to go there again! Not to do anything? If I were in his place I would be ashamed to present myself in front of you…”
Malta Today 3rd. June 2009
As his former boss famously said, he was learning on the job.
In fact, was this not the MEP who pressed the Yes button, when he meant to say No, and pressed the No button when he meant to say Yes?
Imisshom jikkonsultaw xi “gisem tal-pariri . . . . . .”
It-title ta’ l-ewwel porn film Malti….
Qed nimmaginak porn director, H.P. Props or no-props? Nissugerilek l-Gharb bhala location ghall- opus tieghek. Porn-friendly hafna dik il-lokalita’…
Iva. Kien sar low-budget German flick (le, MHUX “German Scheisse movie”) hemmhekk. Taht hajt tas-sejjieh u bajtra tax-xewk.
Props? Nah. We’ll let the raw, smouldering, Mediterranean ambience shine through.
“Igsma tal-Pariri” – The searing tale of a Maltese civil servant in Brussels. Coming to a partially roofless theatre near you.
‘Bir-rispett kollu’ – what do you know? It’s not as though you have a Communications Degree, eh?
Tfakkarni wisq fis-sentenza ‘If your baby doesn’t thrive on raw milk, boil it.’
‘Eligible for benefit cease’ hija psewdo-sentenza fl-istess vena ta’ ‘int promoss ghal dimissjoni.’ Mavadaviaalcul…
Grammatikament sordomuti dan-nies. Clistera edukattiva, ISSA!
[Daphne – I think I would like to have lunch with you and H. P. Baxxter, but I’m beginning to think you’re the same person, except that only the first bit of your IP numbers match.]
No, we’re not the same person. He’s got the balls to reveal his name and surname, and I don’t.
http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Always-Returns-Its-Vomit/dp/0978660625
Daphne you forgot the ‘were’ as conditional above. Don’t forget to remind Maltastar, or maybe that’s towards the end of the grammar textbook. Maltastar’s journalists might get confused, as they are still at beginners’ level.
Daphne: The case of Maltastar is just one, sad example of the various clangers we are facing. In general, the product of our educational system is being ‘dumbed down’ on the same lines as has happened in the UK.
I think that the MUT and the Ministry of Education should stop squabbling over money and concentrate on the quality and outcomes of the increasingly expensive education bill. It can’t be that there are still students, children, coming out of the system with barely any basic general knowledge or the basic ability to read and write.
The removal of streaming from primary and secondary education, the lack of continuous assessment of both students and teachers, the simplification and reduction in the number of subjects taught up to ordinary and advanced level matriculation, the continuous reduction of days making up the scholastic year and the hours spent at schools are but part of the problem which no one wants to face.
Sure, one can blame society and parents but we’re in a situation where society is paying through its collective nose for a very expensive educational system but society is not getting an adequate return. The least said about parenting skills of certain parents the better especially when one considers that the students in our skills come from parents who themselves were members of the ‘sin party’ generation which never really grew out of the party mentality (as shown elsewhere quite evidently in this blog).
Oh… and, of course, I haven’t forgotten the ‘useful’ (ahem) contribution of the party media and certain production companies in instilling in the minds of young people on the need and ease of becoming media ‘per-son-al-it-aj-iet’ as if shoving graceless and untalented kids in front of cameras and microphones is enough to make it ‘big’! And if one wishes to ridicule this had better check various career surveys carried out amongst secondary school children…
This is the Malta of the future… Smart indeed!
I can’t remember where, but about 10 years ago I read an article about people in Malta who are eligible to pay taxes!