Far, far more important than buses – please read this
In The Times today:
COMPETITIVE EDGE AT RISK DUE TO LOWER STANDARD OF ENGLISH
by Fiona Galea Debono
The state of the English language in Malta is worrying and standards are declining rapidly to the point that a fluent public speech of an acceptable level is rarely ever heard, according to the English-Speaking Union.
“I do not expect the University radio to deliver the local newspaper review in improper diction and pronunciation every morning,” says the newly-appointed director of education and administration, Giuliana Fenech.
The comments on timesofmalta.com also present a clear picture of the general standard of English.
“When some of the highest officials in the country are unable to write and speak fluently in correct English, I believe it is cause for concern,” she says.
Ms Fenech insists on recognising that English is an official language – not a foreign one. “It is true that, in certain instances, we have to teach it as a foreign language but resorting to these remedies is a crisis.”
She adds: “We are doing ourselves a major disservice if we sit back and say we have lost the standards of English we once had but that it is OK because it is now used as a foreign language. It would be a huge loss and anyone who interacts with the outside world is aware of that.”
One of the greatest challenges facing the ESU, which was set up last year, is to raise awareness of the importance of being profi-cient in English but not at the cost of Maltese, Ms Fenech insists, recognising its utmost importance too.
“But why do we have to choose? Why cannot we be, as we once were, proficient in both? It is unrealistic to say that, because we are Maltese, we should be proud of our language and only teach that to our children. Of course we are proud but, in truth, it is English that is keeping us on the map,” Ms Fenech insists.
The problem is that in Malta even language is a political issue and the mention of English carries cultural baggage. In fact, the ESU has to try and break the idea that English is associated with a certain class, a long-term goal that cannot be reached overnight.
“Nowadays, and even more so in the future, unless we are able to communicate in English and the country recovers its standards, we are going to lose our competitive advantage. The strange thing is that whereas the rest of the world is encouraging the use of English, here, we seem to be turning away from it.”
Today, you just cannot function without English, be it for business, tourism, or the internet, Ms Fenech stresses, acknowledging it is one of the country’s few resources and the only logical way forward.
“In time, we are going to realise – too late – that we need to put a stronger emphasis on English. We had it and we lost it. We threw it away and that is shameful!”
While it is important to introduce educational reforms, Ms Fenech points out that these children would not be entering the working world for a while. In the meantime, the fact that most of the workforce, starting from front office right up to management, is unable to string together a well-versed e-mail, or a five-minute presentation, must be addressed.
For Ms Fenech, who is completing a PhD in digital media and children’s literature, the standard of English is not threatened by the advent of new means of communication.
The part-time University lecturer maintains it should not necessarily be affected, especially if exposure to the internet is complemented by the reading of mainstream newspapers and books, watching of quality TV programmes and the teaching of good English in schools.
“I am not advocating bad English on blogs and text messages but I do not believe you can judge the standards through these media,” she says. “Most students are aware they are shortening words and do it purposely. It would be more worrying if they did not know the difference. What they are doing is quite clever: they are adapting their language register to the medium they are using to communicate.”
A positive aspect of virtual communication is that it offers younger generations a voice they previously did not have, something the ESU feels strongly about. In fact, it is actively working on the introduction of the debate in Maltese culture through its debating programme, which should run in 12 schools next year.
“The debate format is challenging, fast and has a competitive element, so if you can participate in a discussion and convey your message effectively, your language skills are in good shape. We tend to speak aggressively, rather than persuasively… Even a quick comparison between Parliament and the House of Commons shows a different style. The way ideas are expressed and negotiated leaves much to be desired.”
Even in business, the Maltese may struggle to present an idea and, often, it is because they do not know how to use English as a language of etiquette, Ms Fenech maintains.
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There will come a day when Maltese students, from primary to university level, will have to attend TEFL courses.
Honestly, wouldn’t help much. I’ve worked as a ‘leader’ with English-language schools for foreigners and I’ve often received complaints directed towards the teachers and their relative lack of proficiency.
These teachers are all TEFL-qualified.
Proficiency in a language has little to do with formal education and is largely dependent on a child’s upbringing.
