Maltese will get you nowhere
Do we want our young people to end up like Glenn Bedingfield, pushing 40 and unable to communicate properly?
This is not about linguistic snobbery or class distinctions based on language. I speak and write both English and Maltese and I grew up in a Maltese-speaking household. So no, this is about practicality.
How difficult is it to understand why university lectures should be in English and examinations set and sat for in the same language?
I ask because there appears to be some idea that this is a matter of national identity rather than education and the proof of it.
The champions of our national language simmer and steam every time somebody points out that you cannot possibly be educated if you know only Maltese, but the fact remains that it is an obvious truth and that no amount of posturing will change this. I don’t mean educated as a literal translation of the Maltese ‘edukat’, which means something else entirely, but intellectually.
Speaking Maltese is not the same thing as speaking only Maltese. People like the Opposition leader are only being disingenuous when they stir the political pot by saying that university students should be permitted to write out their examination papers in Maltese.
There is no sensible reason why this should be. There is, on the other hand, every reason why this should not be. Anyone who is unable to express himself or answer questions in English has by definition been unable to read even the set texts for the course, let alone do all the rest of the ancillary reading – long books and papers with Big Words and all that complicated academic sentence-structuring.
Joseph Muscat should be honest with himself, and admit to his followers that if he weren’t able to read and write English, he wouldn’t have been able to get through to his first degree, let alone his second and third. This is not because the rules at our university are immeasurably cruel and unfair to those handicapped by their lack of linguistic skills, but because the fact remains that without a sound knowledge of English, you cannot read any of the coursework and recommended texts.
Arguments have been made that it is impossible to set or sit for science examinations, for example, in Maltese. But this is completely beside the point. The point is not whether the examinations can be set or sat for in our national tongue, but whether anyone who demands to write in Maltese because he cannot write English has successfully completed his tertiary education. And the answer to that question is an unequivocal no.
Arguments about the significance of the national tongue in respect of national identity have no place in this discussion. The issue here is whether you are equipped to perform all the work required to graduate from university if you speak and write only Maltese and pidgin English. With Maltese alone, or Maltese and some pidgin, you cannot do that. Whether this is wrong or right, fair or unfair, bad or good is by the by. It remains a fact of life, rather than a problem to solve.
Even the most fervent champions of Maltese cannot but admit – even if it is only in private, not to lose face – that knowing just Maltese restricts a person’s educational and intellectual development so severely that it is safe to say one is left without any education except the most rudimentary. Even those champions acquired their own education in English, French or Italian.
Knowledge of English is now so poor among young Maltese – perhaps it has been so for generations, but it is becoming obvious now with so many trying to get into university and MCAST – that a serious rethinking of the school syllabus is called for. English is being taught as a known language, like Maltese, to secondary school children who would have a tough time learning it even in TEFL courses as a foreign language.
This is the root cause of our problem here: teenagers who have somehow managed to struggle through their Os, As and intermediates, in heaven alone knows what sort of English, are getting into university. Once there, they find they can’t cope with the vastly more demanding standards of English required for reading tertiary-level papers and writing them.
So they put pressure on the authorities and politicians to allow them to write in Maltese. They would still be required to read English, because all the books and papers are in that language, but this appears to be of little concern to them. Reading, because of the general dumbing-down of the student quality, is now seen as an optional extra.
What we are talking about here is young people who cannot read, write or speak English, who have somehow managed to get into university, and who imagine that they can come out the other end three years later without reading a single book or paper and after answering some simple questions in Maltese.
It is shocking. Perhaps now the government will wake up to the fact that it has colluded in the creation of this linguistic monster, by giving undue importance to Maltese to the detriment of English, so handicapping yet another generation of children who haven’t been lucky enough to learn the language at home.
Yes, I agree that it is silly and stupid to refuse to learn Maltese – but it is even sillier and a great deal more stupid to refuse to learn English. The consequences of not knowing English are devastating to one’s progress and development.
The absolute fixation on Maltese being mandatory for university entrance has completely blinded people to the fact that, once you’re in, Maltese is not required at all. Now there is a whole crowd of people who think that because it is mandatory to have a pass in Maltese to get into university, then you should be allowed to use that language once there. Otherwise why make it mandatory? Strangely enough, it is their thinking which is logical, and not that of the education authorities.
This article was published in The Malta Independent yesterday.
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I think you do have a point even though I think that Maltese is our language and we should be able to speak it well. On the other hand, English is degenerating here so we are ending up with a generation who cannot speak neither Maltese nor English well. This fixation with Maltese in tertiary education is simply absurd. I’m sure that the Opposition leader is aware that the world is learning English, and I think this is happening for a reason.
Keep up the good work, Daphne.
Daphne – 12 points.
Daphne once we leave some Maltese illiterate is not a bad thing either.Maltese survived because we have not been subjected to speak in a foreign tongue.We must master our native tongue.English is by far more expressive, but Maltese can be as expressive even pragmatically by the rural gentry. For each village has a Maltese dialectic inasmuch the Maltese residing in the Sliema surroundings speak their own English dialect in an intonation and diction as dictated by their past education. .And but no means can it be taken to mean that their English is the correct one either. As is my own.In linguistics no language is incorrect if it is in use.
You have a very valid point-however in the case of the UOM the regulations were changed initially to accommodate certain individuals who couldn’t utter a complete phrase in Maltese and not on an issue or logic. Also we have to accept that certain professions, such as law and education, would require a workable knowledge of Maltese.
[Daphne – Well, then Maltese should be a specific requirement for those courses only, just as biology is a specific requirement for medicine and mathematics a specific requirement for engineering.]
well, I suppose, pulling strings for certain ‘friends’ has become logical in our islands for quite some time- an unfortunate plague of our culture.
Yes, Daphne agree 100% – Maltese should be a requirement for professions that require it to practise.
Excellent!
Agree.
Makes sense; furthermore post secondary students should be encouraged to use English when speaking to lecturers and lecturers should be encouraged to give their lessons in English and not a mix of Maltese and English.
Well said! A good command of English is one’s passport to the world outside the 300 km2 of land called the Maltese Islands. In fact I would seek to capitalise on the bilingual/trilingual (inc. Italian) background that is so readily available. And that’s just for starters. Learning other languages is not only an end in itself, but a means to other ends. It opens one’s horizons, giving one a greater appreciation of the wide world out there. To put bluntly, learning other languages helps to shed off some of the disadvantages that come from our smallness and insularity.
Exactly! Unfortunately too many people do not think outside of this 300km2 box. Having a multilingual background is perhaps the biggest advantage (of the few we have) of having the history and geography we do.
I am not aware if this exists already in Malta, but I can see a niche for evening classes in English which are marketed to Maltese adults.
[Daphne – The hurdle to be overcome there is the inviolable conviction those Maltese adults have that they speak and write English. They think that if they speak louder and enunciate each word more slowly, then British foreigners will understand them. It’s a very interesting reversal of the concept of speaking to the natives.]
This sounds like what the British do in Spain with the locals who cannot speak English.
The British seem to pride themselves of not speaking a foreign language. They think foreign languages are below them. Few try to learn, these are the ones who will survive in Europe and most of the others are now returning back to the UK because of the recession and the devaluation of the pound.
Can someone please, please tell me how Malta’s smallness disadvantages us? It used to maybe, but someone please explain it to me?
It creates an insular mindset. People’s minds are not broadened as a matter of course, but as a matter of effort. Many people don’t make the effort. Refusing to learn English while expecting to get a university education is one example.
Steve, we don’t have a space programme, and no space for a nuclear reactor. Is that enough?
Daphne with your same argument we should also learn French, German, Italian and Spanish. Having a sound knowledge of English is not enough for anyone who tries to work in Germany, Italy, France or Spain. On a sad note, once I received a letter in “Maltese” (please note the inverted commas) from the President of the Medical Council. If I manage to find it and obviously with your permission I’ll post it here.
[Daphne – Rubbish. English is THE lingua franca.]
John, very often, people coming from those countries insist that you speak to them in English, so that they can practise their own English. They also like to show off their skill with English.
Since the English language has been one of our two national languages for many years, I think it is about time we started to regard it as our own, and not insist that our language is just Maltese.
By the way, I was born to Maltese-speaking parents, and have always spoken Maltese at home.
If one is expected to work in Germany, Italy or Spain, then one would be better off knowing that language in addition to English.
Speaking from experience, my children (still under 18) can speak fluent Maltese, English and decent Italian.
The trick – speaking English at home since day one, speaking Maltese anywhere and having our TV mostly on Italian channels.
Whatever anyone thinks, Italy is our neighbour and within the EU a major source of funding has to be utilised between neighbouring regions, and thus a knowledge of Italian will be indispensible.
Actually a sound knowledge of English would be *just about* enough to start working in any of the countries mentioned above if you do not know the local language. Anything less than that and the handicap would be too big.
Of course, once there, it would be silly not to try your hardest to learn the local language. And I don’t mean writing classic literature in it.
Having said that, I don’t see how a low level of Maltese is related to a high level of English or vice versa. Not when one has ample opportunity to be exposed to both languages, as is the case in Malta.
I am afraid that what many mistake for English is actually “global English” – a collection of nouns and verbs in essentially the right order. I am sure that someone brought up in Malta should be able to do way better than that.
Even the Italians are now falling over themselves to learn English. One would have thought that they wouldn’t need other than their own language considering that Italy is among the richest and strongest countries in Europe. And in this wanna-be centre of the universe called Malta we think we can get along fine just by going native. Preposterous!
Try working in France when you know English only.
[Daphne – And your point is? French people know French. They think that’s enough for their purposes. And because they know only French, people who know ENGLISH and French are snapped up for work.]
And can you, in a million years, compare French and Maltese?
David Pere-des-Poulets.
SImple and easy.
My point is, if you want to work in France, English ALONE is no good, you need to know French. If you know English as well, yes you will be snapped up. Do not make the mistake of thinking English will get you a job anywhere in the EU. It won’t, not unless you know the local language fluently also!
Yes sure, “Nostradamus”, sure!
Tell me you HONESTLY believe Maltese is even half as important as French!
@David: if you are asking me, not Steve, then yes Maltese is more important than French – IN MALTA.
Everything is relative.
When you are with foreigners, YOUR languages suddenly becomes what you ARE.
Look at the French-speaking Belgians? Why do they say nonante and huittante? Look at the Piedmontese: why did they take up Italian so passionately? Look at the Catalans: why do they want a language which only they speak, instead of Castillian, spoken by almost all of Latin America apart from the rest of Spain?
It is a psychological thing, David.
Nostradamus,
The point remains that French is a far, FAR more important language than Maltese, and a person who knows only French is not even remotely as disadvantaged as a person who speaks only Maltese.
Whilst I agree that on this little rock Maltese is more important then French, though less than English, one cannot compare French to Maltese (and comparing does not mean translating albeit badly by the way) in importance.
Also, do not mix up dialects with languages, like “Belgian French” and also your comparison to Catalan (why not Welsh too?) is ridiculous. These people all speak the mainstream language of their country – try going to Wales and despite protecting the language you will find that everybody is still fluent in English and Welsh is not rammed down anybody’s throat.
I speak Maltese fluently, but only got my O-level because it was a requirement to get into university and passing consisted simply studying several very boring poems by heart, and misspelling words like futbol, kejk etc just to shut up the examiners and get my pass-mark.
David, you really know nothing.
Belgian French is not a dialect. It is a variety. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_French
Catalan is a language. It is the national language of Andorra. And it is the language of Catalonia.
What happened in the UK is a case of cultural tabula rasa – so let’s not speak of that sad case.
French is more important in certain circumstances. Everything is relative. In Malta, the importance of French is exactly the same as the importance of Chinese.
In China, Chinese is more important than French and Maltese. In France… yes you know the answer.
In the world… French is important only in international environments, e.g. UN, EU, ICJ, WTO, and other international organizations. In Europe, French is as important as German. But not as English. Maltese is as important was Hungarian, Romanian, Estonian, Swedish, etc.
With regard to the translation of your surname, it is (A)bu-tigieg (the double “t” is a Sicilianization). Abu = Father. Tigieg = Chicken. In French it would be Pere-des-Poulets. Pere = Father; Poulets = Chicken. Correct me if I’m wrong.
[Daphne – I’ll correct you. It’s master, not father. Abu is father in the context of family relationships, but master in other contexts. So this would be ‘master of chickens’ and obviously not ‘father of chickens’, in the same way that you would have a master of horses, or cows, or whatever other animal that breeder might be producing.]
To get me wrong, Dave, but what you did for your O-Level is none of our business. This is not a private conversation between friends. It is a public exchange of (reasoned) opinions and (researched) facts. In Italy and France we would be addressing each other in the polite form (Lei and vous).
Daphne
Depending on the translation strategy employed, each of us is right.
If you wish to remain closer to the original text, then “Father” is correct, because in the Semitic cultural context it has a literal sense (of progenitor) and a metaphorical sense (of master).
If you wish to come closer to the reader in the target text, then “Master” is correct, because “Father” does not have this added meaning in English, but this way you lose the original nuance.
Try working in France when you know Maltese only! I worked in Brussels knowing English only, within a year I also learned French.
English is the lingua franca for ex colonies – not for planet earth!
[Daphne – Wrong. English is the lingua franca for the world.]
What if an individual has very high levels of both English and Maltese? Would you deny them the choice to write their responses in their chosen language if the university had the resources to make this happen.
[Daphne – Yes.]
lol go to germany and try to talk to one of the taxi drivers in english. yes, no, not know . understand not english.
french know how to speak it but they wont talk to you in anything but french.
the italians only speak english for business or sexual reasons.
umbad tigi tajdli english . lol Ikteb storja wahda bil malti daph ha naraw kemm inti tajba fil grammatika nazzjonali .
Even Arabic countries like Tunisia feel the need to promote English in their schools, when Arabic is a rich language and spoken by millions the world over. How pettyminded can some Maltese be?
http://www.tunisiaonlinenews.com/?p=34214
I correct myself. It was not the president, but someone with an MBA and a Diploma in Public Administration!
Big difference!
This inane stance of Maltese being a pre-requisite to enter any University courses – if you are a Maltese citizen – you don’t need Maltese if you happen to be a foreign citizen – is driving parents insane, creating a generation of Maltese language haters (remember what it was like to try to study geography or chemistry when you weren’t the least bit interested) and doing nothing for the language.
The failure of many to get through their Maltese O levels, to their own personal detriment and that of our economy, is greeted with joy by those who are envious of the educational standards and standard of upbringing of this strata of our society.
The problem is not the Maltese O level – we had the same requirement 30 years ago and we made it through. The problem arises from a number of factors.
1. Our children are not being thought either good English or Maltese. The transformation of English words into a Maltese type of spelling (ners, televigin, erport) is just confusing.
2. The O level sec is not Maltese language only, but includes literature – not only that, but the books chosen are particularly boring – e.g Samurai by the famous Sammut (sic).
