How is anyone expected to take this request seriously?

Published: December 8, 2013 at 9:45pm

Valletta flyer

These flyers were given out to shoppers in Valletta today. There are three glaring spelling mistakes in the ‘attention-grabber’ – so it grabs your attention all right, but for the wrong reason, and after that you can’t take the actual request seriously.

Doesn’t anybody check these things before thousands are printed? And even when the print process began, didn’t anyone see them whirling off the press with such major errors, stop the run and ring the client?

And AFTER they were printed, did nobody notice, still? Or did they notice and say, ‘U ejja mhux xorta – now that they’re printed already, why waste them?”




48 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    I counted eight spelling mistakes.

  2. Censu says:

    And it should not be fuq but dwar.

  3. ciccio says:

    Jiena se ninvolvi ruhhhhi u nghaaaaiiidilhom x’nahseb.

    I expected them to be consistent and write “X’tahseb fuq il campanja tal-creditu tal-consumaturi?”

  4. M. says:

    Even I know that there should not be more than one “ie” in any one word. As for “creditu”, “kumissjoni” … the list goes on.

  5. P Sant says:

    Three mistakes? I’m counting seven.

    1. creditu – kreditu
    2. ruhhek – ruhel
    3. ghaidilna – ghidilna
    4. tisma – tisma’
    5. Kumissjoni – Kummissjoni
    6. hsiebijiet – hsibijiet x2
    7. esercizzju – ezercizzju

  6. Spock says:

    Well at least now we have the first letter of MERITOCRACY in MEDIOCRITY ; perhaps that’s a word they misspelt during the electoral campaign .

  7. Joe Fenech says:

    Usually you check before you print and if you double check you print one copy not a whole load. One wouldn’t expect to have to teach the very basics to people who are meant to be communication experts.

    • M. Cassar says:

      Oh these people ARE experts alright, just not in communication or anything one would assume it is desirable to be an expert in.

  8. Adrian says:

    Very disturbing. Such a shame. And we should be proud that Maltese is an official EU language.

    • Joe Fenech says:

      How can you have an official EU language when a language hardly has any decent literature; its vocabulary is poor (try and writing a technical article in Maltese whilst avoiding neologisms) and there is no serious, regulatory board….

  9. Timothy says:

    I thought this was what you meant with Trashification of Malta so why the questions?

  10. Osservatore says:

    Bad spelling has become the order of the day with this new breed of philistines that have taken over our country and its institutions. Proofreading the flyer would take even less than the ten minutes required for completion of the questionnaire and clearly, nobody with half a brain has looked at it.

    Which begs the question: if they do not bother, then why should we?

  11. SZ says:

    Non existent standards. Kollox jghaddi! Setting a really bad example.

  12. Edward says:

    For the record:

    creditu, ruħħek, għaidilna (!), Kumissjoni, tisma (no apostrophe), ħsiebijiet, eserċizzju

    tisma’ il-, Uża il-, taċċessa il-, magħna il- instead of tisma’ l-, Uża l-, taċċessa l-, magħna l-

  13. charlie says:

    Ara kieku kienu zbalji f’test bl-Ingliz mur holl xaghrek u gib iz-zejt. Imma ghaliex f’test Malti, kollox jghaddi. Veru tal-misthija….ghal min kiteb dik il-hnizrija ta’ Malti.

  14. Joe Fenech says:

    I counted 8 mistakes in all including the Anglicism ‘creditu’. Are there any Kakkademja tal-Malti rules for the latter?

  15. GB says:

    There are actually seven spelling mistakes . . . This is becoming a place where the celebration of mediocrity is becoming, more and more, second nature.

  16. Cikku says:

    Tal-mistħija. Possibbli b’dawn il-korsijiet li qed isiru kull sena u jiggradwaw numru sabiħ fil-qari tal-provi tal-Malti ma jsibux lil xi ħadd jagħmel il-qari tal-provi qabel ma jistampaw?

  17. e.muscat says:

    “U ejja. naqra l-hawn u naqra l-hemm.mhux xorta” How do you expect things to progress?

  18. FP says:

    I counted eight, one of which is repeated twice, and one grammatical error repeated four times:

    creditu
    ruħħek
    għaidilna
    Kumissjoni
    tisma
    ħsiebijiet (x 2)
    imsemmija
    eserċizzju
    il- (x 4)

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Twelve spelling mistakes. I confirm the tally.

      Then there’s the grammar. “Ibaghtilna” should be “ibaghthomna” because the transitive verb is acting on the subject.

      And “taccessa” is clunky in the extreme. “Biex tara” would have been enough.

      As for “websajt”, please.

      Also, we do not use “tisma’ x’tahseb”. At a pinch, it could be “tisma’ l-hsibijiet”, but one would use “tkun taf x’tahseb”. Even though that still sounds contrived (because Maltese culture hasn’t evolved the language to deal with “fijdbekk”).

      It would have been easier to write the whole thing in English. I cannot for the life me understand why everyone insists on running the country in Maltese when they can’t even decide on the rules of grammar.

  19. Il-Hajbu says:

    Sorry there are more than three.

    1.) KUMISSJONI should be spelled:- KUMMISSJONI,

    2.) RUHHEK should be spelled RUHEK.

    3.) GHAIDILNA should be spelled :- GHIDULNA

    4.) TISMA should be with an accent :- TISMA’

    5.) HSIEBIJIET should be written:- HSIBIJIET (twice written
    wrongly)

  20. U Le! says:

    It’s the what-the-hack mentality.

  21. Natalie says:

    They got ‘websajt’ right though. Ghax ahna hip u progressivi.

  22. Aunt Hetty says:

    Panto has started early this festive season.

  23. FP says:

    The survey itself is not much better.

  24. SM says:

    The Times managed to get Lenin’s name wrong:

    “Updated: Lenon statue toppled by protesters”
    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131208/world/protesters-decapitate-lenin-statue.498161

  25. seksieka says:

    Ili erbgħin sena ngħallem il-Malti u qatt ma ltqajt ma’ pastażata bħal din. Fejn hu l-Kunsill tal-Malti?

  26. Wayne Hewitt says:

    Xi mpjegat ‘ġdid’ ta’ Malta Tagħna Lkoll.. gradwat b’karta tal-inċova.

  27. Thorny2 says:

    U ghal giehna tisma’ bl-accent u mhux minghajr l-accent.

  28. observer says:

    Miktuba mic-cwiec ghac-cwiec – u skartata minn dawk li m’humiex.

  29. el bandido guapo says:

    Apart from the fact that the first question anyone would be asking is, WTF is this about?

    What is a “kampanja tal-kreditu” and why if I have no idea what it is and hence whether it interests me or not, should I bother doing anything other than binning this?

  30. Joe Fenech says:

    And it’s ‘Ewropeja’.

  31. Watchful eye says:

    And what about the very last line which gives the address of the website: ccc.evaluation@ghkint.com. What the heck is this? Illuminate me please.

  32. Jozef says:

    U dawn iriduha ta’ paladini tal-Malti.

    Ara anke dan spicca f’idejn Daphne. Mur obsor.

  33. Edgar wadge says:

    I counted 11

  34. Joan says:

    Tal-biki.

  35. notimpressed says:

    I really liked the “Kakkademja” somewhere above. It really and exactly explains the status of the Maltese academy.

  36. Janet says:

    Ask Pawlu Pace

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