You can instantly tell whether a person was brought up speaking English from their choice of vocabulary, sentence construction, use of idioms, and to a lesser extent accent.
The only answer to this problem is to READ (X 3 ) books, newspapers and magazines written in GOOD English.
How many parents buy books as gifts for their children?
The attitude passed on from parents to their children is that reading is “boring”.
TV, DVDs, videogames and internet have conveniently taken over the role of “nanny” to keep the children quiet”.
How many university students read the set texts? Instead they buy the notes with a summaryand never read or even open the book. If the set book is available in DVD, so much the better.
[Daphne – Oh, I wouldn’t bother about that. It’s not a sign of anything. I don’t think I ever read through my set texts for English A-level. I vaguely remember skimming through the Shakespeare play on the eve, reading a couple of poems and that’s it. I was a very good selective quoter, I think. Set texts are always hideously dull.]
Just try and fob off my Jesuit English teacher (he actually was a Cambridge graduate himself) with that at St. Aloysius College. I would have got six of the best on each palm and I was not such a glutton for punishment.
Ah! “Take out your Signposts.”
The above is to be seen in the context of all language learning in Malta which has deteriorated enormously.
My generation (I’m 35) has a higher standard of both English and Maltese than that of the students coming out of university today.
Apart from that, in most schools at my time we learned two foreign languages but now, often in the same schools and even in the private schools, students can only take up one foreign language if they take three sciences for example.
In all of Europe the learning of foreign languages is increasing, whilst in Malta it’s falling – I can’t understand this trend.
Regarding the newspaper review, Ms Fenech is right.
I find myself cringing when the presenter (not so much Fr Joe Borg) reads titles and headlines from The Times and The Malta Independent.
Having said that, Patricia Salomone is brilliant in both English and Maltese.
Ms. Salomone is a pleasure to listen to, however she does not do the newspaper reviews as far as I know, does she?
No BuBu she doesn’t. She presents other programmes on Campus FM.
Maybe her colleagues should pay more attention to her and learn a thing or two, as I like to do.
Driving to an early lecture, my radio would still be tuned in on 103.7FM from the night before (hint: BBC World Service). The newspaper review, in both Maltese and English, was always a cringe worthy experience.
You’d expect that from people who think reading is a chore, wouldn’t you?
By the way, timesofmalta.com is still on its Arriva bashing spree.
I agree with most of what this article highlights but feel that when we are using social media it is important we keep a good standard of English (and Maltese). One of the reasons I enjoy reading this blog is because all your posts are so well written.
100 per cent agree…and this after a generation of PN government. Well done indeed.
[Daphne – Both parties are guilty as charged, Albert, but you will have to admit that the rot started under Mintoff, when it became a crime to speak English and those who did so were mocked or, in the case of children, had stones thrown at them by other children who, no doubt, had been influenced by their Laburisti parents. If you make English a cause of mockery and contempt, then obviously, the children of Laburisti are not going to bother with it. It is only now, with the internet, that they realise how seriously at a disadvantage they are. Nationalists in the 1960s did not have any such problems with English. They might have hated the British, but they took pride in speaking correct English. So did supporters of the Labour Party, who certainly did not hate the British then. And the saddest aspect of all this is that the contempt for English has led to widespread sub-literacy. People just can’t learn because they don’t know English, and even their Maltese is weakened. You realise that the situation has reached tragic proportions when you see that my written and spoken Maltese is more correct than that of people who have spoken nothing but Maltese since birth and know no other language.]
In 1971 I left a church school with perfect English to go to a state school and I was picked on for speaking English. I was 11 year old and never spoke another word in English because I was afraid of more bullying.
And right off the bat, the typical reply from the shoot-themselves-in-the-foot brigade who are pulling this country down into the depths.
The very idea that we could look at ourselves critically and consider the bloody big beam in our eye is a horrific proposition to these people.
“Matthew Galea
Today, 08:34
Din bis-serjeta jew? Qatt smajtu Taljani, Francizi, Spanjoli, Germanizi ecc. ecc. jitkellmu bl-ingliz? Ghandhom accent li mhux talli tghid lil hu ingliz imkisser imma tghid wkoll mill-liema pajjiz gejjin? Bhala persuna li kont student l-university nahseb aktar ghandna nkunu kkoncernati li l-universita f’certa fakultajiet il-Malti kwazi nqata’ barra ghal kollox!!!.