3. The almost daily change in the Maltese grammatical rules – if I had to write a Maltese piece with the rules that I was taught 40 years ago, it would be full of grammatical errors.
Just to correct a possibly wrong impression, the university requires that foreign students have a pass at O level standard in their mother tongue – otherwise it would be a case of discrimination against Maltese students.
Are there interesting books in Maltese?
Oh, yes! Try Alfred Sant’s for a start.
Sorry – I was asking Snoopy.
(I KNOW there are interesting books in Maltese. But his little canine friend of Charlie Brown seems not to share this view.)
fontana, don’t you think that children born in Malta of Malteses parents should be able to speak Maltese? After all it is our language and as such forms an intrinsic part of our Heritage. Don’t you think that Maltese parents should be proud to have bi-lingual children from childhood?
Even here in Zurrieq quite a lot of families are raising children with English as their mother tongue. This is a pity and is depriving their children of acquiring another language which will enhance their acquisition of knowledge. So, if this is the only way left before another language is lost for ever so be it. I am proud to speak Maltese, English and Italian with a smattering of French.
Growing up speaking English too, is an asset and opens wider horizons. On the other hand English should be the main language for certain exams at university level.
[Daphne – I very much doubt that those parents in Zurrieq are raising their children with English as a mother tongue, Jo. Pidgin, maybe, but certainly not English. To raise your children with English as a mother tongue, the mother must have been similarly raised herself? Why do you think it’s called ‘mother tongue’ – it refers to the language in which your mother spoke to you while you were growing up.]
Daphne, do you consider Professor Edward De Bono a native speaker of English? Although he speaks faultless impeccable English, I do not consider him a native speaker of English. It is hard for Maltese native speakers to notice this.
Professor De Bono was born, lived and studied in Malta and yet he refuses to speak Maltese, as if Maltese is a language to be ashamed of. I once saw him interviewed on TVM and the interview was conducted in English, I found this shocking.
[Daphne – He is definitely a native speaker. English is quite literally his mother tongue. His mother was English: Josephine Burns de Bono. I can’t imagine why you would expect him to speak Maltese: he had an English mother, he boarded at St Edward’s which was a totally English-speaking environment and the boys only went home at Christmas, Easter and for a few weeks in the summer – not even on Saturdays and Sundays – then he spent a few years at the medical school here (English instruction) and left Malta for England, never to return. Where would he have learned Maltese?]
Daphne I find it impossible to understand why such an intelligent man with extraordinary talents has not been able to learn a few simple Maltese words and string together an intelligible sentence in Maltese.
Prof. Edward De Bono’s father is Maltese and he spent his childhood and teenage years, and some of his adulthood in Malta.
How did he interact with non-English speaking Maltese ‘lesser beings’ on an day to day basis?
In wonder if he passed Maltese O level for medical school.
[Daphne – Paul, why would he bother? Just for the hell of it? He doesn’t even consider himself to be Maltese. And let’s face it: he’s just as Maltese as he is English, and really, who cares? If you think it was possible for him to learn Maltese in the environment I described to you, then you have no experience of that environment. I, on the other hand, know exactly what it would have been like, so no, he couldn’t have learned Maltese.]
We often say that the Maltese are multilingual. This is simply not true. Most Maltese people can barely write in Maltese and their level of English, both written and, worse still, spoken, is often incomprehensible.
Maltese is spoken in most households and, it is therefore logical and beneficial to give the English language the impetus it deserves all the more now that Malta forms part of the European Union.
Maltese people are not multilingual…they are just mediocre. In everything. L-aqwa li ninqdew. That’s the maxim. We think the whole world owes us a living and therefore there is no need to try harder.
The maltese mediocre? Pfff..we are bilingual and many of us trilingual. Try comparing us with our neighbours Italy whose ambassador says ‘imput’ instead of ‘input’. Compare us with the british themselves most of which only know english and a few words in spanish perhaps. Anyway I give up, your inferiority complex dominates your way of thinking.
Mark C
“We” are not bilingual – some are, most are not. Almost no one is trilingual, though several speak a mish mash of two or more languages or can make (poor) small talk in a second or third language.
Maltese, British, English and Spanish are proper nouns and Italy is one neighbour, not several, yet you do not acknowledge those facts in your comment, which rather undermines your argument.
This piece is exceptional, first-class, magnificent, outstanding, sterling, striking, superb, supreme, tiptop and also top-notch.
Let’s be practical : Maltese is our national language but it is limited to at max an audience of 420k. English is a universal world wide language and a good knowledge of spoken and written English opens up many opportunities world wide. I have had graduates at the financial services provider where I work who used to break out into a sweat and panic when asked to draft a single paragraph letter and used to complain when I had to correct what they had drafted ; I always stressed that if the letter was going to be sent under my signature then it had to be written so as I would be comfortable with it, keeping the recipient in mind.
” so as I would be comfortable with it” ?
Was going to comment that I did not agree with what you wrote in that in certain courses, it is necessary to have a good grasp of Maltese. However I saw your comment to PParnis, and now I can agree totally. Perhaps it would have been better to have made your article clearer. Anyway…totally agree.
I agree that English is important, but saying that Maltese shouldn’t be a requisite for University, because Maltese is not required, is analogous to saying we don’t need to learn our times tables in primary school, because we’ll all have calculators. Just the act of learning a language, (even if it is Maltese) improves our minds in so many ways. So why blame the Maltese language for the lack of English in our teenagers? Perhaps the approach to learning English is the problem? And anyway, as bad as English is in Maltese teenagers, it’s 100 times better than French or Italian teenagers English. It’s just as important for them, all though they don’t realise it.
[Daphne – Ah, but French and Italian teenagers speak French and Italian, which are mainstream languages that give them access to everything they need to develop intellectually. One reason why so many Maltese don’t develop intellectually is because they don’t have access to these means of development.]
Dear Steve,
I would so beg to differ. What you are talking about is a stereotype which is nowadays, if you allow me, a cacophony of idiocy. In the past, Italians were not obliged to study English since primary school, whereas Maltese have been having English classes for quite some time now. It is only recently that the Italian government implemented such a rule – absolutely necessarily, indeed.
Then again, albeit Maltese students have English classes, it is still a cast-iron fact that they speak pidgin English. Why so? Well, it is evident to me that they really do believe that being Maltese means speaking Maltese, and an absolute passive knowledge of English (Manglish I’d say) is more than enough. Speaking Maltese is indeed essential, and I’m in favour of that. However, by extension, Maltese should also focus on their English big time – for as Daphne aptly said, Maltese will actually get them nowhere, as the resources in this language are too little.
I can’t quite comprehend why Maltese go on the defensive when faced with the truth – that they should actually learn English if they want to get somewhere in life. Whilst also speaking Maltese, that is!
Plus, Italian and French teenagers do not have the advantage we have (or had).
Plus, even in France the minister of education, Xavier Darcos, has gone on record and admitted for the first time that the secret to success is speaking better English.
He also admitted that, because of globalisation, very few people outside France will being able to speak French in the future.
“French students currently receive 700 hours of compulsory English education over the course of their school careers. But France “is not seeing an adequate return on this investment,” Darcos conceded. Expanding on the proposals, he expressed his desire for all French students to be bilingual by the time they finish compulsory education, stressing in particular the need to be able to speak excellent English. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7594910.stm
Now this is French, arguably the second lingua franca after English, and France, one of the leading countries in the world, and not, let’s face it, a tiny rock with 400,000 inhabitants.
One word, and believe me, I speak from personal experience (and NOT as part of the Maltese diaspora in Brussels).
French and Italian students go through their whole education using ONLY French and Italian. That is precisely why they perform so poorly whenever they have to interact in an international, English-speaking environment (be it the scientific community, the business community, the joint headquarters in Afghanistan, you name it).
Now they’re breaking out in a sweat because they realise they need more than an MTV knowledge of English. Central and Eastern Europeans, who do not have the luxury of an indigenous textbook industry and who grow up passing back and forth from English to their native language, do not have these problems.
Now the French and the Italians are 60 million each. We are a pathetic 400 000. Yet some idiot wants our kids to go through their whole education speaking and writing only Maltese. Brilliant. Way to go.
I’ve delivered lectures (in English) where students then ask questions in Maltese. That is just not on.
Don’t kid yourself. I work in a class of fourth-formers and I can safely vouch for the fact that more than half of them are incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence in English. I would say that quite a few are a 100 times worse, not better, than the foreign students I’ve taught.
Why should Maltese be compulsory for courses in science/engineering/IT etc? In any case, failing Matsec exam in Maltese does not necessarily mean you cannot speak the language; unfortunately we still inflict the most boring ‘letteratura’ imaginable on our students.
How many potential physicists or mathematicians are being kept out of university because, at 15, they fail to be excited by antiquated poetry?
How wrong you are, sir! During a national conference held recently on bilingualism in the local education system, one of the contributors, when asked whether it was more viable to split the Maltese MATSEC paper into two different exams (as is done for English – a subject paper in Language and a subject paper in Literature), replied that the failure rate in Maltese (language) would be so much higher than that at present. He insisted that the literature part of the examination compensates for the miserly performance in the language part.
In other words, literature helps to keep the percentage pass rate at a “respectable” level of 55-60 per cent. Without the literature part incorporated in the paper, the failure rate would be in the 60, 70 per cent range!
So just because you are heading for university and want to do science/engineering/IT, you think Maltese isn’t important? Any language is about communication, and the smartest engineers are not those who know all the technical stuff, but those who know it AND know how to communicate it. And it maybe the case that you’ll only ever have to communicate in English, but having rudimentary Maltese (and if you have O Level/Matsec level, it is rudimentary) will help you be a better communicator.
True, but I don’t think we should learn English at the expense of Maltese. I think we should learn both. What’s the big deal? Learning two languages (perhaps even THREE) from an early age helps when you want to learn the 4th or 5th and so on!
I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn as many languages as possible. My point is that those who are NOT linguistically inclined should not be barred from university. Let’s face it, science drives the world forward (for better or for worse) and we should not close our doors to science students just because, in some people’s eyes, “they are not Maltese enough”. Intelligent students are being left out in the cold because of self-righteous politicians whilst other students, who opt for ‘soft option’ subjects are being let in. What a waste!!
Steve, if you are forty-something and referring to Italian teenagers of your generation, it’s a different story. Wherever you go in Italy today, rest assured that most youngish people will insist on speaking to you in (fluent) English, even if you approach them / answer them in fluent Italian.
They have realised the importance of learning the language. Sadly, certain Maltese people put up psychological barriers when it comes to learning and using the English language.
Yes I am forty-something, and I live in France, and I can tell you that teenagers here CANNOT speak English. Do they need to? If they wish to stay in France their whole lives, probably not, although it is a great advantage to have, because so few of the French speak English. I have less experience of the Italians, but I’m pretty sure it’s a similar story. I have lived in Germany, and again it’s a similar story. The smaller countries (the Netherlands for example) have a better record at learning English. Then again, it is easier for a native Dutch speaker to learn English that someone whose native language is a Romance language.
The real problem is that the linguists insist that in Malta we have bilingualism. In reality we have diglossia.
Thinking that the situation is one of bilingualism, the authorities have put in motion one particular educational strategy.
Instead, the need another one, which tackles diglossia.
When you, Daphne, used the term “pidgin”, you are 100% right. I would only add that it is not only English which is pidgin, but also Maltese. We are ending up with a creole situation, in which the Maltese can speak neither Maltese nor English well. Whereas BOTH languages are extremely important.
Due to our geographical position, I would also add Italian.
We need a strategy whereby both English and Maltese are taught properly, possibly (I refer to English) by native speakers of English. To do this means to accept that ours is a situation of diglossia and that it is imperative to move toward bilingualism.
Also, a stricter attitude to Anglicisms in the Maltese language should be adopted. The present situation, which allows the almost uncontrolled permeation of English terms into (official) Maltese, has the unwanted side-effect of giving the impression that the traffic is two-way and it’s fine to have Maltesicisms in one’s English. Therefore the creole/pidgin.
The snobbish attitude of certain schools, who favour English, might have good intentions, but it foments the opposite reaction in favour of Maltese as the exclusive language. This is silly. What we need is (i) the Maltese language for our national identity and (ii) an international language with which to take part in the world beyond our shores. (In our day and age, it makes sense for such language to be English.)
In other words, English is for utilitarian purposes, Maltese for psychological purposes.
The lengthy comments posted on this particular topic (other topics attract shorter comments) goes to show how hot the language question still is, and the role the Maltese language has for the identity of the people of these Islands. Yes, Aristocrat, you are right. The Maltese language plays an irreplaceable psychological role for the Maltese people.
[Daphne – Now I have a language question of my own. Going through these comments, I’ve noticed that people talk about ‘the Maltese language’ and ‘the English language’ instead of simply saying ‘Maltese’ and ‘English’ as they do with French and Italian and German and Swedish. The Maltese language as opposed to what – the Maltese hobza? The English language as opposed to what – the English tourist? ‘I speak the English language’. ‘This is a poem in the Maltese language’. The same people who say these things also talking about speaking French and reading poems in Italian. Is this curious trait something picked up at school or what?]
@Daphne!
Good point! Probably a calque of “l-ilsien Malti”.
It’s the result of years of having “l-ilsien Malti” drummed into you. (jaqq, ghax mhux “il-lingwa”?)
We speak a curious form of belaboured Dickensian English (or Indian English). And before anyone accuses me of being a snob, I’m as guilty (or innocent) as the rest. Just read the comments on this blog. “All” is always followed by “and sundry”. Instead of “the government” it’s “the powers that be”. Maltastar has now added “coterie” to our English vocab.
The root of the problem is deep. It all starts with Dun Karm poems and First Aid to English.
We can also say that few people read anything. I have a very good variety of magazines (not more than a few weeks old and products literature) and I see people in my waiting room, just sitting impassively whiling the time away staring at the wall. I was overjoyed when a seven-year-old asked me to take home with her a Miranda 360 collection magazine.The mother told me that her daughter loved reading. She was an exception.
My mother used to encourage us to bring our own books everywhere, including doctor/dentist waiting rooms. The idea of letting us stare at the wall would have horrified her!
Very well said. When used with grammatical accuracy, and without inbreeding amongst themselves, English and Maltese immediately rise to the challenge of intensifying and facilitating thought. The more languages you know, the more complete your knowledge of human nature, and the more far-reaching your access to other nations’ cultural wealth.
Sadly, because of diglossia we are now at such a linguistic pass that using English and Maltese with any idiomatic proficiency will make people stare at you like a dog that’s just been shown a card trick.
‘Ara dak, miskin, jaf jitkellem bl-Ingliz. Ejja nithassruh u naghmlulu gabra.’
Having rehabilitated both languages’ rind of place, it’d still be a good idea to remember Alfred Kahn’s warning: ‘If you can’t explain what you’re doing in simple English, you are probably doing something wrong.’
It’s the antipathy towards learning generally that is bewildering, more so among those who aspire to a university education.
