Then perhaps English should not be an official language in Malta.

There isn’t much hope for the situation to change when even the independently-owned/run schools use “Maltese” comprehension workbooiks with worksheets entitled, for example, “Kif taghmel sendwic”.

There’s even less hope when one of the contributors to such workbooks (not for the “sendwic” passage, mind you), also happens to be in a top position at one such independently-run school, who also favours such expressions as “Titlef tern” (“miss a turn”) in her own books.

I am resigned to the fact that the people who lay down the official rules for Maltese are poles apart from many of us. How else would one explain the horrendous “Maltese” spelling as in “sendwic”?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scope

This is the definition of “scope”. Please check out point 5 below:
1. extent or range of view, outlook, application, operation, effectiveness, etc.: an investigation of wide scope.
2. space for movement or activity; opportunity for operation: to give one’s fancy full scope.
3. extent in space; a tract or area.
4. length: a scope of cable.
5. aim or purpose.

[Daphne – Not used, I’m afraid. That’s why it’s at no. 5.]

[Daphne – English is not an official language in France and Italy. Nor were France and Italy British colonies for 164 years, during which time they were literally overrun by people who spoke nothing but English.]

The Germans are slightly better, but not by much. The Dutch on the other hand, I would say are very good. So, as far as speaking English like a native, the Maltese fail miserably. As a foreign language though, I’d say we’re pretty good.

I believe our faults are 2. Firstly, we think we speak English like the natives. We do not. We probably should learn English as a foreign language.

Secondly, there are many pseudo-elite people who insist on speaking some concoction of English and Maltese. It is simply awful.

@Baxxter – The French, Spanish and Germans would have some cheek to claim that our level of English is terrible. Older Germans can barely utter a word in English (the younger ones tend to be fairly good) whereas the French and Spanish are notorious for their inability to speak the language. Even lecturers in an English speaking University in France made plenty of translation mistakes and used grammar structures that made sense in their own language but not in English.

There are people like me who are more predisposed to succeed in subjects such as mathematics and others who are more predisposed to be strong in languages.

The Maltese persons who manage to obtain this “perfect” level of English usually fall within the latter group. But their choice of profession is then quite limited with the lack of analytical skills.

[Daphne – You couldn’t be more wrong, there, I’m afraid. Maths, logic and language are all dealt with by the same part of the brain. They go together in terms of ability.]

Should they decide to go to the UK to teach English they would still be at a disadvantage against their English peers because they can never compete against them.

There you go. I don’t speak English as a native language.

“three children, two of which are adopted…”

Malta Today, yesterday

[Daphne – Yes, I noted that. Children are things, apparently. Manglish: the words ‘who’ and ‘whom’ do not exist. People that eat in restaurants, children which play with toys….]

Ah, but countries outside the UK don’t claim to have two official languages. We hang on to the illusion of bilingualism by a mere thread, which means I can put “English (native language)” in my CV. But is it true?

I’ve been told that our level of English is abysmal by these very same French, Spanish and German people that you cite. It goes to show the true extent of the problem.

[Daphne – Marelli, Baxxter, you too? “People that…”. WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO.]

English isn’t just our second official language. It’s our only lifeline to the world outside our tiny rock. Again, Vision 2015, anyone? Where we bank on offering an English-speaking workforce, our one and only (extremely marginal) advantage? If I were the PM I’d be waking up every night in a cold sweat.

I agree, when I wrote ‘scope’ I was thinking in Maltese and I also agree that Mr. Bartolo made some mistakes but my point is, how many French, Spanish and German people taking their size and our size in consideration, would come up with an article with that level of English (Mr.Bartolo’s), even though it has some minor mistakes?

[Daphne – They don’t have to. They speak French, Spanish and German, so English is just a bonus.]

We shouldn’t knock ourselves too much as a nation, we can improve, as you pointed out for my use of ‘scope’, but we are not that bad.

When I used to sit for my exams, our teachers (who were foreign) used to tell us that the pass rates of Maltese students were superior to countries outside the UK because we had the language advantage.