Li l-pajjiz jkollu livell ta ngliz tajjeb nifhima u nappogja izda mhux li mmaqdru l-livell tal–ngliz taghna stess!!!”
It’s too late now.
I hate too see what the competitive edge would be like with the elves at OPM.
[Daphne – Alves, or elFFFFs.]
Please note that the ‘elves’ in question were born and bred under a Nationalist government.
It’s not a question of parent-hood or Maltese-speaking environment that led to the current language crisis. If that was the case, why is Maltese degenerating too? Why is that proficiency in Italian fast disappearing?
There are many other factors that, to be fair, are neither attributable to the government nor to the ‘ġenituri laburisti’ for that matter.
Then again, I suppose you agree with Evarist’s suggestion that the language of tuition in Malta should be English. Personally I’m all for this idea.
[Daphne – Yes, I agree. Immersion therapy.]
Parents are ultimately responsible for their children’s education.
I would spot a place where children’s education is taken seriously by their parents where you find books and magazines lying about on sofas, beds and coffee tables.
My English is not that good. Look at this title from The Times:”Muscat DISTINGUISHES between leaked and stolen e-mails” .
In my opinion “Differentiates” would have been a better word for that title.
One of a rare intelligent suggestion by the PL – provided of course that it is very good English; otherwise it would defeat the purpose.
The PN is not to blame for the deteriorating standard of English in Malta.
I guess if Labour were in power the standard of English would been even worse, especially with the introduction of Arabic by Mintoff at the expense of English. I studied Arabic as an adult and I speak it fluently but children should not be compelled to learn it.
I would have thought that with the internet the standard of English would have improved in Malta. I believe that the standard of English in Malta has actually improved since the seventies when I was a teenager.
I believe that rather than the standard of English in Malta deteriorating, it is the Maltese perception and realisation that our standard of English is not up to scratch and this is due to increased commerce with foreign companies.
Di tree trees rawndebawt
[Daphne – Rowd-about. No N.]
We do not have roundabouts in Malta. Against all fundamentals of road design, they were all drawn up as ovalbouts.
Recent intersection upgrades did correct some of the designed hazards.
Joke about it all you like. Sadly, the “word” is officially “rawndebawt” in Maltese schoolbooks.
PLEASE don’t start me off on the subject.
flett/flettijiet
kuxin
xawer/xawers
hiter/hiters
wajer/wajers
tajer/tajers
kuker/kuers
televixin
mobajl …
I still listen in amazement to the high standard of spoken English that some Maltese 70 some-things still retain. I can define it almost as “Empire English”.
It also makes me pine for a gin and tonic.
Go to India, you will hear archaic ‘Empire’ English even more there than in Malta.
And where they will also understand you if you refer to your spare wheel as “stepney”.
Matter of fact, all Maltese speakers I know of still refer to the spare wheel as a stepney.
“We tend to speak aggressively, rather than persuasively”
That’s something I learnt by arguing on decent social websites. Now I have to learn to do it in real life… where you don’t have to pause to get your fingers on the keyboard.
Schools should have debating classes. Pronto.
The alternative is that kids develop passive aggressive habits when dealing with different ideas. Heck even getting to agree on which film to see becomes a fight of will and emotions when it could become an exploration into each other’s inner motivations, thus becoming a learning experience for all interlocutors involved.
I have been going to the same car mechanic for ages but, for the life of me, still cannot make out what the “makeinbreak” is; so whenever he mentions it, my eyes glaze over and I sagely nod.
I have travelled a lot in the so-called English-speaking world. Try to understand a Scottsman speaking English or a Texan speaking English. A language is alive when it regenerate itself and is understood as a form of communication.
[Daphne – You’re talking about something else entirely: accent and pronunciation. A Scotsman will be able to read and understand an article in The Sunday Telegraph, but the average Maltese person will not, and of those who can read it, a significant number will struggle to understand it and will mentally translate into Maltese.]
For that matter try to find a man in the street in England who only speak in English understand or spell Victorian English or Shakespearean English for that matter.