The reluctance to learn English properly – as opposed to being deprived of the means of doing so – sits oddly with the expectation that education should be accessible to all.
What we have here is droves of young people taking access to tertiary education for granted but rejecting the opportunity to make the most of it. That reduces their life chances considerably. That much is self-evident. The full extent of the social and economic impact is yet to be seen.
Well if you recall a somewhat recent article in The Times, where it reported that kindergarten children were being exposed to English, you will also recall the howls of complaint in the comments section online.
I am surprised that no one commented on the existing discrimination in favour of Maltese to gain entry to university. While English language and literature are two separate exams, with only language being a prerequisite for entry to university, the Maltese Matsec exam also includes literature. So much for constitutional equality betwen the two languages. The forced teaching of Maltese literature is nothing more than a racket to enable teachers of Maltese to have a ready made market for private lessons. The same goes for Maltese authors, whose often inane texts are shoved down our children’s throats. Otherwise who would buy the dross produced by Maltese authors? If our authorites think that it is preferable for our children to study Dun Karm instead of Keats, Francis Ebejer rather than Shakespeare and Mario Azzopardi instead of Thomas Hardy, then they are a serious disgrace to their profession.
We can rant and rave about the “horrors” of colonialism but we were gifted what has become by far the most important language in the world on a plate. And the anti English (more than pro Maltese I would say) brigade are doing their best to throw this God given gift out of the window.
Mr. John Tabone (above) has obviously no experience of taking part in meetings attended by participants from different countries. It is accepted in this type of environment that English is THE language spoken, even within the EU. In smaller meetings where translation services are not available English is accepted as the common language.
Talking of the EU, it is also accepted that where there are anomalies in translation, it is the English text that prevails.
Very true. I have often wondered how most Maltese authors get published at all. Most of them are humourless and superstitious yokels who enjoy pissing into the wind and somehow mistaking it for ‘literature’.
There are of course NOTABLE exceptions, like Guze Ellul Mercer’s anti-clerical Leli ta’ Haz-Zghir (which is no longer in print in Maltese!!), Dwardu Ellul’s bittersweet ‘Ajsbergs’, or some of Trevor Zahra’s delightful childrens’ books, which occupy a very important niche in our folklore.
As a whole, though, Maltese literature is pathetically inclined towards sentimentality, religious posturing, and moralization. Remembering the pointless agony I had to go through to prepare for my Maltese Lit. Matsec exam makes me want to puke blood for a week.
I would add Guzè Ellul’s cracking yarns, which illustrate my point perfectly. He wrote about knights and damsels and pirates – stuff which Maltese just about covers, with the addition of a few Italian loan words. When you get into the finer shades of human emotion, or when you need to tease out the exact concept, or describe life in 2010, Maltese will fail you.
I suspect that Maltese wordsmiths of the Oliver Friggieri type tend to adjust their thoughts to fit the words. My worry is that the polished artistry of such literature is being touted as proof that good Maltese can be used anywhere: See, Maltese is beautiful! Yes, but can it tell MY story?
P.S. And how could we forget Joe Friggieri’s masterpiece “L-istejjer tar-Ronnie”, Allan? “Din il-gzira tal-hamburgers u s-sufanijiet homor….” BRILLIANT!
Sorry, I meant Guzè Galea.
Guze Galea – wasn’t he the grandfather of the magistrate?
Ghandek ragun, H.P. Baxxter. ‘L-istejjer tar-Ronnie’ huwa kapulavur inkejjuz u graffjanti li kulhadd ghandu jaqra.
Mill-bqija, nippreferi nitkellem bl-Ingliz, ghax il-hsibijiet b’hekk nikkristallizahom ahjar. Ma nafx jekk dan huwiex frott nuqqas l-gharfien Malti tieghi, izda il- fatti jibqghu dawk li huma.
Min-naha l-ohra, ejja ma ninsewx li l-istess popolarita’ tal- Ingliz huwa appuntu l-kankru li qed jieklu minn gewwa. Meta tikkonsidra Gresham’s Law illi ‘bad money drives out the good’, tinnota illi popolarita’ = medjokrita’ u freefall ta’ standards. Innotaw kemm kien facli ghalina nisselezzjonaw il-gojjelli tal- litteratura Maltija…izda ipprova ghamel l-istess ghal-litteratura kontemporanja Ingliza!! Dak li jbiegh huwa dak li jinkiteb u jinqara. Ikbar il- popolarita’, inqas l-enfasi fuq l-eccellenza u iktar fuq is- ‘saleability’.
Ezempju lampanti: Fejn is-suq ghall-prodott huwa zghir, tipo’ fic-cinema Taljan jew Gappuniz, iktar u iktar ghandek prevalenza ta’ kwalita’. Ikkuntrasta dan kollu mall- hnizrijiet u karonjati Amerikani (Shrek, Batman, Phantom Menace), u ggudikaw inthom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI
Ahem. French cinema: C’est passionant mais il se passe rien.
Daphne I agree with your article. The problem in Malta with English is the poor quality of English language teachers and teaching methodology.
Nowadays with the internet and satellite TV, it should be much easier to learn English than in the seventies when I was a teenager. So we should see an improvement in the level of English in Malta.
Maltese should be a compulsory subject for entry into university, however an exemption should be made to non-Maltese native speakers (this should not include ‘Tal-Pepe’ English speakers who cannot speak neither Maltese nor English).
I am a frequent visitor to Malaysia (a former British colony) and I am surprised with their standard of spoken and written English.
“(this should not include ‘Tal-Pepe’ English speakers who cannot speak neither Maltese nor English).”
Those tend to be wannabe ‘Tal-Pepe’
Frankly, I believe the best way to learn good English is through books, not through internet or satellite TV. Good teachers certainly help, but the parents must encourage their children to read books.
There are websites with good levels of English, but I doubt most of them would appeal to children. The same applies for satellite TV.
Just reading books engenders a passive knowledge of (bookish) English.
One needs interaction in the English language – preferably with native speakers of the language (the Full Immersion system).
Nostradamus formerly Avatar – is correct, but interacting with British people is not easy. They are very reserved and they are not the most open, talkative and approachable of people.
Americans and Australians would be a better option to interact with, but they are a bit too far from Malta!
That’s why we have people speaking minglish instead of English. I have been taught both languages but I speak more English than Maltese. In today’s world if you cannot speak and write English fluently, you cannot possibly work and communicate with the rest of the world. In my job, the tourism sector, it is imperative that you speak English fluently. I meet people from different parts of the world who speak English and come to Malta to learn English. Daphne, it is hard to explain this idea to some closed-minded people, so don’t bother wasting your time with them. Keep up your good work.
My two cents worth. The advent of cable TV should have resulted in much better “spoken” English rather than what we have at present..which is an absolute disaster. Cable TV has also caused a severe negative shift in the number of people who previously ‘learned’ Italian through this medium (as in when we had only Maltese and Italian TV available). The overall standard in both languages is unfortunately atrocious. As for Maltese being an entry level requirement for local university i suspect that there is a political (national) expedient which effectively ‘denies’ an invasion of foreign students who would otehrwise be ‘legally’ entitled to pursue unversity courses here in Malta – an EU issue I mean.
I can shed some light on this subject from personal experience. First of all I strongly believe that the Maltese language should be taught in schools, and should be a requirement to enter university. How can a doctor, or a lawyer expect to practise medicine or law in Malta, treating and assisting Maltese people without being able to speak the language properly? Who on earth would feel comfortable being treated by a MALTESE doctor who stutters and is clearly uncomfortable speaking his own mother tongue. I surely wouldn’t.
[Daphne – Yes, they should be requirements for those courses, but why would Maltese be a requirement for a degree course in, say, English?]
Having said that, I think that irrespective of one’s knowledge of Maltese, which I stress is essential, it is also vitally important to have a sound knowledge of English, and possibly other languages. I’ve lived in Italy for the last ten years and am here considered extremely fortunate to have been born in a country which is bilingual.
Most Italians today feel handicapped that they can only communicate in one language. We Maltese have been blessed with a history that has exposed us to various languages including Italian, French and English. When I was a kid we used to watch TV in Italian because we only had four TV stations. In this way we learned Italian. We were spoken to in English at school and thereby we learned English.
This exposure to languages has helped me immensely in my life not only here in Italy but even in Malta. In reading law in Malta, all three languages Maltese, Italian and English came handy. I remember that we too were allowed to write our exams in Maltese, but I don’t believe anyone every took up that option simply because we studied texts mainly written in English and Italian so introducing yet another language into the matter only complicated what was already not a mean feat.
Here in Italy, where thanks to Malta’s entry into the EU, my Maltese university Degree is now fully recognised, it would still have been tough getting a job and competing with Italian nationals if I had not had an excellent level of English. On the other hand, my fluency in English opened a lot of doors within the field of international commercial and contract law.
How can a Maltese work anywhere outside Malta if he or she can only write and communicate in Maltese? So if Malta wants its young people to have the broadest possible horizons it must first and foremost nurture and develop its existing language skills. I say existing because no Maltese is totally alien to English (in Italy I have met 40-year-old professionals who have difficulty understanding a simple greeting such as “good morning”) so why throw this immense advantage away, just for the sake of some inane demonstration of patriotism?
Learning and perfecting any skill is always a plus, so without sacrificing the knowledge of the Maltese language, given Malta’s size and that Maltese is only spoken on the island, it is vitally important for the Maltese to develop their skills in as many other languages as possible.
Daphne, I still believe that Maltese should be an entrance requirement even if you’re taking a degree is in English. I suppose the only exception I would make is for foreigners studying in Malta. As I’ve said before on this blog, if a person is born in Malta, and has lived in Malta for twenty-odd years – they must be able to pass matriculation level Maltese, also because it is essential for any profession they want to take up later for example, teaching English in the case of someone having a degree in English language or literature.
Why is it essential to have an in-depth knowledge of, say, Anton Buttigieg’s or Ruzar Briffa’s poetry if you plan on working in the international corporate sector or, as you say, as an English teacher?
If the argument for a Maltese matriculation certificate is the usefulness of the language in post-university life then, in most cases, it is redundant. Being able to speak and write in Maltese, on the other hand, are useful skills. However, that does not mean they are essential.
If non-Maltese are afforded the advantage of entering university without a Maltese matriculation certificate, that is a form of discrimination, isn’t it?
Extremely well-said.
Daphne, I disagree with you here. I think Maltese should be compulsory for a degree course in English (in Malta). What sort of jobs would graduates of English find in Malta? Without Maltese, their job prospects would be limited. What if they want to become interpreters and translators?
In fact I would even make O level Latin compulsory for postgraduates of Romance languages, including English.
[Daphne – What would people be able to do in Malta without Maltese matriculation? Possibly a damn sight more than many people who do have Maltese matriculation certificates. You’re talking to one right now. I never sat for Maltese ‘Metrikk’ on principle; even at 15 I could tell that wasn’t literature but big-fish-in-a-small-bowl rubbish. It never held me back. I wasn’t going to university anyway because I didn’t want to become a doctor, a pharmacist, a lawyer, a dentist or a teacher, nor did I want to study ‘public policy.’ Today it’s different, and that Maltese O-level is just a means to the end of getting into university, so I advised my sons to tell the examiners the tosh they wanted to hear (“This is a marvellous poem, so evocative….”) and aim for a 5, then forget about it forever, move into university and move on.]
I agree to disagree with you on this one. I never liked poetry, I think it should not be taught in any language in schools, it is a waste of time. I think that Maltese O level should not include literature but purely language.
Here’s a parable which says it all: Back in the day, I had won this “Pinna Zaghzugha” essay-writing contest organised by the Ghaqda Letterarja Maltija, with a brilliant essay written in flawless Maltese containing exactly the tosh they wanted to hear. (Yes, it can be done.)
The prize was an anthology of Maltese poetry (yawn) and a book voucher from Merlin Library. So I went to Merlin Library and promptly bought myself some books on stuff that I enjoyed. Needless to say, not one was in Maltese.
Many of the “champions of the national language” are themselves linguists who actually love English almost as much as they love Maltese – and are highly proficient in it. The Maltese – English rivalry exists largely in the mind of many Maltese who do not really understand the issue i.e. that Maltese should be given its rightful position in the affairs of the country. In no way do people who hold this postion denigrate the use of English itself, nor would they dream of contesting the importance of English in many areas of academic study, international relations, and indeed everyday life.
The poor standards of English generally (i.e. in Malta, but also in the Anglophone countries) have to do with one of the more laudable movements of the last decades – the democratisation of education. It sounds horribly elitist – but the truth is that the opening of so many avenues to higher education for those less intellectually-endowed, or at least less lingistically gifted, have enabled a large number of individuals, who in the old days would never have made it to University, to study for a degree Their poor grasp of English
(and of Maltese too by the way) which would in the old days have remained latent, is now apparent. The lingusitically able are there as well, but are now constitute only a sizeable minority,compared to the swarms of the less-endowed.
Probably the real reason for the poor levels of English have little to do with teaching methods or the supposed favouring of Maltese over English in the primary and secondary school curricula, and should be sought in the general dumbing down of standards and requirements in Malta and elsewhere.
I take exception to the fact that you equate ‘less linguistically gifted’ to less intelligently endowed’. You clearly have not tried your hand at a chemistry or mathematics ‘A’ level or beyond.
If you read carefully, the lless-intellectually gifted and the less-lingustically gifted were not equated.
Not equated perhaps, but your ‘or at least’ implies that those ‘less linguistically gifted’ are a subset of those ‘less intelligently endowed’.
What it boils down to is this: why should Maltese be compulsory if I want to study Mathematics or Chemistry or Physics at tertiary level. How is it going to help me in my studies? Will I ever have to pick up a single book in Maltese? Will I ever have to write a word of it.
Why is it assumed that because one does not have an ‘O’ level, one cannot speak it? I can assure you that most of the people who fail their Maltese ‘O’ level speak nothing BUT Maltese, albeit ‘naqa’ (God, how I hate this contraction) mgerfex.
I do not wish to sound basic, but anyone advocating the increased use of Malteseto the detriment of English in our educational system need look no further than Maltastar.com.
That this comes from Joseph Muscat who also suggested that a second, possibly foreign, university sounds absurd to me.
Whereas some credit can be given to the notion of using Maltese in Maltese degrees, I do not believe that the university should change the policy of examining its students in the English language.
Sound knowledge of English, especially spoken English, is one of the competitive advantages that Malta has over countries such as Italy, Spain and France.
The Italians envy us for the quality of our English. That said, the quality of English of many Italians, French and Spaniards has improved a lot and in some cases far exceeds that of the average Maltese person. If you add to that the self-confidence which those proud nations seem to instil in their people, you get individuals who are true winners.
Many people from those countries have had the opportunity of study or work exchanges in the UK or the US.
Our good knowledge of English is one of the assets we sell to foreign investors. It is in fact embarrassing that they often find that our English, written or spoken, is not as good as it should be.
Lack of proper preparation in the English language among university students often results in lack of confidence to ask or answer questions, and engage in discussion, during lectures. Later in life, it may inhibit the wish to travel overseas on work exchanges, or to engage with foreigners.
Let us recognise the importance of the Maltese language as a national heritage, but let us not overestimate its importance in our process of communication with the outside world.
The lack of confidence in asking questions in public merits a discussion in itself.
Nothing is more exasperating than waiting for a long silent and embarrassing minute for questions after giving a presentation, only to be inundated by them by individual students coming up to you as soon as the lecture is over, while you’re packing your things.
I admit that I was guilty in the past of the very same behaviour, but that does not diminish the exasperation.
I am sure that part of it comes from the ingrained belief that someone who stands on a podium has the God-given truth in his/her hands and SHOULD therefore, know it all.
Which leads to either of two possibilites:
Who am I to question anything?
or
What if I embarrass the speaker?
Hence, any possible discussion is dead on arrival. The fact that a number of lecturers and teachers act in a way to reinforce this belief means that the situation is not going away any time soon.
http://mt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il-Pa%C4%A1na_prin%C4%8Bipali
If ” English is THE lingua franca”, so are these foreigners nuts?
Maltese wikipedja: 2,539 artiklu
English Wikipedia: 3,227,020 articles
Meaning what?
There are only 400,000 Maltese speakers and 900,000,000 English speakers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population).
400,000 have produced 2,500 articles, that is 0.00625 articles per speaker.
900,000,000 have produced 3,227,020, that is 0.00359 articles per speaker.
Does the ration of Maltese articles per Maltese speaker to English articles per English speaker = 0.00625:0.00359.
Which is 1.74: almost double.
So, conclusions are “required.”
Meaning you will only go as far as articles on Dun Mikiel Scerri and pastizzi if you only speak Maltese. Stop deluding yourself, Nostradamus.
You’re deluding yourself if you think I said that!
My point is that Maltese is necessary for our identity.
english is the lingua franka for the people who are so full of themselves and that get heartburns everytime they eat their pastizzi. they are the same people that go to giorgio’s on sunday to sit next to the arabs and share a croissant .
ah! the ignorance of some never fails to impress…
“english is the lingua franka for the people who are so full of themselves”
However, it is an ignorance that is scary. Let’s face it, you cannot educate someone who hates Maltese who speak English. So what happens, they remain closed minded, their kids will be closed minded and perpetually so.
Is it just me or is there a tone of jealousy? tony?!
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling
I disagree. Every Maltese should have a right to speak and write in Maltese whenever it concerns Malta. Whenever it’s an international exam you are right English is a must. But to say that lessons have to be in English is simply ridiculous. What you fail to notice is the role of the media. When I was younger I learned English and Italian (especially italian) even before starting school. How? Since we had no Tista’ tkun int, Xarabanks and all that crap we watched the italian and english channels all the time at a crucial young age. So that might be the reason for the generation behind us difficulties in grasping the foreign yes I said it ‘FOREIGN’ languages.
Well if Mark C said it, then it must be so!
You can deny it till the cows come home, but the fact remains that English, besides being an official language, is also the mother tongue of a large number of Maltese, myself included. I think in English, as do most of my family and friends. That doesn’t mean we don’t all speak fluent Maltese too.
I also agree it is silly that some people refuse to learn Maltese, if you live and work here you are at a disadvantage without it, simple as that.
You cannot teach the sciences effectively in Maltese. The language just did not evolve in those areas.
Transposing English words to the Maltese language by altering spelling does not fix the problem. It just makes me cringe.
The transposition is, at the moment, pidgin-like.
Hallina, Stefan – when you are in difficulty you don’t ask for an explanation to be given in English. It would be in Maltese with the technical words and the numbers in English.
The Italians learn science but they don’t learn it in English. They learn it in the everyday language, same with the Germans and the French. Learning in a foreign language is a handicap for us.
By Daphne’s standards those students who don’t communicate in English cannot enter our university while Italian students can enter their university without being handicapped.
[Daphne – Actually, they can’t, because they have to know English, and most Italians don’t. Italians can deal with science in their own language because – guess what – they have a long history of scientific endeavour and their language developed to accommodate it. Our language, on the other hand, developed to accommodate only agriculture and maritime matters.]
@Gahan
That is quite a large and incorrect assumption you have made. I consider myself as a mature professional and I do, sometimes, request technical assistance from peers.
Invariably, said peers will assist me using English as the only language. In my chosen profession, I find it hard to trust someone who can’t think in English and hence communicate in the same language.
I do, however, tend to utilise Maltese in other day-to-day activities. I would also submit that Maltese is a suitable replacement to English for most activities – discussing scientific subjects is not one of them.
Wrong Daphne, we have technical/scientific words but we’re not using them or are unwilling to officially adapt them because we’re stuck in the rut of inferiority complex.
English technical words have been in use for the past 150 years in Malta. Before that it was Italian and Maltese or a mixture of both like we now introduce English words when we have no other option- wajer, swicc, kompjuter, skrin.
In the times of the Knights’ rule we had kanun, porvli, baramina, fildiferru, for which we did not adopt cannon, gunpowder, borer, steel wire.
At primary school we learned arithmetic with the numbers in English not because we had no name for the numbers but because the system imposed on us was in English. That’s why we use English when we count or dial a phone number.
Italians who attend Italian universities do not need to learn a foreign language, but they obtain the equivalent degrees our university hands out to Maltese students.
I had qualified colleagues in Malta who did not know a word in English. Their only language was their mother tongue.
I understand that we need books written in English for practical reasons to learn, but we should not tie our hands behind our backs and try to run when our competitors run unhindered by such self imposed handicaps.
The purpose is learning the subject thoroughly not the medium by which it is thought.
Try these for size:
kompjuter
tiffajlja
taghmel bekup
tippowstja imejl
tippowstja imejlijiet
jithekkja l-imejl tieghek
These are genuine examples lifted from correspondence issued by a commercial company that practises political correctness: Every Maltese should have a right to speak and write in Maltese whenever it concerns Malta
It looks Maltese on screen but it doesn’t sound Maltese to me.
“tibghat ijmejl” mhux ahjar?
if anything…. tibghat e-posta (posta elektroniku)
email = electronic mail!
Maltese AND English are our official languages. It is a constitutional right to be able to express oneself in both as first languages. If the education system is failing in fulfilling its constitutional obligations then a total rethink is in order.
The truth is that very few can speak and write proper Maltese or English, and fewer still can do both to a standard one would expect of a native mother tongue.
There are two points to raise on the University Senate’s decision. Firstly, those who oppose it fail to mention that there are NO tertiary level textbooks or research material in Maltese. It makes no sense to read and study in English and then have to sit for exams in Maltese without knowing what the technical terminology is in the latter language.
Secondly, reading for degrees in any other language but English will condemn graduates to limiting their scope of potential employment to 27km by 14.5km. In a globalised world, where markets are completely open and nationalism is increasingly becoming irrelevant, we must all be open to the reality that employment markets do not end at our sea-shores.
Language is not merely a bearer of national identity but also an anthropological, cultural and economic barrier. Unless, one is fortunate to be born in countries where international languages such as English and Spanish (and to a lesser extent French and Chinese) are mother-tongues, university students will sooner or later need to confront themselves with the fact that for them to succeed in their careers they will eventually need to succumb to the reality that minority languages will not get them very far. This does not only to apply to Malta, but also to countries more powerful than ours including Japan, Germany or Italy. The problem becomes increasingly more acute the smaller the country is. While a Japanese student can look forward to exploit the world’s second largest economy, a Maltese student clearly cannot, which is precisely why we joined the European Union in the first place. Even so, a Japanese engineer or an Italian economist will have to confront himself with the reality that he will not only be doing business with people from his own country, and that a working knowledge of English is essential.
The difference between Malta and the aforementioned countries is that they were not fortunate to have inherited the English language in their national identity. Because like it or not, Malta was a former British colony and is still an active member of the Commonwealth. The English language forms part of our national heritage which should be proud of as much as we pride ourselves in the built heritage by all former colonisers including the Knights and the British.
We can verify the result of this globalised reality everyday in Malta. The thousands of English-language students that travel to Malta every year are evidence of this stark reality.
Thanks for posting my comment. However, changing the word “duty” to “right” in the first line changed the meaning of what I was trying to convey. We all have a civic duty to speak Maltese and English in equal measure to the highest possible standard. The right to speak either of these languages is, as far as I am aware, not being questioned by the authorities. Bigots can protest as much as they want. Frankly, I couldn’t be bothered.
[Daphne – Oh, I thought that was a slip. The Constitution gives us rights not duties.]
Upholding the Constitution is a duty imho
Sorry Andre: Daphne is right!
Constitutions (in the modern sense of the word) are meant to contain the authority and power of the powerful.
The powerful have a duty to uphold Constitutions; for the rest, it is an interest, for Constitutions gave them rights against the powerful.
(imho)
We have a different understanding of what citizenship is.
Being indigenous Maltese, it is imperative that each one of us can read and write correct Maltese. This will both facilitate access to and understanding/appreciation of our Maltese culture as well as facilitate the rendering of an enhancement thereto.
So a pass requirement at O standard for University entrance is justified . Moreover, pre-university students should be encouraged to go farther by going one step beyond namely to gain higher levels of proficiency in the form of an intermediate and/or advanced level passes..It is also essential that such examinations are set by the alma mater ie The University Of Malta. Apart from this, one should not forget or ignore the implications this bears on our national pride and spirit.
However, such due importance being attributed to our national language should in no way be used to detract from the intrinsic advantages inherent in one’s grasp of the English language both in its written and spoken form.English should be compulsory for the purpose of answering exam papers at university level and lectures should be conducted and delivered in English as a rule. Not doing so would imply that research could not be properly carried out since English is the universal medium. Ignoring such a fact would definitely be to our individual and national detriment.
It is frustrating to encounter graduate understudies, lately, who cannot put a few words together to form a sentence, more so a cohesive group of sentences, and this to deliver a simple message. Imagine what the product looks like when such are required to pen a complex professional report .The rendering borders on the burlesque and the reaction from people like me is frustrating and nothing short of contempt . This latter incident is becoming increasingly frequent and the norm rather than the one-off. I would also recommend that the reqiured O level pass is gained from a UK university say Oxford, London.
Having said that, students should be encouraged to achieve command of other languages, especially Italian and French.
That way, we as individuals and Malta as a nation will be able to create and maintain the edge over the competition.Otherwise, we stand to lose as we are doing right now.
I work for a Swiss-based multinational. As with all multinationals English is mandatory. We also outsource back office activities to eastern European countries. It is a basic requirement within this company that English be spoken, along with the national language of the particular country they are supporting, and obviously their own language. That is, a Romanian will speak Romanian, English, and say, French, if supporting the French desk.
The level of English (both spoken and written) I have come across with these young energetic people is of an extremely high level, and they’re falling over themselves to become more fluent. By sad contrast, whether observing it on my frequent visits to Malta, or reading comments by some knee-jerkist-know-it-all on timesofmalta.com, I’ve noticed a significant deterioration in the command of the English langauge in Malta. I suppose the phrase “sejrin lura bhal granc”, would be quite appropriate.
I have been teaching English for 21 years. Some of my students succeed, others fail.
What determines this? Their upbringing.
Give me a child who has already ‘learned’ that English is ‘tal-pepe’, or a child who speaks only English at home but whose standard of self-expression is of the slackest (You went there? Ma how shy!). Give me a child for whom reading anything longer than an sms is an insurmountable task; a child who brings a note excusing him from his reading assignment because, and I quote:’he doesn’t like books’.
Give me a child whose general knowledge is so poor that he thinks the scenes of the twin towers collapsing are cool special effects, or a child whose parents only speak to him to see if he is fed and watered and to see if he has cleaned his room. Give me these children and there is very little I can do.
Beware of parents who tell you, “He’s no trouble at all. He goes straight to his room and does all his homework and studying on his own.” Children take short cuts, children do not have the knowledge to evaluate the quality of their work, corrections are largely ignored – the mark is given a fleeting glance but that is all.
Unless parents understand that homework has to be closely monitored and backed up with reading and intelligent conversation, their children will gain nothing but the sketchiest and most superficial education.
No matter how much money the government throws at the problem, unless the parents play their part the standard of education in this country will remain the same: a very few truly educated thinkers swimming along in a crowd of pretentious braggarts with a university degree in hot air and piffle.
An excellent comment.
Qas taf kemm ghandek ragun! Kumment superlattiv. Prosit.
I am under the impression that the main problem is the “feeling” that when correcting Maltese examination papers, the examiners try to show off how clever they are and squeeze the poor student to such an extent that these students are really and truly scared of the Maltese language.I might be wrong in this assessment but why o why make it so difficult for students?
@DCG: “Perhaps now the government will wake up to the fact that it has colluded in the creation of this linguistic monster, by giving undue importance to Maltese to the detriment of English”.
Unlikely. Bilingual education doesn’t seem to rank highly in Dolores Christina’s list of priorities. Lots of talk, of course, but that’s about it.
Ironically, the only Education Minister I remember who had a genuine concern about the dismal levels of English (and Maltese) in Malta was Evarist Bartolo.
Oh my God! What an obsession … I was also brought up in a Maltese-speaking household, but we knew English. Real English, not the rubbish English that makes me cringe, the type of English that is also spoken by pupils at English-speaking private schools.
Not to mention the Maltese of this century. It is painful to read the Maltese that is being dumped on us by journalists these days!
At this rate we will have employment opportunities for translators who don’t wish to go to Brussels or Luxembourg. They will be employed by the university to translate lectures. What a laugh!
AND we spoke fluent Italian too ! We didn’t learn that from RAI TV either !
I believe that both English and Maltese are very important.. but let’s face the facts. Maltese is only used in Malta and English is basically used everywhere else and if one wants to go through university one has to have a sound knowledge of speaking, writing and understanding English. Like Daphne said, the opposition leader himself had to go through his university days and I am sure that he did not do it with Maltese alone. I hope that the English speaking and learning standards do not start going downhill because that would mean the end of our economy.
English speaking and learning standards have not started to go downhill, but have been going downhill these past 30 years.
“Accelerating downhill” is more like it.
Maybe your opinion is that the English language is the lingua franca, I am sorry to let you know that I did courses in a european country where English was taught at school. But at the university the lectures were in the local language and sometime we had interpreters. When the majority of students were foreigners the lectures were in English. I should like you to note that we already have US English, Australian English and few other type of English.
[Daphne – The differences are in the meaning of a few words and the spelling of a few other ones, plus some expressions. Otherwise, all forms of English are identical and subscribe to the same rules of grammar, spelling, etc. If you think that what we are seeing now is the development of a new form of English called Maltese English, you are seriously mistaken. ‘Just majtezwel immur issa biex I buy dawk il-pastizzi’ is not Maltese English. It is pidgin.]