Oh I forgot on this island of our we always try to outdo even the pope when it comes to his competence.
I worked in England with a guy from Paisley in Scotland and it took me some time for my ears to tune to his accent. At times I had to act as an interpreter when he spoke to southern English people.
You’re right. We give ourselves a lot of flak for our (admittedly bad) English pronunciation, but very few native speakers have RP anyway. Juh ken haRdly understeeend muċċ, sumtajms.
perswaz li n-nies jafu jitkellmu hafna aktar bl-gharbi… *roll eyes*
A fine example :
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=134198
Tal-biki.
Another fonr example from timesofmalta.com
David Galea
Today, 15:08
“I cannot understand why does the court turns most judgements around?
Do we have a laws or not? If they are not clear why don’t the system amend the situation?
I am not stating that one should not take what he deserves. But I cannot understand why the court does not gets it right from the first time?”
…….
Ommi Ma! x’dizastru.
The point he is making about libel and appeals in general is more worrying than the construcion of his English sentences.
Come on be realistic, for a Maltese politician his standard of English is very good. He is not a columnist for a London broadsheet.
I beg to differ. For a Maltese politician, his level of English leaves much to be desired.
What are the chances that that article was actually penned by him? Ghostwriting seems to be very common among Maltese politicians on both sides of the House, I hear.
This is all due to the fact that the majority of the Maltese do not read. Reading is not perceived as a hobby but as a punishment or mandatory to pass examinations, that’s all.
[Daphne – It is just as bad to think of reading as ‘a hobby’ as it is to think of it as a punishment.]
Reading is pleasurable, it’s such a joy and so thought provoking…
I don’t agree that the problem is not reading enough.
You can read good books and pass all your exams and still find it difficult to talk fluently in very good, idiomatic English.
I think that the problem, or part of it, is a lack of exposure to the spoken language. Where do students talk in English? Certainly not at home where it is not spoken. Shops, offices and banks do not use English as a medium of communication.
The level of English took a nosedive with the advent of instant messaging. The acronyms, the shortcuts and the multitude of compressions that are used are having a direct impact on how these people write English in everyday life.
No one bothered to keep this phenomenon in check. What we’re witnessing today is its inevitable consequence.
Maltese is experiencing similar damage for the same reason.
[Daphne – Yes. Tejt is now how tghid is spelled.]
“Even in business, the Maltese may struggle to present an idea and, often, it is because they do not know how to use English as a language of etiquette, Ms Fenech maintains.”
This is is the most important part of the article. It gives a clear example of how lack of proficiency in a language inevitably leads to ignorance (and not just vice-versa).
It’s about time somebody complained about the Campus FM newspaper review.
‘We tend to speak aggressively, rather than persuasively… ‘
‘Even in business, the Maltese may struggle to present an idea……’
So true, I think there’s a direct link between the level of language and the state of the island in all its aspects. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to grasp basic concepts and, even worse, avoid their reduction to dogma.
My field is design, language here becomes the basic building block of aesthetics and its main driving force to proceed with thought and resulting proposals.
The Maltese tend to insist on interrupting the flow, shutting down an argument in the name of personal comfort, instead of taking snapshots at determined stages, to use them for further research.
People give me blank stares when I tell them something they consider ‘finalised’ is just a sketch for the next idea.
I say this because I feel it’s becoming necessary to understand that without a mastery of language and its creative forces, it will be ever more difficult to innovate and evolve. It’s what I call the saturation point, where more of the same will lead us backwards, this from an economic, ecological and social point of view.
I look through Maltese magazines and more often than not, come across the words luxurious, expert and exclusive repeated ad nauseum.
The Maltese, it seems, consider design at its most venial aspect only, limiting its scope by the imposition of a constrained vocabulary. I think this is common to other fields.
The Piano’s project saga showed us that the problem isn’t limited to people whose English is limited because of lack of access to education. In the case of Valletta’s main entrance, the word gate and its related visual memory became taxonomy.
I know I’m concentrating on one particular aspect, but when one considers the energy lost in trying to make ourselves understood and even more importantly understanding, interfacing, the argument gains relevance.