When I was a student, the best text books I had were written in “American” and they were not easy subjects (physiology and anatomy).
What’s worse is “eeeee i need to sarrafejt”.
Primarily, we should all be in agreement that one simply cannot study any subject or express oneself appropriately on it, in the Maltese language, especially in the case of technical subjects.
The second argument is whether or not future professionals, who intend to live and earn a living in Malta, should be able to speak Maltese fluently. My view is that the need for the latter emerges from a moral obligation towards the society one purports to serve.
In summary, knowledge of the English language is a must for intellectual development. Ability to communicate in Maltese is a requisite for a Maltese national serving the Maltese public. The good thing is that these are not mutually exclusive.
On TV some university spokesman said that one of the reasons answers had to be in English is because of visiting examiners – obviously they wouldn’t know Maltese.
That claim is factually correct, but it’s not the main reason for needing to use English.
We all need to remember that the primary purpose of a language is not to retain national identity or to act as an entrance requirement (read hurdle) to tertiary education but is to permit effective communication of knowledge, thoughts and ideas between people.
Maltese are advantaged in that we are a bilingual nation and that one of the languages is English, which as stated above is the lingua franca of the world. It permits us to access practically all existing knowledge and information and it is sad to see university students struggling to express themselves in English.
Malta needs to strengten this advantage we have and not weaken it.
I am myself a law student and while I do agree with some of the points you made, I still can’t think of a reason why courses; such as for example the Law course should not be taught in Maltese.
We are trained in the MALTESE Criminal Code, the MALTESE Civil Code, and various other MALTESE laws; we have the constitution which says that the Maltese version of a law always prevails and then the course is held in English. It’s kinda stupid cause thank goodness we will be using Maltese in court not a colonial language. While I acknowledge that there might be Erasmus students attending SOME lectures, Erasmus students don’t attend the vast majority of lectures which unfortunately are still held in English. Some lecturers say that they hold their course in English to maintain a higher standard however I see that as being nothing more than an old, colonial-era idea.
English doesn’t even reflect our culture – we are culturally Latin; our secondary language should have reflected that reality since a language is the key to understand a culture. But that is not the point here.
The fact that a person cannot write his examination paper in English does not mean he has not read his text books – at all. What it means is that that person is unable to write in English; in no way does it show that they’re unable to read it. I can read Swedish but I can’t write a decent phrase in the said language. It just means that only one-way communication can happen; which is not ideal but it is a reality.
Unfortunately we’re giving too much importance to a language which is not ours and which does not reflect our culture while we’re ignoring our heritage and what makes us really Maltese.
Dear Nitpicker,
Your English and punctuation are atrocious especially from somebody who is a law student. I am Maltese and love the Maltese language but hate people who are reactionary in their thinking. I hope that you will not be going in for politics in any party later in life.
Thankyou =]
Nitpicker, don’t worry what you were told about your ‘poor’ standard of English.
I find your command of English excellent for someone, I assume, who has never lived for an extended period of time in an Anglophone country (not Malta!).
I wish A-level English, British students, would spell and articulate English as well as you do.
“Unfortunately we’re giving too much importance to a language which is not ours and which does not reflect our culture while we’re ignoring our heritage and what makes us really Maltese.”
In other words you look to the past rather than the future.
If you are really studying law may I ask you how you managed to pass your English A level, especially judging by the standard of your post?
“The fact that a person cannot write his examination paper in English does not mean he has not read his text books – at all. What it means is that that person is unable to write in English; in no way does it show that they’re unable to read it.”
Are you justifying mediocrity?
Not at all – I’m just pointing out a fact.
Stefan, what’s your point? Are we aiming to have good graduates or good writers in English? Why should we punish our aspiring graduates because they can’t fully master a foreign language? Students in other countries don’t have this self-imposed hurdle.
Don’t tell me, like Daphne is trying to say here, that we don’t have the necessary technical words for our courses. Maltese law is littered with Latin and Italianised jargon, if anything Italian and Latin should be mandatory subjects. What’s the point of having English in this course and not having Maltese?
Nitpicker is right.
Lawyers are not technicians, picking up technical information from manuals. To emphasise study in Maltese is to exclude access to research and debate that takes place in other languages. Hundreds of lawyers have graduated in recent years. To remove the English language requirement now would be to lower standards, not raise them.
“we are culturally Latin” – I wouldn’t really say so? You’d be surprised how different we really are from the “Latin culture”. We have actually inherited much more from the British than we think (I am stating this a fact, I’m no Anglophile). Try living with the “Latin culture” and you will see a huge, huge difference – trust me!
Gave us some examples.
On a different note Daphne, Denise’s (Vella?) contribution to today’s (jaqq) leader in Maltastar is so typical of the pseudo intellectuals the PL seems so proud of having within its ranks.
(should not really publicise that schiese site, so please feel free to delete all this if you so wish.)
Daphne, whilst I fully agree with you that the transmission of the English language should be supported at all levels of our educational system, I beg to differ when it comes to eliminating the requirement of Maltese. Maltese is important because it is our only mother language. English is a second language to us, including the teachers who would use it in their lessons. They can never transmit good English to their students, however hard they try, if they use Maltese in their everyday life. The result would be that of producing a nation of ‘semilinguals’ i.e. people who cannot even master one language. That would be a tragedy indeed.
[Daphne – You should separate the two issues so as to make the arguments clearer in your mind. 1. university requirements (practical purpose of entering university) 2. mother tongue/tradition/national pride. How does national pride make an appearance in university entrance requirements? National pride is one thing. University entrance another. To make something a university entrance requirement for the sake of national pride is to subscribe to the fascist way of thinking. I don’t agree with your second argument, either – which I find absolutely defeatist: ‘give up because it’s pointless.’ I am no more and no less Maltese than any of the teachers you mention. Like them, I grew up in Malta. I went to a school full of girls who couldn’t really speak English properly, and we were taught by teachers with terrible accents. Despite this, many of us came out the other side speaking and writing correct English. Apart from the home environment, the reason is that our actual English teachers (who were not English) spoke, wrote and taught the language perfectly, with the right pronunciation. Their one lesson a day negated most of the poor influence of the other teachers and their dreadful accents. There really is no excuse. There are many thousands of people who speak and write English well. So how did they do it? Others can do the same thing. They don’t because they’re just not interested.]
for the sake of national pride ??? You’re hopeless…it’s not for the sake of national pride but becuase we’re maltese and have our own language..imagine if I went to England and demanded to go in a university without knowing a word in english…I’m sure you will use the size excuse, we’re too small and insignificant blablabla inferiority complex which this country suffers from even on a diplomatic level they are so afraid to speak out for their rights…it seems we are not a british colony anymore but some people’s mentality is still colonised.
It also seems that you suffer from the other extreme – a misplaced and rather inflated sense of cultural superiority.
I would go further and postulate that your issues stem from a hidden inferiority complex.
See what I did there? We are now officially both internet psychologists (sic).
Is that a photo of Jake Harper at 40? Same IQ
Baby Daphe you are out of your mind once more as always sometimes you come out with such s—- that sometimes i think that you are living in another world.
Joseph is right when he says that we should allow university students to respond the maltese lessons in the maltese language.
So do not come with this crap baby remember that our leaders never ever whent abroad with the malta file to damage our great nation like you friends had done in the PN.
And do not turn this into a political debate we are in malta and we should be free to use our native language ok baby daphe
How come you wrote nothing about the high profile Politician mentioned in court yesterday as until to day you had not commented as if the same the name was of a Labour Politician you are the first to comment, yet maybe because he is a PN person or your lost,
.see you baby see you soon.
Tony – What’s with this baby stuff – please take time to find another pet name!
You should be the one to push for a wider approach to learning as education opens doors and windows for a more fruitfull future.
Fascist ideologies are passe and “our great nation” now forms part of an even greater one, the European Union, from which, with determination you will be sure to benefit.
Language has nothing to do with politics.
Grow up.
Who exactly is this tony?
I sometimes have to read his comments thrice to understand where he is aiming it… and more often than not I cannot understand what he has in mind…
My suspicion is that this is a sick admirer of yours, Daphne… His insistent use of “baby” and his comments – which are just taunts and add nothing of substance to the discussion – seem to betray the typical profile of the sociopath. I could be wrong, but he does seem weird.
Dear Daphne, do you always have to make examples with Labour sympatisers, why? You are so biased.
Glenn Bedingfield is one of the leading lights of the Labour Party media – the *English language* Labour Party media. He is an example of the mediocrity and presumption that explain both the refusal to learn English properly and the refusal to learn at all.
XIV.
SoopaOne, MaltaToodee, and the Star
Goose-step in unison:
To defend the Magistrate from the “Gossip”
They unite for their mission.
XV.
The blatant errors of judgment
Not of law, but of ethics
They choose not to see
But drown it all in politics.
XVI.
They will fail. There’s perjury
Asian inquiries, facebook antics
Brech of ethics, adultery
A brother’s parliamentary histrionics.
XV.
This is not gossip, this is truth
This is the uncovering of the rot
This is the day of reckoning
‘TIs the day to clean the blot.
XVI.
Decent citizens, honest folk
Demand to see the farce’s end
They expect truth to be told
To rend the web of friends of friends.
Int ha taqtaha jew?
LE!
Not until the situation is resolved.
Only then will I (and many others) be satisfied.
Jekk jaqtaghha hu inkompli jien!
XVII
The Times today
through its editor did say
that integrity and reputation
of the judiciary are at stake.
XVIII
A small tremor like this
has brought some bliss
on the face of our Ms
THE resignation is what we miss.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100321/opinion/editorial
XIX.
A mother tells her son to pull the door
The diligent son takes it off the hinges
Takes it round the village core
And also on the fringes.
XX.
The onlookers think he’s silly
But his namesake is surely not
He writes two qautrains smart
To draw attention to the rot.
XXI.
This man, of nickname ironic,
Tells the crowd, who is all ears
That the newspaper most iconic
Has disspelled the worst of fears.
XXII.
A fraud squad specialist of yore
A faulty predication makes:
The matter confined to the blog
And scot-free go the fakes.
XXIII.
Off-mark is the word precise
To describe this prediction:
The Times of the Island spake
And set forth its execration.
XXIII.
The crowds on the wind-swept isle
Are there all tense and waiting
To see a halt to broken ethics
Lying-cum-oath and extramarital mating.
XXIV.
Jubilation among the crowds
An Editorial ’twas and thunder
It wasn’t the gods who made all this
So it can be put asunder.
XXV.
Perjury, adultery, facebook friends and more
The Islands’ crowds are shocked
Awe-stricken by the downfall of the Bench
By blind Justice being blindly mocked.
XXVI.
A blog begins the path of truth
A blog continues the struggle
Certain News, certain papers
The culprits try to smuggle.
XXVII.
But the crowds are resilient
For no ride will they be taken
If the magistrate thinks she’s safe
She’s very much mistaken.
Nostradamus, I put the doorback in its place.
XXVIII
We listened to the radio
we heard every Sunday speech
noted the politician’s silence
We ALL say “practise what you preach”
XXIX.
The nickname is ironic, the man is smart
He writes with crystal clarity
Like many of the multitude he wants
Justice with celerity.
XXX.
He says it clear, he says it true
On behalf of the collective conscience
She threw the Bench in disrepute:
The people now have collective prescience
XXXI.
They look in the crystal ball and see
The magistrate made to disrobe
She has only herself to blame
She’s hanging by her own rope.
XXXII.
The turpitude, the demimonde
Society’s made uneasy
The connections, the lies, the filth
Add up to being greasy.
XXXIII.
Step down she must of her own will
For justice seen not only done
Or else convinced that’s the right thing
The end is nigh for facebook fun.
XXXIV.
The matter has gone up
To the palatial chambers:
The people put their trust
In the Commission’s members.
XXXV.
The Commission is duty-bound
Not to let down the trust:
All the facts, all the lies
Study well, study soon it must.
XXXVI.
Furthermore, deliberate
Ponder well and surely
Of breaches of the Ethics Code
The crowd needs to hear, sorely.
XXXVII.
The saga is long drawn-out
The crowd is growing tired
The magistrate still presides
But people want her fired.
XXXVIII.
How can Justice well be served
When there is such a blemish?
How can the people be assured
Justice is not just a fetish?
I’m afraid you are taking this a bit too far. I mean the Maltese language is only mandatory to enter university at Ordinary level. Using the same argument, Mathematics at Ordinary level should also not be mandatory for say the B.A. English course as you won’t use Maths for that particular course.
[Daphne – It’s not the SAME argument, Malcolm. Compulsory maths is proof of a basic minimum level of education. Compulsory Maltese is not. Try adding up using Guze Aquilina’s dictionary, and you’ll see what I mean.]
However the aim of the ordinary level is to have a basic knowledge of the main subjects. I believe that for university students it is important that one should have a basic knowledge of the main subjects, and the Maltese language in Malta should be regarded as a main subject. At least at Ordinary level.
[Daphne – Why?]
So I disagree mainly with your last paragraph. It is not illogical to make Maltese at O Level mandatory to enter University even though I agree with you that it doesn’t make sense to allow students to write examination papers in Maltese. And yes I also agree with you that the level of English among Maltese students way below standard.
And it seems you did mention something on the lines that it is silly and stupid not to learn Maltese. So if it is silly and stupid not to learn Maltese, than why Maltese at Ordinary Level should not be mandatory to enter University?
[Daphne – Learning Maltese is not the same thing as learning Maltese ‘literature’ and sitting an O-level in the subject. There are plenty of people who learn English but who wouldn’t have any interest in, or ability to, sit an examination in the plays of Shakespeare of the poems of John Keats, even at ordinary leve, – not that Anton Buttigieg and his Kabocca compare, of course.]
Why? You answered the question yourself when saying that it is silly not to learn Maltese.
[Daphne – It is silly, yes, if you grew up here. That makes it a matter of personal pride and has nothing to do with anything else. Interestingly, you will find that contempt for Maltese, which is generally attributed to ‘tal-pepe’ people across the board, actually exists only among ‘tal-pepe’ people with a family history of support for the Nationalist Party. Curiously and ironically, they grew up favouring the language of the oppressor they were trying to get rid of over their own national language, so their two household languages were English and Italian. ‘Tal-pepe’ supporters of the Constitutional Party, on the other hand, spoke Maltese among themselves and English to children and to native English speakers, and sometimes also to other Maltese adults, depending on which language that other adult was more comfortable with. This is a little known fact among those who observe from the outside – working class people (sorry ‘mittilkless’) who write for Maltastar and L-orizzont, for example, who take it for granted that I don’t speak or write Maltese and who are then astonished to discover that my Maltese is even more idiomatic and colourful than theirs is. It is also the reason why I grew up thinking of Italian as a foreign language, and could never understand why so many girls at school appeared to regard it as a third national language.]
You got me on the literature one. Yes I fully agree with you. I did my ordinary level quite a long time ago and forgot all about that. I remember complaining that Maltese literature should not be amalgamated with Maltese language as a subject. Just like the English O Level, literature should be an optional and regarded as a separate subject.
So yes I agree with you on that one. My proposition would be to differentiate between language and literature and only make language mandatory. Reason: “it is silly and stupid to refuse to learn Maltese” Not making O Level in Maltese language mandatory would sum up to just that – refusing to learn Maltese.
Daphne I read D.H.Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers (one of my favourites), Thomas Hardy : The Mayor of Casterbridge (I must admit I also loved this novel) , Shakespeare, (loads of novels if one can call them novels, this author is overestimated), Charles Dickens (certianly the novels much more to my liking but harder to grasp), Keats, Gilbert K. Chesterton and a sad lot of other pessimist down to earth poets, apart from many other english novels. I honestly could never find any novel as realistically thrilling as maltese novels by Lino Spiteri, Trevor Zarha, and much more can’t remember the names now since it’s been over 10 years now. Is-Sahhar Falzun was brilliant and is highly recommended. Leli ta haz zghir another awe inspiring novel, tlettax il numru etc etc. When I hear you just mention literature such as Anton’s Kabocca I come to the conclusion that you never really read a proper maltese novel, and it’s sad really becuase you don’t know what you’re missing. I hated maltese literature just as much as I hated english literature but you can’t mix up novels with poems.
OMG what a lot of tripe ! After plodding through “Inez Farrug” for my Matriculation, I had more than enough to last me for more than one lifetime.
Shakespeare is overestimated.
Hmmmm….
I think I will have to change my nickname again!
From Avatar to Nostradamus (after hearing Sharon using “Miniex Nostradamus imma kemm hemm haga li naf hi kif tahdem l-Unjoni Ewropea” as a premise for her political arguments – you don’t believe me? Look it up on youtube and hear for yourself!)… and now from Nostradamus to Overestimated Shakespeare…
I’m beginning to understand why Alice in Wonderland is having such a tremendous success.
[Daphne – And there are no doubt a lot of people watching that film who are brought up short by the title, having grown up thinking the story is about a girl called Alison Wonderland.]
Language is not learned in a vacuum: one needs to learn style, structures, etc which one achieves through the study of literature, poetry and plays. Mhux tal-kabocca pero…
My girls are Maltese but were brought up mostly in the UK till we moved back recently. They have straight As in the three sciences, also in Maths and in English , but they don’t know a word of Maltese. Can they still go to medical school here? Some of the foreign specialists here are very popular although they don’t know much Maltese, so I don’t see why not.
Erm… what if a patient suddenly goes on one of your girls and says ‘qed immut, qed immut tini l insulina’ which means I’m dying give me insulin..wouldn’t your girls keep staring at them and until they get help or a translator the patient would end up dead. Can you see why not now?
Dear oh dear. Give me strength.
A valid point negated by a number of foreign doctors working in our state hospital.
Feel free to correct me, but I have this notion that foreign doctors were first employed in the late 1970s.
A doctor would not act solely on the advice of a patient or solely at that patient’s request.
With this reasoning then we shouldn’t be employing or licensing any foreign doctors at all unless they can communicate in Maltese. Try telling that to some of our excellent foreign doctors, some of whom don’t know a word in Maltese.
No, because patients don’t tell doctors what to do.
I’m sure straight-A students (as well as three-year-old children) can associate the borrowed word “insulina” to “insulin” or check the patient’s stats in English or Maltese where there is a checkmark for “diabetes” or “diabete”.
Face it, the current professional/business language in Malta is English. Before that it was Italian and I think before that it was Latin.
Yesterday, I got a flier about the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) advertising its Master of Science programmes.
I quote:
“You need to have a Bachelor’s degree and communicate well in English”. You and others should note that communication in Maltese or Danish is not required.
This is a university in a country where the ONLY official language is Danish (six million speakers), but where 84% of the population find it useful to have a good command of English.
Enough has been said.
Your daughters are Maltese and they can’t speak Maltese. I find this disgraceful and shameful that you failed to teach them some Maltese.
X’wahda din, where are those pitchforks?
@ Paul Bonnici
Who cares about Maltese? We don’t. We don’t like it, we don’t want it, and so far we haven’t needed it. As far as we are concerned English is the language of Malta and we don’t really care if you think otherwise.
@ Lino Cert – you said: ‘As far as we are concerned English is the language of Malta’.
Who is the ‘we’? Who are you representing here? Speak for yourself.
I’d love to hear you speak English, to see if English is really your language. I’d probably end up in stitches!
I am not advocating for Maltese to become compulsory for university, except for certain subjects, but Maltese is the spoken language of the Maltese. Maltese born in Malta of Maltese parents are Maltese native speakers, irrespective of how much English is spoken at home or at school.
Maltese deserves the respect it deserves.
@ paul bonnici
What you call Maltese is just an Arabic dialect. The purpose of a language is to enable communication, and not to be used as a weapon for racism and inverse snobbery that you are demonstrating so blatantly.
@ Lino Cert: Maltese is basically Arabic. That is why speakers of Arabic become fluent in Maltese within a few months in Malta and yet an Englishman would not be able to utter a few phrases, even after a few years in Malta.
Maltese is a language not a dialect. I would never use Maltese as a weapon, though I would expect anyone born in Malta to learn Maltese, irrespective of parentage.
In the UK they would not give you British citizenship unless you pass a UK-knowledge test, which is not easy, I guess a large percentage of the indigenous British population would fail this test if they had to take it.
Your daughters will be accepted in the MD course – provided that they satisfy the course requirements.
The course is becoming increasingly popular with foreign students who can’t utter a single word in Maltese (… apart from the random swear word).
It would be most unfair if my daughters were denied access just because they have a Maltese passport, while foreign students can enter the course with lesser degrees, and all this while I subsidise the university with my taxes and also lecture there! What a scam of a country!
I was brought up in the UK. I knew no Maltese at 14 when I returned. I had to learn Maltese and get an O Level. Big deal! Not only that, I had to learn Arabic too as it was compulsory then. Get over it, and get studying!
Vast numbers of potential students are being deprived of the possibility to further their studies at university level simply because they did not manage to obtain an ordinary level in Maltese. This, irrespective of the fact that they have a healthy academic portfolio and are simply being driven towards private tuition and for those who can afford it, sent abroad.
The result of this emphasis on Maltese is primarily diluting our focus on the English language as we know it, and is extremely prejudicial to students with the propensity to advance in their studies while they are being stalled simply because their command of the Maltese language has not reached its desired levels.
It is very important that you continue to harp on this fact, Daphne, even though we are paying astronomic salaries to a bunch of useless idiots in Brussels to translate standard English text at EU level into Maltese as one of the official languages of the EU.
As Norman Lowell once described it…..Il-lingwa tal-bigilla.
They are forcing this language down our children’s throats as an indispendable subject, when in fact, as you correctly highlighted it is a subject that will get you nowhere.
And for all those Crusaders of Maltese, we should thank them for the fact that all this emphasis on the lingwa tal-bigilla over the years has inevitably downgraded the level of English we once enjoyed in this country, pushing us further towards a tribal mentality rather than moving further.
Lorna Saliba,
Norman Lowell is hardly an authority on education and language. Look at his own ridiculous hotchpotch of Anglo-Italo-Maltese.
Norman Lowell cannot speak proper English despite his derision of his native language. He is a Maltese patriot fighting against the invasion of Malta by illegal immigrants. I fully agree with him on this issue, but I find him contradictory when he belittles the Maltese language.
Oh my gawd, Normal Lowell is a patriot!
A.Charles – thank you for correcting me.
I really meant to say ‘he (Lowell) claims to be a Maltese patriot’.
He is doing no such thing. I find it strange that so many people think that this site ‘foments hatred’ and are taken aback when told that Norman Lowell and his acolytes do precisely that.
Dear Lorna Saliba, judging by your own level of English I guess you should rather reconsider your assertion about where the linguistic ‘bigilla’ actually is.
Lorna, what level of English?!
There were and still are some who can use English well; some who can use Maltese well; some who can use both well; and some who can use neither.
That the Maltese had better English before is just a myth. Probably the fact is – as someone else rightly pointed out – that the democratisation of education brought those whose English (and even Maltese, to be sure) is lack-lustre, up to the tertiary level of education.
[Daphne – It was me.]
If you look at the law courts, where Maltese is used day in day out, you’ll see that many lawyers use the language properly. And many of them also know English well.
NOT ALL OF THEM, mind you!
I find it unfair that children whose parents are not Maltese, but who were born in Malta, are required to have Maltese as a prerequisite to enter the University of Malta. I know of many non-Maltese children who are really struggling at school with Maltese and having to attend private lessons as their parents are not in a position to help them. I would appreciate someone shedding some light on this?
Are you suggesting that we drop our national language just because those children can’t learn Maltese? If I had to go to the Uk (or any other country for that matter) and demand the university to change everything into Maltese what do you think their answer would be. It is not unfair as it is our language, you don’t want to learn it or simply gave up becuase it is too difficult to grasp, fine. But don’t come complaining then, it is our national language. What’s really unfair is expecting us to drop our language just so that those kids don’t have to go to private lessons and learn Maltese.
You chose to live in Malta, than you should integrate, you cannot integrate without speaking Maltese.
I speak it fluently (due to similarity to Arabic) and have the utmost respect for Maltese culture and traditions. My point is, I believe children whose parents are not Maltese should be exempt from this requirement at university.
If you don’t want to send your children to private lessons to learn Maltese, send them to ‘Il-Muzew’ and they’ll soon pick it up and they will learn more about Maltese culture.
Samira Jamil is suggesting no such thing. She’s questioning the fairness of imposing a university entrance requirement solely on the basis of one’s place of birth. Whether or an American girl, say, learns or does not learn Maltese makes no difference to the price of eggs – or to the official recognition of Maltese as a national language.
@Samira Jamil
If you go to Germany, you study German; if you go to Finland, you study Finnish; if you go to Spain, you study Castillian or Catalan; if you go to Hungarian, you study Hungarian; if you go to the Netherlands, you study Dutch; if you go to Estonia (a country of barely 1.5 million, i.e., 3 times Malta) you study Estonian; and if you go to Iceland (with a population SMALLER than Malta’s – 316,960) you study in … I think the point is clear.
What seems not to be clear from your comment is that Malta is no longer a colony.
This comment would not have been done in a bigger country: children would have learnt French, Italian, German or what have. Or are we to be bullied because we are a small country?
(Re: Iceland: “The principal language of instruction at the University is Icelandic, but most faculties give courses in English as well. Various programmes are now taught entirely in English. Examples of these are Medieval Studies, graduate studies in Environment and Natural Resources, studies in Renewable Energy Engineering, International Studies in Education and an international L.L.M. programme.” From http://www.umsl.edu/services/abroad/universities/iceland.html)
Yes Nostradamus,
But then again Iceland did not have the English in Malta for almost two hundred years and yet squander the advantage of the language did they?
That’s the point David!
Before the English came, we had had a civilization for centuries! That civilization was reflected in our language
So we need Maltese for identity, English for practical ends.
“Before the English came, we had had a civilization for centuries! That civilization was reflected in our language”
Oh Bullwinkle, what civilisation? We were always part (a really tiny eensie weens part) of some large empire or other, be it Spanish, Arab, Phoenician or Roman. What civilisation were we?
Unless you mean Ghar Dalam’s inhabitants of course.
David, have you ever stopped before the Main Guard and wondered at the meaning of the inscription?
Why is it that from your comments one cannot but glean that you’re a guy who doesn’t like Maltese literature, who thinks the Maltese had no civilization before the British came, who thinks this country is not worth anything, so on and so forth?
Well, Mr Father-of-the-Chickens, if you don’t like this country so much, why don’t you just pack and emigrate? And go to London, perhaps.
The Maltese did have a Southern European civilization before the British came. Look at our traditions – they are all typical of Southern Europe.
Now, do you want to contradict these known facts?
You may do so – but don’t expect others to take you seriously.
[Daphne – It’s not ‘father of chickens’ but ‘master of chickens’. How can a human being be a father of chickens? In the same way ‘Buhagiar’ is a master of stone, and not a father of stone.]
Daphne, Semitic nouns are more semantically ambiguous than Romance and Germanic ones.
(This explains the utter mix-up in the translation of the Scriptures, for instance. But that is another story.)
Abu is Father. Now if by Father we are to understand the Pater Familias, the Padre Padrone, then yes Father includes also Master.
Viz: Abu is an Arabic term meaning “father.” It is used as a “kunya,” an honorific that incorporates the bearer’s firstborn child’s name into the bearer’s own. For instance, if the bearer’s firstborn son is called Hakim, the bearer might take the name “Abu Hakim.”
from http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Abu.html#!
Also:
The combination is extended beyond the literal sense: a man may be described as acting as a father in his relation to animals, e. g., Abu Bakr, “the father of a camel’s foal;” Abu Huraira, “father of kittens.” In some cases, a man’s enemies will refer to him in such a way to besmirch him, e.g. Abu Jahl, “the father of ignorance”. A man may be described as being the possessor of some quality, as Abu’l Gadl, “father of grace,” or “the graceful one;” Abu’l Fida, “father of devotion,” or “the devout one.” An object or a place may be given a nickname, such as Abu’l hawl, “father of terror,” (the Sphinx at Giza). Abu’l fulus, “father of money,” is frequently used to refer to a place where rumors have been told of a treasure being hidden there.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab_(Semitic)
Nostradamus,
I don’t know if you are playing thick on purpose but anyway…
“Why is it that from your comments one cannot but glean that you’re a guy who doesn’t like Maltese literature, who thinks the Maltese had no civilization before the British came, who thinks this country is not worth anything, so on and so forth?”
Well, probably because you are not too bright.
Don’t like Maltese literature – how true.
“who thinks this country is not worth anything,” Your words not mine, actually I believe Malta is worth a lot, thanks to the hard work of recent generations, but which would not have been possible had we not had the British here for 150 years – in which case we would most likely have been a backwater Sicilian outpost.
“Well, Mr Father-of-the-Chickens, if you don’t like this country so much, why don’t you just pack and emigrate? And go to London, perhaps”
Again, ‘Mr too chicken to write your name’ your words not mine, true so many people – hint hint – exasperate me no end, but still I happen to have too much invested in my life here, and I don’t mean financially. Having said that, had we joined the EU 10 years earlier I would have left like a shot.
“The Maltese did have a Southern European civilization before the British came. Look at our traditions – they are all typical of Southern Europe.
Now, do you want to contradict these known facts?”
What traditions? Our feasts perhaps? Yes dear Nostradamus, we are indeed a southern European island hence some of our “traditions” but we were never our own thing until 1964.
Would you kindly enlighten us as to what CIVILISATION we Maltese had? That was uniquely ours I mean? Please do tell me because for thousand’s of years Malta was nothing but an outpost for one Empire after another – practically all our ‘historical gems’ are legacies from other cultures, who left a bit of them in us too – even we people are a legacy of race upon race sowing their oats here producing a mixture of Jewish, Arab and practically every other Mediterranean race.