If one were to apply this perspective to study the public transport system reform process, putting particular emphasis on the consultation phase, the conclusions could be, I think, extremely interesting.
“Even in business, the Maltese may struggle to present an idea……’
It is very true. Between any two applicants who apply for a job/contract, the one who has a mastery of the language and is able to express himself well will get the job/contract.
The other may be more knowledgeable about the subject but will still do badly.
Isn’t this the result of our educational system, when the authorities concerned, e.g. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, and the subsequent ministers, had to give in to pressure by certain “educators” to give Maltese more importance than English?
The present Minister of Education should prioritise the use of English in our schools.
To be fair, it seems that Evarist Bartolo thinks along those lines.
English is the KEY to Malta’s success.
Joseph Cauchi, you’re mistaken: the decline of English has nothing to do with Maltese.
Are you saying that the level of English was satisfactory in the 1970s and 1980s, before Mifsud Bonnici became minister? Actually, you’ll find that those who write and speak good English are also proficient in Maltese.
Today we are in a vicious circle because many teachers in primary and secondary schools (even Church schools) are themselves weak when they come to express themselves in English.
At university, lecturers of English are excellent (as far as I know) but some of those in other faculties are terrible and their incompetence is transmitted to their students who may become teachers, passing their lack of skill down to the pupils, or journalists who would then exert a bad influence on their readers.
When the PN came to government in 1987 they found the entire education system in ruins.
They rebuilt it by starting at university level – because that’s where teachers are trained – and the same method should be followed if we want to revive the old 1960s tradition of Maltese being proud of their English.
Now come on, let’s not overdo it.
Of course English is VERY important, but to go so far as to say English is the key to Malta’s success?
I don’t know, sounds too much.
[Daphne – Of course it is, Silvio. Try this as a test: if we ditched English completely, in every aspect of communication and ‘unlearned’ it totally so that none of us spoke it, we wouldn’t survive. But we ditched Maltese and unlearned it completely and none of us remembered it, we would do very well. Please note that this is a test exercise, not a wish list or mission statement.]
Once upon a time I could speak Welsh. It didn’t get me anywhere outside Wales.
I find it very strange that English is the official language in Malta when a big number of Maltese can’t really express themselves in English.
I’m not refering to those who do not speak perfect English, but to the ones who cannot even understand English and unfortunately these cases are very common in Malta.
You find the other type of Maltese who prefer to speak in Italian rather than in English. They blame the Italian TV. This was experienced by my husband who is Italian and can speak in English.
It’s not the first time that we are in shops in Malta, he asks for something in English and they turn to me with an explanation in Maltese, expecting me to translate for them.
Nails in the coffin of the English language in Malta have been hammered in by politicians, administrators, educationalists, overly nationalistic compatriots, the media, you name it.
A truly concerted effort has led to the pathetic standard of both the written and the spoken language that we all encounter every day.
Now the final nail must be Playstations and similar gadgets.
When we were at school we had the BBC World Service, PG Wodehouse and Somerset Maugham.
Now children have hand-held screens with little green men on them. The number of hours spent trying to gun these men down with virtual bullets is mind-boggling.
plejstexjin, please. Bil-Malti.
I always believed that English is one of the two official languages of Malta; therefore I get angry when I receive government information only in Maltese.
I can read Maltese but somehow English tends to be a smoother read.
Also, why do ministries in Valletta have signs only in Maltese, such as the Ministry of Health in Merchants Street?
I’d rather read an official letter in intelligible Maltese than stilted broken English but if it is a letter of an English translation, I’d rather read it in the original English language.
No splashing of scarce money is required – just make it compulsory that in three years time all exam papers (O level and beyond) will need to be answered in proper English, with the use of language carrying at least 30% of marks.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Sorry Daph, but, as far as I know, “tghid” IS STILL SPELT “TGHID” not “tejt” as you are implying: it’s words like “skond” (of italian origin) that are being phonetically spelt, thus “skont”.