P.S. If you want to quote facts don’t embarrass yourself by quoting wikipedia.
“If you go to Germany, you study German…”
that’s because tuition in German universities is in German. A similar situation prevails in the other countries you mention.
The official language of instruction at Malta’s university is English, so your comparative argument does not make sense.
Dear David
I will reply not for your sake but for the sake of others who are reading what you’re writing. I’ll start from the end of your comment upward.
1. I quote wikipedia where I know that the content tallies with what I already know. So I do it for practicality. I do not get my general knowledge from wikipedia, but find it handy to cut and paste from it. Point is: I know what and where to look for things – meaning I know them beforehand.
2. Why are you mixing races with civilizations? That is an outmoded way of thinking. In its exasperated form it lead to anti-Semitism and the butchery of the first half of the 20th century.
3. Your argument on races is not only out of point (races and culture are not the same thing and are not to be equated, etc etc), but also be easily contradicted. Look at the British: Angles, Saxons, Celts, Danes, Normans, Britons, Picts, etc… different “races” or “peoples” vs a culture. So what exactly are you saying? Be careful, your thinking has already been put forward by Chamberlain, Herder, Gobineau and others in the 19th century, and lead to … well you know what… if you don’t, you might wish to look it up in… wikipedia…
4. There is a Mediterranean civilization, which is different from Northern European civilziation. Actually Daphne hinted at this, saying she prefers the latter. (But Daphne’s preferences are – with all due respect to her – besides the point here and now.) Point is there is a Mediterranean civilization and we formed part of it for centuries before the British came. I would say we belonged to the Christian Mediterranean civilization – at a time when the northern Med shore was Christian and the southern Med shore was Muslim, and Christendom mattered as an identifier.
4. If you are exasperated, you may still leave. I’m sure you’re no chicken and you have what it takes to uproot your life here and restart elsewhere. You seem to be a bright chap! And bright chaps succeed anywhere.
5. I agree with you that thanks to the British connection we avoided becoming a part of the province of Agrigento or Syracuse. Still, I do not attribute our successes to the British – but to the hard work of the Maltese. I think we agree on this. Which means we have to agree that we owe NOTHING to the Brits. They came here in 1800 and became masters after 1814 not for our sake, but for their own sake. They wanted to make sure the French and the Russians (and probably the Austrians) would get a foothold in the central Mediterranean. (I doubt whether this is on wikipedia… I haven’t checked.)
6. Why do you dislike Maltese literature? What kind of books do you read? In which languages? And why?
7. With regard to brightness, I do not think I am particularly bright. Which means a lot when I compare myself to you, my dear friend.
re: answer to David
that the French, Russians and Austrians would NOT get a foothold
needless to say…
(I apologize for other typos… which I will see only after a few hours… like everybody else does with what they write, I would think)
Nostradamus,
“Why do you dislike Maltese literature? What kind of books do you read? In which languages? And why?”
I find it so boring and never looked back at it since my O-level, when I simply studied it by heart, bored out of my mind, to get a 5 for university entrance. To my incredible surprise I got a 2, by studying like a parrot – goes to show how useless it was. Since then I have never read Maltese literature again and have never written anything in Maltese either. I never needed to. I doubt I ever will. I occasionally read KullHadd for entertainment.
I read in English, a variety of books on many different topics. Why? Because English is my mother tongue and there is so, SO much more to read, and far more interesting too.
As to Malta’s civilisation, you finally conceded that we were PART of civilisations, and a very minor part at that. We were never our own thing. Does this make you any less of whom you are? If so you have a problem.
“Your argument on races is not only out of point “
The point is that ‘Maltese’ is actually a hotch-potch of so many different cultures. We were never our own thing until 1964.
“Point is there is a Mediterranean civilization and we formed part of it for centuries before the British came. I would say we belonged to the Christian Mediterranean civilization – at a time when the northern Med shore was Christian and the southern Med shore was Muslim, and Christendom mattered as an identifier.”
Actually, for a long long time we were Muslim rather then Christian (yes WE not our ‘occupiers’) unless of course you believe the Count Roger fairy tale, (quick go check Wikipedia).
“Which means we have to agree that we owe NOTHING to the Brits. They came here in 1800 and became masters after 1814 not for our sake, but for their own sake. They wanted to make sure the French and the Russians (and probably the Austrians) would get a foothold in the central Mediterranean. (I doubt whether this is on wikipedia… I haven’t checked.)”
Yes, and if they hadn’t Malta could have been given back to the Knights, with the brand new, non-Catholic, married tsar of Russia as Grandmaster of the Order.
Then we could have been annexed by Italy and introduced to the joys of fascism, possibly even coming under Nazi Germany – they would have had a field day with Maltese racial purity – and as you said, become a backwater dump for Sicily with as much international exposure as Lampedusa.
In no small part thanks to English and the British (whether that was their intention or not) we are now fully fledged members of the EU in our own right and not by virtue of being one of Sicily’s outlying islands and hence part of member state Italy. If we had been that Sicilian rock, our capable people and politicians would all have left, leaving the island to its own devices.
Do we OWE the British? Maybe not, but without them we would not be where we are.
Do you deny that?
Integration is the key, Samira.
Samira Jamil speaks and writes several languages fluently. She’s better integrated than many of those who hold a Maltese matriculation certificate.
So she has the key.
We’re looking at the situation arse-on. Maltese IS a pidgin language. In global terms it is nothing more than a quaint regional language spoken by a tiny minority.
At some point in our history it was made a national language and the tables were turned. Maltese became the official language and took precedence over English, which turned into a sort of vehicular language for communication with the outside world.
Much as it pains me to say so, we are not bilingual. Hell, I’m not. After years of listening to mispronounced English, I have to make a conscious effort to speak with something approaching a proper accent. Being bilingual also means being able to THINK in the second language. And clearly, very few of us do.
The last thing we need is some misguided patriotic twit insisting on the right (ha!) to use Maltese throughout.
And the usual ‘standards are falling in both languages’ is beside the point. If your Maltese is crap, you can get along just fine, unless you visit this minuscule rock. If your English is crap, you’ll get nowhere.
Maltese is not a pidgin language. A pidgin language is by definition a second “language” which springs up spontaneously for the purpose of trade between groups of people who would not otherwise be able to communicate.This is clearly not the case with Maltese.
Moreover, a pidgin language would hardly give rise to the the kind of sublime literature Maltese has occasionally produced.
The fact standards are falling in both languages is important to establish and analyse. How else will ever get to the bottom of why many University graduates cannot communicate properly in either English or Maltese?
Baxxter, when Maltese became a national language it took precedence over Italian, not English.
No it didn’t. I’m talking of the postwar situation. We have two official languages and yet everything is done in Maltese: in parliament, in government, in the law courts, on television, in our national anthem. Let us not fool ourselves. English is NOT on an equal footing. And yes, it is close to being a foreign language in Malta.
Re. my assertion that Maltese is a pidgin language, I stand by what I said. We’re exposed to English-language thought (diglossia, as someone said). So we can think thoughts that are more far complex than the Maltese language allows. But we have to bridge the gap by creating a pidgin language. We have shop signs in English and speak Maltese to the staff. We give English names to our children and speak to them in Maltese. We take notes in English and ask questions in Maltese.
This is not to say that we’re unique. We have the exact same situation in the Maghreb, where people speak pidgin Arabic peppered with French, count in French, are immersed in French-language media, but insist on having Classical Arabic as a national language, when the actual spoken Arabic is miles away.
Why should we provide a free University education to students (on whom we lavish stipends to boot) who are not sufficiently proficient in either of the official languages?
The problem of the dumbing down of standards and requirements would be partly solved if, rather than doing away with Maltese, we should ensure that both Maltese and English at Intermediate Level would be required for entrance to all University courses.
Both! At intermediate level! You’re out of your mind.
I don’t think my proposal is half as crazy as the notion that it is acceptable for a country to dish out money to students who cannot prove they have a decent grasp of the national language they would be using to communicate their knowlledge in, and the one they will be doing most of their study in.
@Manuel tal-Pjazza
“and the one they will be doing most of their study in.”
Come again?
So let me get this right? Foreigners come to Malta’s university, first question do they get stipends? Then they demand the lessons in english to accomodate them. Then they get their degree/diploma and head back to their own countries, while we fork out all the money for their studying, I find that highly unfair our university should be only for maltese and those foreigners who intend staying on in Malta. Whenever I read the list of graduates I find it unacceptable that half the names of graduates are chinese. If they stay in Malta and contribute to the economy fine but if not they should not be allowed to abuse our education system.
Er, you DO know that those “Chinese” pay rather hefty fees for attending, unless they are EU citizens of course?
Let me guess, you’re dead against EU membership too?
And how about all those Maltese students who study in Europe? Shouldn’t they be allowed to do so?
Aren’t your grapes sour enough to discard yet?
British universities fall all over themselves to attract fee-paying Chinese students. These students indirectly subsidise Maltese students probably and bring new ideas to Malta. We should welcome them with open arms (and on our knees!).
Maltese students go to EU universities. Shall we stop them then?
You’ve rather foolishly mentioned fee paying students in the wrong context. They’re the ones who help keep Malta’s university afloat.
Until such time as there’s financial reward for speaking and (especially) writing excellent English there is no hope for improvement.
If employers continue to offer equal pay to pidgin speakers as to totally fluent – and indeed well-read – speakers/writers of English, what’s the incentive?
In my many jobs and incarnations my superb English was never directly rewarded. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all snow on a hot stone, as they say here in Vienna, i.e it’s water under the bridge but it seems clear to me that the shortest path to linguistic improvement is to make it financially rewarding.
oh but it was financially advantageous! You left for Vienna! Would you have been able to do that with Pidgin English? Maybe, who knows?
On a further note, does anybody remember the famous speech in the European parliament that Joseph Muscat did NOT give due to a missing interpreter?
Having heard him speak English, I personally suspect the real reason he raised the fuss he did was because he was incapable of giving said speech in English.
On the other hand kudos to Louis Grech for delivering a speech in English rather then go through two sets of interpreters – to speak to people who in most cases speak excellent English anyway!
Maltese is a Semitic language, a language with roots in Arabic and definitely not a language to be particularly proud of for that matter.
I could understand the Labour years when the Socialists in power glorified Maltese and the authors it produced. People like Anton Buttigieg and his pathetic ballads which we were even meant to digest in school. The objective of raising the standard of Maltese during those dark years was to detach the people from English which was so dear to us but was also the language of the west. This obviously went against the Marxist ideology we used to adopt during those years of liaising with Ceaucescu and Gaddafi who had even influenced our puppet government at the time to introduce green passports for the Maltese. Arabic was also made compulsory during those years of terror when thugs made policy and the minister of justice was supreme over any court decision.
But for this government which has always been conservative, pro-west in its beliefs and always encouraged an open-minded policy, to actually sacrifice English and allow these clowns who hail Maltese as the super langauge to put so much weight on the lingwa tal-bigilla is beyond comprehension.
I take it that you also don’t like all those filthy, filthy Arabs who come in their boats qishom furbani bis-sejf ma darhom biex jitfghu lil Maltin ilsiera?
Your entire post is bollocks. Your view of Arabs and Arabic culture is extremely racist. I’m sure that your mental imagery of Arabs is of those thugs with nothing better to do than shout Allah hu akbar and chop peoples heads off all day long while riding camels and visiting their harem, you know all the usual stereotypical bull we Maltese excel at. I was actually disappointed that you didn’t “JAQQ” them.
“..allow these clowns who hail Maltese as the super language to put so much weight on the lingwa tal-bigilla is beyond comprehension.” This particular bit is so sad on so many levels. To actually denigrate your own culture to such an extent! How can you hate your own blood?
I am not denigrating my own culture. To put things into perspective, one must make a clear distinction between culture and language. Language, unlike religion is not an integral part of culture and by no means does give us a sense of identity. The dilution of English has invariably degenerated us into a sub-culture.
However, having to concede to so such emphasis and having to make Maltese an official EU language is like asking the United states to accept an Apache Dialect as an integral American language and paying stooges to translate Apache into English at senate level and what’s worse having it made a requisite to enter universities in the US.
Giving the Maltese language so much weighting has inevitably produced a generation of Maltese speaking tribesmen The English language which was so predominant in Malta before all this passion for Maltese came into existence has been given second placing.
Academic literature is all written in English and English is the official language of the western world, a heritage left over from the British which we so cleverly chose to mitigate.
Lorna Saliba, did you really mean to say: ‘a language with roots in Arabic and definitely not a language to be particularly proud of for that matter’?
Arabic is one of the most beautiful languages (I speak many languages by the way) I had the privilege to learn.
I spent two-thirds of my life in the UK and my nostalgia for Maltese has grown even more since I left Malta (with my green passport) in the late seventies, the dark brutal years you mentioned.
Lorna Saliba: your comments are racist.
Not only, but you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Read a couple of books about the history of our language – Prof Joseph Brincat’s for instance, published by PIN – before opening your mouth.
It is the national Matese language that gives us our identity. The structure is Semitic, but the superstructure, about 40%, is Romance. Most of the Bible and other Old Scriptures were written in the Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, Assyrian and Arab languages, all of which are Semitic. Any student aspiring to the university should have a good working knowledge of Maltese. The level should depend on what course is being followed. Any nation that discards its national tongue, is not worthy of its name.
@Daphne
I left a spate of replies and forgot the obvious: spot-on article!
All nations and even developed countries feel the need to integrate with the rest of the world through the proper use of English.
Watch the following for a laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUEkOVdUjHc&feature=related
“Unfortunately we’re giving too much importance to a language which is not ours”
So go learn Swedish then….see where that gets you! Idiot, did you even bother reading the gist of the blog?
One of my work colleagues from about 25 years ago impressed me with his very fluent, idiomatic and colourful Maltese. His delivery was not quite in the Charles Abela Mizzi style but his knowledge of the language was for me a source of good-natured envy. I was convinced that, spoken fluently and especially in the above gentleman’s style, our language is truly expressive and beautiful.
Even earlier than that, in my secondary school days, I had a wonderful English teacher of English whose pronunciation was a joy to listen to and who single-handedly lifted the standard of our school in that particular subject. He instilled in us all a love of the language for the rest of our lives.
I would say that if we were to learn to speak and write Maltese using the right idiom and turn of phrase plus a gentler tone, then perhaps there would be less vitriolic content in our heated debates. Similarly if we were taught to speak English properly by teachers with impeccable pronunciation skills (errporrt, perrrsonsss, dinnerrrrsss) then perhaps we can begin to correct the abysmal present-day standards.
However I would agree with Daphne that Maltese should only be a required as an entry subject for certain courses.
We have not read any remarks – yet – from those “writers”and poets. If Maltese were to be removed from the compulsory shelf – these writers and poets would not be able to make a penny from their writing.