[Daphne – S.I.G.H. Yes. I. Know. I’m talking about the way chavs communicate on Facebook and by SMS. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the text messages scrolling across the screen during talk shows, and look at various Facebook walls of famous politicians.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSdxqIBfEAw
The court agrees with your view on the right to comment on the personal lives of public figures:
“In his considerations, Judge Michael Mallia said the court believed that the personal life of a public figure could be commented upon and criticised if this life was visible from the outside”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111028/local/court-acquits.391178
If it’s any consolation I would say that the standard of English seems to be poorer even among British university graduates.
For a number of years working in London I employed a numerous graduates just out of university.
I will tell you that most of them found it difficult to express themselves well in writing.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111028/local/court-acquits.391178
Court of Appeal overturns libel verdict.
Most Maltese people today fall in one of two categories. They either abhor the English language altogether and consider ‘Inglizati’ as ‘qziez’.
Or else they think that speaking English makes them sound more ‘posh’, as a result adopting a cringeworthy fake accent where you’d be at a loss knowing exactly what they’re on about.
At last a sane verdict about a libel case which knocks politicians with their “holier than thou ” attitude off their pedestal.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111028/local/court-acquits.391178
I do not agree with those who insist that one language should be given ‘more importance’ than the other.
In Maltese schools, both Maltese and English should be treated equally.
The level of written Maltese is by far much lower than the level of English. This is the first problem that should be immediately addressed.
The achievement of better English can be tackled at a later stage.
Daphne, you very often criticize the Labour Party for coming up with half-baked policies. And still you seem to be in line with Evarist Bartolo’s latest brainwave – that of installing English as the working-medium for all levels in the education system.
[Daphne – It’s not his latest brainwave and he did nothing about it when he was a cabinet minister. It’s pointless having ideas if you haven’t got what it takes to make them work. Also, the biggest problems are among the Labour Party’s own supporters, not just for socio-educational reasons but because for two generations, speaking English was regarded as contemptible. It is still regarded as contemptible and there is no way on earth that Evarist Bartolo is going to be able to overcome that attitude, most particularly when he only puts his ideas on display for tal-pepe audiences to engage their admiration, but then doesn’t say the same things when faced with a party club meeting of working-class Laburisti who are the ones who need it most. Evarist has always struck me as pretty two-faced, telling people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear, depending on his audience.
Another important consideration is that English isn’t learned in a vacuum. It is a means to an end and that end is the satisfaction of curiosity: you need English to communicate, for the purpose of ‘finding out’. Curiosity is a sign of intelligence. Where you have no curiosity and no intelligence, people lack the motivation to learn English. They have no incentive. They are certainly not going to learn it for the love of languages, it’s such a damned difficult and highly complex language.
The root of the problem goes way, way beyond how English is taught. The root is the absolute lack of motivation to learn and the absence of pride in speaking and writing it properly.]
We all acknowledge the fact that the level of English of university graduands is hopelessly abysmal. Many of these undergraduates will be the teachers of tomorrow. Can you or Mr Bartolo explain what sort of English these individuals will be transmitting to the younger generations?
To be fair, I have reservations even for the level of English of teachers who have been in the profession for a substantial number of years.
How about ‘importing’ native-English speakers to teach in our primary schools?
[Daphne – The problem with teachers has been there for generations. In my five years at St Dorothy’s Convent, I remember just three teachers who spoke English properly: one of them was an English nun, another was the famous Miss Booker, and the other was Sr Monica Lopez, who has since left the order and works at the university library. The others encompassed the whole range of accents, and we would routinely mock the worst ones. One of them sticks in my mind today purely because of the way she told us about Petty-gonia (Patagonia). Switching ‘a’ and ‘e’ sounds was rampant. But I don’t think anybody was influenced by any teacher’s accent. We all left school with the exact same accents we started out with, regardless of who taught us. If children are going to pick up an accent at all, it is from their peer group, not from teachers. It is the playground, not the classroom, which shapes the accent.]
That’s exactly my point. We’re not in a position to educate our kids in a foreign language.
That’s why I believe that we should strengthen the methods we’re using today, and not embark on a mission which is doomed to fail.
It’s a question of our willingness to widen our horizons, making good use of Maltese, nurturing at the same time a working knowledge of English. The opportunities are there, especially now that Maltese is on an equal footing with several other languages in the EU.
Sorry to inform you that Monica Lopez died two or three years ago.
[Daphne – How very sad. I had no idea. Her lessons were about the only ones that engaged me and I remember her with fondness. She correctly predicted that I would eventually go into journalism at a time when that wasn’t even a career option.]
We have picked up most of our language skills by the age of eight. After that, language acquisition slows down.
I could go on at length about English and its usefulness, but let me limit myself to a couple of points.
We have a daughter born profoundly deaf. She’s never heard a word spoken in her life.
We took the conscious decision to make English her first spoken language (like all deaf, her natural language is sign language).
Even with her very limited linguistic ability, and despite almost no signed support, she went through mainstream school (Louis Galea’s idea, not hers) and now has two diplomas in Sports and Fitness.
I am saddened that, with her above-average intelligence (as documented by an overseas university), she couldn’t achieve her undoubted potential to the full.
There is no question, however, that English has enabled her to get remarkably far, given her disability.
She is also far more clued-in than her deaf-Maltese-primary-spoken-language-peers, as she can surf the ‘net much more successfully.
Point two.
Despite having spent virtually all my working life in industry and taking a lot of stick from misguided people who thought it clever to take the p * * * when I speak (modestly) near-perfect English, they actually do come round to the realisation that they are the idiots, eventually.
It’s a question of marketing, I think.
I actually used to coach the 20-year-old trainees and they were keen students . . . when they realised that the crumpet responds better to chat up lines different from “hawn gisem!”
In my opinion it’s very difficult to change the culture of the government schools where English is considered as the language of the “keshin u tal-pepe”.
I was told by a teacher that they had given up the TH sound because they couldn’t stand the students’ comments any longer.
I would like to know if English lessons are still being carried out in Maltese in the state schools?
A lot depends on proof readers in newspapers in the English language. The journalists themselves especially in the sports pages often misuse phrases and words – and punctuation.
I believe television to be the major culprit.
Nowadays are very few programmes in English at peak viewing times. Children just aren’t being exposed to English.
When I returned to Malta in ’62 the Maltese channel had just started broadcasting and many programmes were in English, hence I never ended up watching the Italian channels.
Most of my peers had been doing that in the years before MTV and as a result they can speak Italian fluently while I struggle.
Cable television has made a lot of difference.
In the 80s I was still a child and there was nothing to watch.
We had Eileen Montesin on Fridays, and cartoons on the Italian stations, mainly Japanese cartoons, in which there was a big boom. There were also addictive Italian and South American telenovelas. Housewives and children watched these, and so it was bye-bye English.
Ah, the 80s……
Japanese Cartoons :Goldrake, Lady Oscar, Black Tulip
Brasilian Telenovelas : Dancin’ Days with Sonia Braga
The problem is that children now tend to watch TV channels such as Disney, hence the overuse of expressions such as “awesome”, which sound oh-so-alien to people of my (40-something) generation.
@ Grezz
It is deeper than that.
This very week we had Joe Grima, addressing one of his critics as ‘dude’. And the guy is a near octogenarian.
Probably a generation-gap virus…thankfully, hereditary.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8853427/Ralph-Fiennes-blames-Twitter-for-eroding-language.html
The perfect balance would be to speak Maltese at home and be tutored in English at school.
The trouble is that the diction of many of the teachers, English language teachers included, is not up to scratch.
Students, of diverse social backgrounds, who went to the Lyceum in the sixties, speak and write both languages perfectly.
The fact that the English teacher was English must have helped.
My daughter goes to a private school where fees are in excess of Euro1000 a term. Although she was brought up speaking English I’m always at her, correcting her pronunciation. I, myself, many a time have to pronounce words like four and bowl badly to make myself understood.
Evarist’s idea is not new, but the problem lies when a teacher in an area secondary school needs to teach a subject to nearly illiterate students.
Do we want to place another hurdle in the way of our children’s education?
Are we saying that children who find English difficult should not be given the opportunity to learn mathematics or computer studies in their mother tongue?
Are we aware that there are children who can’t speak Maltese?
A language should be taught in the same language, and if possible by someone who was brought up speaking that language.
Children go to school to learn, and it’s up to the teachers to find the right tools for each individual child to help him or her learn the subject.
It would be a waste of resources and time to speak English to children who barely understand it. Its like when Catholics used to pray in Latin, or Indonesian Muslims learn the Holy Koran in Arabic .
“The problem is that in Malta even language is a political issue and the mention of English carries cultural baggage. In fact, the ESU has to try and break the idea that English is associated with a certain class, a long-term goal that cannot be reached overnight.”
Bingo!
My children attend an independent school which once used to pride itself on being an English-speaking one.
Some years later, 11-year-olds have yet to write a proper English essay, their latest one – assigned to them last week – being all of sixty words long.
The school packs and worksheets at the same school often leave much to be desired; school circulars issued by the school often likewise.
The same school insists on constantly referring to Maltese – ignorantly, might I add – as “Malti”, even during speeches delivered in English, and also in timetables, examination “study lists”, etc written in English. (Try telling the children not to intermingle Maltese and English, when the school itself shoves it in their face that way.)
To confuse children further, whereas assembly is always held in English, the children were this week addressed in Maltese during a special assembly – most of them not understanding much of what was said – simply because the gathering was held in the presence of Mrs. Abela, as head of the Community Chest Fund.
I found myself having to explain to my children that although both English and Maltese are official languages in Malta, some find the use of English as “putting up barriers” or, rather, not using Maltese as being so.
With attitudes like that from up top, and with the severe lack of proper English instruction at what is predominantly a supposedly English-speaking school, there isn’t much hope for improvement. The same children being faced with written “words” such as “esaj” (essay), plexstejxin (Playstation) and suchlike do not give one much hope for proper Maltese being taught (and consequently, learnt) either.
The end result will only be a deterioration in the level of English of those who previously spoke and wrote it properly.
Students all over the world fork out thousands of pounds and spend months, sometimes up to a whole year, learning English at language schools. It is a barrier English-speaking people have never had and will never understand.
We don’t know how lucky we all are.
The last thing that English needs is even more policies influenced by anecdotal evidence and proposed by prescriptive pseudo linguists rather than proper research based on corpus linguistics.
We write and speak English by first thinking in Maltese and then applying a Maltese tonality to the language. Another more worrying thing is that most of us cannot convey a properly worded message in Maltese without resorting to English either…
The decline in our English language standards is not compensated by an improvement in our use of the Maltese language. People who cannot construct a sentence in good English would usually also be unable to do it in Maltese and vice-versa. I think that the problem is a deterioration in our educational standards in general.
Heard it on a very popular radio station in the morning.’..wake up and wash your teeth !’
If English is our second official language, why do we only have a Maltese version of the national anthem?
The Belgians have three: French, Flemish and German (and the latter is a tiny minority).
Why is English never used for parliamentary sittings or government speeches?
Why are street signs not bilingual? Why do we insist on the totally artificial and idiotic Maltese titles of “Perit” and “Ing.” in English texts?
[Daphne – Street names WERE bilingual. I actually remember them like that in some streets at least. And oh, the confusion when the very English street names in Sliema were translated into Maltese for the Maltese-only new signs….Windsor Terrace (Triq Windsor).]
Bay Junction/Trejqet il-Bajja – it was bilingual once – in St. Julians has become Triq Alfred Gauci.
Are we back in Mintoff’s time? Who was Alfred Gauci?
Talk about a confused nation. Then we whine about our insularity and the “double insularity” of Gozo while we insist on using Maltese for everything.
You cannot think properly in Maltese.
No, I don’t count Oliver Friggieri’s philosophical musings, or Trevor Zahra’s cracking yarns, brilliant though they may be, as an example of logical thought.
You cannot govern a nation in Maltese.
Why, the two soldiers guarding the entrance to the President’s Palace*, the highest and most hallowed symbol of this republic, shout their drill commands in English. Because there are none in Maltese. I rest my case.
*At long fricking last. Now I hope it doesn’t cross anyone’s mind that we’re doing this “ghat-turisti”. We’re doing it for the dignity of our independent country. And could anyone get them properly tailored uniforms while we’re at it? And new razors too.
A street sign in French from Napoleonic times is still extant under the portico in front of the Biblioteca in Valletta.