I agree with you with regards to the local English/Maltese hotch-potch. A classic expression from a university student which I came across is “it is xitting” she meant it is raining.
This type of language is extremely common with most of the university students. Also it is true that the structure of different kinds of English is universal but I would like to invite you to listen to two Australians speaking to each other in Australian English.
Are you sure she didn’t mean “shitting”? I refuse to believe that there exists a university student who doesn’t know the word “raining”.
I have some questions about the Maltese language and I don’t know who to ask.
I wonder if anyone can point me to a Maltese language discussion forum.
Ask me. I’ll give you the honest no-bollocks answer.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kelmet/
Many of you have interpreted my views as racist: That, regrettably is shallower than shallow!
Reverting to insults has become common practice for people who can not sustain their argument. Maltese is a Semitic language, written Romantic (not romance as somebody put it). Its core is Arabic whether we chose to accept it or not and including statistics into the equation will not waive my argument. Spoken Maltese to a complete foreigner sounds like a language camel herdsmen use.
National pride and culture have absolutely nothing to do with it. You can be proud of something without necessarily have to give it so much focus at the cost of losing what’s important. English is not only important, it is vital for our survival as a service- oriented nation with post industrialized features.
Europeans send their young to Malta to polish or brush-up their English while we are sweeping it under the carpet to make way for Maltese. This is not about racist, this is about logic.
Except for a Law degree, Maltese should not be made compulsory at university entrance level.
Maltese citizens should have the choice to sit for university exams in their national language. This is an issue of principle and not of pseudo-nationalistic sentiment.
Fluency in English is a lifeline for those of us whose fate it was to be born on an over-populated rock whose language is not shared by others. I agree that the standard of both spoken and written English has been on a freefall for many years but fail to see how this new regulation will solve anything.
There was a time when Maltese spoke fluent Maltese or fluent English or fluent Italian at home and learned other languages properly by immersion and at school.
What we have nowadays is a generation that cannot express itself in any language but speaks a creole that makes us the laughing stock of the English-speaking world. Whenever I am in the presence of some of the so-called English-speaking Maltese and foreigners I often cringe. They of course are completely unaware of how unintelligible their dialect is to the outside world.
Studies have shown that in order to learn foreign languages properly, one needs to have a strong, clear and coherent mother tongue as this serves as a reference. That is why it is essential for children to learn proper Maltese or proper English or proper Italian or proper whatever as a first language. Whether we like it or not for most of us the only option in this sense is Maltese. It is the home language of the majority. Most of those who think they speak English actually use English words with Maltese syntax (“can you take us a photo?” “do you take fish?” etc etc )
How can someone be born and grow up on an island the size of a small city and yet be unable to learn its two offical languages properly? The Ministry of Education has much to answer for. If the University of Malta or anyone else thinks that this silly measure will solve anything they have no pedagogical understanding. One final comment: if I had a child who could not pass his o level I would send him to his room to study. It’s an o level for heaven’s sake not a PhD.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Jekk ma tixtieqx tinftiehem li qed tipprova tbaxxi ‘l lsienna – jigifieri l-Malti – ghaliex ghazilt li tqabblu ma’ lsien “ir-rghajja tal-igmla”? Ghaliex mhux, nghidu ahna, mal-gegwigija f’xi suq il-Marokk jew Tripli? Zgur li iktar kienu jifhmuk nies, ghax iktar marru nies fi swieq fl-Afrika ta’ Fuq milli thaltu ma’ “rghajja tal-igmla” – sakemm bil-kumment tieghek ma ridtx tinftiehem mal-kittieba tan-National Geographic.
Ma nafx liema livell ta’ edukazzjoni lhaqt, imma malli tohrog mill-primarja mill-ewwel tintebah li l-kotba kollha (hlief tal-ilsna) huma bl-Ingliz. Dan ifisser li t-taghlim taghna nihduh kollu bl-Ingliz.
Jekk tassew taf il-Malti u taqra affarijiet bil-Malti (mhux letteratura) tinduna li hawn faqar kbir fl-gharfien ta’ lsienna stess, jigifieri s-suggeriment tieghek li l-Malti ghandu jkun htiega biss ghad-dhul fil-kors tal-Ligi mhux biss hu ta’ hsara ghall-Malti mitkellem u miktub izda juri ukoll li int ma tafx l-istat fqir ta’ lsienek f’pajjizek stess.
PS “izda” hija “imma” bil-Malti :)
Lorna Saliba:
You said (supra): Maltese is a Semitic language, a language with roots in Arabic and definitely not a language to be particularly proud of for that matter.
What does “not to be particularly proud of” mean? Because it has Semitic roots?
Just like Lord Putnam did, when he apologized to the Turkish people for Midnight Express, so should you to the Arabs.
Otherwise, you are a fi***hy racist!
Maltese is indeed a beautiful language but its limited to colloquial communication and poetry. It is totally inadequate for technical discussion. You should try teaching university level IT in Maltese! I do and regardless of the language I choose the outcome will be that the lesson will be mostly in English. We constantly use terms and acronyms that are in English. Furthermore, those students who have a good grasp of the English language tend to do better because the meaning of the terms they have to remember is obvious if you know their meaning in English.
On the other hand, for law and other courses I think Maltese should be compulsory. I mean, take a notary for example, how could he possibly function without knowing how to write proper Maltese. Personally I have studied and worked in IT all my life and I am ashamed to say that I am reluctant to write in Maltese for fear of bad spelling. I have an excellent vocabulary but not much experience writing in Maltese except during my school years. The fact that there is no spell checker in Maltese is also a major hurdle.
Poetry? If only! Try saying “to make love” in a non-vulgar way. Which brings me to this Realtà story….
Maltese stopped developing around 1500. Since then we’ve been repressing and editing our thoughts because our language cannot cope with them.
Baxxter, I think that the point you make – although true – is not a limitation of the language, as you seem to suggest. Look at it this way:
Over the last 200 odd years we have been an English colony. If you wanted to worm your out of the bottom rung of the social ladder you had to learn English. This means – among other things – that Maltese became relegated to the “lower classes”. (I know that this is a generalisation, but it’s a workable one) At the risk of sounding elitist – which I am not – you cannot reasonably expect the vast majority of the “lower classes” to indulge in humanities, so the “pure” Maltese that we have today is a cropped version of what it must have been (or could have been) had history taken a different path.
I like to think that my “idea” is supported by the fact that where a language (not the way it is spoken, mind you) is free of social and/or class associations you do not observe the phenomenon you mention.
Your own “to make love” is an example, as is the paucity of euphemisms in Maltese. I can only think of “halliena” right now. Perhaps you could oblige…
I find Maltese much, much more poetic than English. The language is very onomatopoeic, alliteration is inbuilt and the sounds much more distinct and varied. English has a rather bland if inoffensive sound to it. Lest I be misunderstood this is a matter of taste and opinion I am not stating facts. I am sure many will disagree with me.
Maltese did not stop developing in the 1500 but came into being as a distinct mode of communication sometime between the eleventh and fourteenth century. I think it is simplistic to say that the language is the reason why we have been repressing our thoughts.
[Daphne – It might be the other way round: because there were few thoughts, the language did not have to develop to accommodate them. When you’re scrabbling around for survival and trying to avoid starvation, you’re not exactly going to sit about thinking about the meaning of life and experimenting with science or philosophy or art. The development of language depends on a class of people with the luxury to faff around because their basic needs are sorted.]
There are other historical reasons for that and if anything those reasons influenced the way the language turned out. The inability to express oneself is a matter of how well educated a person is and whether that person has been encouraged and trained to think creatively.
A language needs time (read centuries) to develop, creoles do not. The Maltese-English creole was “created” within a couple of generations; it is the result of a combination of inferiority complex, prejudice, social taboo and the social climber’s syndrome. It is very, very stunted and sadly those who speak it to the exclusion of other languages sound rather limited themselves.
As a result we have a good part of our society that simply cannot express itself in structured and idiomatic Maltese or English – have you read our English-language newspapers lately? Tal-biki or what? And you tell me that the expression tal-biki is not poetic is an endearing kind of way? Or a simple expression such as “aremm ħej”? I hate to be simplistic but there is such inherent beauty and charm in these expressions … as there is individual beauty in every language. They really are part of what makes me who I am and part of who I am is Maltese (including the language).
Linguists are fascinated by the combination of the Semitic and the romance in our language. It is a unique heritage as precious as our architectural gems. An educated foreigner (including the high-end tourist) can look beyond prejudice (read it sounds Semitic) and respect us all the more for it.
People have said on this blog that the language is limited and I agree that it may be more efficient to use English as a medium in certain contexts but then again I have heard politicians use English words when there are perfectly adaquate Maltese words. This is pure laziness if one’s profession involves public speaking than one is expected to make an effort. I once heard someone say “tqatta il-carrots” on tv. My reaction is not “kemm huma kesħin jitkellmu bl-ingliż” imma “kemm huma redikoli, inkompetenti u għażżenin”.
The local disdain for Maltese is nothing but a sad symptom of nouveau richeness. Traditionally the upper strata of society had no problem mastering Maltese even when this was not their first language – usually it was Italian. It is also a symptom of a subtle inferiority complex that to some degree I think we all share. When I hear people compain of how “hard” the language is (it is not hard, it is pretty regular and straightforward actually, there are no declensions … try Russian or Chinese if you want hard) and how difficult the spelling is (I mean really try English if it is not a first or second language and tell me that the spelling of the word “straigtht” is logical or easy) I can’t helpe feeling that it is this stigma and prejudice is being unwittingly transmitted from parents to their children. This psychological block is making it difficult for otherwise mentally unchallenged teenagers to get a pass in their O level Maltese – madonna santa biċċa O level.
Reuben: NO, NO, NO! Maltese has an Arabic structure, which is completely inadequate for the modern world. Look, there are entire papers identifying Arabic as the reason why the Arab world is a complete desert for research or technological progress.
Even if Maltese had not been relegated to the lower classes, it would STILL be an inadequate language. It is not a question of class associations. I could bombard you with examples, but you can probably think of some on your own.
Of course linguists are “fascinated” by our language! But when Guzè Aquilina wrote his seminal monograph on Maltese linguistics, he did it – you guessed it – in English.
I rest my case.
Guzè Aquilina probably wrote his important academic work in English to make it accessible to foreign academics. If he wrote it in Maltese, it would have had limited value.
[Daphne – Bingo.]
I can only ask all of you to think long and hard about how desperately difficult it is for deaf people in a hearing world. Imagine going to school and just seeing peoples’ mouths move . . . how are you expected to learn anything, at all?
Yet, that’s what we expect our deaf to do!
Language is precious. Those of us who can hear should be ashamed of ourselves if we can’t master a language.
Saying that Maltese should only be compulsory for a law degree is like saying maths should only be compulsory for science and engineering! Are lawyers the only people who speak Maltese?
[Daphne – Not at all, because maths is maths and proof of a certain level of education. Maltese is just another language. The only reason it can be mandatory is if it is the language of instruction or specifically required for the course – Maltese, say, or law.]
If you’re an engineer, do you think you’ll never need to speak Maltese? Yes English is important! Yes, it probably is more important than Maltese. Should we ignore English and speak only Maltese? That would be dumb. Should we forget Maltese? That would be even dumber (well as dumb at least). Should we insist all EU documents are translated to Maltese? That’s the dumbest suggestion going. Unfortunately someone was dumb enough to make it.
Could someone help me? Perhaps those people who write, publish and sell Maltese-language books can help. I need to know the Maltese equivalent of, for starters, FOOTBALL – DISH WASHER – FACE-CLOTH – SCREEN – ARM-CHAIR – ROUNDABOUT – PEN.
[Daphne – Futbol, magna tal-hasil tal-platti, bicca, skrin, pultruna, rawnabawt, pinna.]
Can someone please give me the English equivalent of: fiance, rendez-vous, tete-a-tete, resume, pork, mutton, quasi, algebra, amen, museum, psychology, archaeology, cosmos, universe, philology, logic, phobia etc etc ad infinitum
Languages do not come to be in a vacuum. There are families of languages which borrow heavily from each other. English for example is essentially a Germanic language with heavy borrowing from French and Latin. It is a hybrid. There is no such thing as pure English words in the same way that pure Maltese is a figment of the imagination.
There is much more to a language than just vocabulary.
These ARE English words, and that is precisely the point. English morphology is perfectly adapted to absorb foreign loan-words. Maltese is not.
Honestly, this debate is so tiring. You should all look at the name on your ID card and then come back and report to me. How many of you have a Maltese first name?
I rest my case for the second time.
You’re 5-star deluxe! :)
(hope that smiley doesn’t get a barage of discriminations complaints from Twanny.. if you think it will, just remove it :( )
Baxxter. Try saying “to make love”in a non-vulgar way
Taghmel l-imhabba.
Every language is “limited” in some way or other. For instance how do you translate “rokna” and “kantuniera” into English? That is why we are so bloody lucky to live in a country where it is possible to grow up speaking three languages fluently and be familiar with a fourth. It gives you a certain flexibility and does something very positive to the brain and to one’s outlook on life. It is the fire escape through which we can transcend our physical insularity.
In every language there are phrases, manners of speech and metaphors and that you cannot translate into other languages. In every language there are issues with translating phrases from other languages. That is why translation is a profession. It is both a science and an art.
You are trying to find a literal translation for words and that is not always possible. That is not how translation works. You do not translate phrases but paragraphs within a context. The fact that it is hard to translate “making love” into Maltese may say something about us as a people and our history but is not in itself conclusive evidence for anything.
I have a very precious memory of being around ten years old and having a conversation with an English tourist. At some point I turned to my mum and spoke to her in Maltese. The woman just about fell off the bench she was sitting on: “Do you speak two languages?” she asked in utter disbelief and admiration. I very innocently and matter of factly answered that I also spoke Italian (I had picked it up from TV). I have never forgotten the look on her face. I learned something that day: I learned that I was privileged.
Another sweet memory is that of my five-year old sister correcting my mother’s Italian in the presence of the Italian tourist she was talking to. “Mhux hekk tgħid bit-Taljan!” I invariably smile when I remember that oh so very serious look that only five-year-olds can give. If we could only realise how lucky we are or should I say we used to be.
For my last birthday someone who loves me and knows me well printed out a copy of Mikiel Anton Vassali’s Ktieb l-Ilsien Malti (he dowloaded it from GoogleBooks). In its foreword the author laments the lack of education, the mental limitations and the need to be able to teach in Maltese because it was the only language medium that people were proficient and comfortable in. Things have changed and the context is rather different pero’ plus ca change.
jew taghmel is-suppressat … u ejja
“I find Maltese much, much more poetic than English. The language is very onomatopoeic, alliteration is inbuilt and the sounds much more distinct and varied. ”
Yes, especially so when swearing and blaspheming in Maltese with a hotch potch of intimate male/female anatomy parts, saints, and close family members.
In the same way that English is very poetic when Vicky of Little Britain goes off into one of her rants of “yes but no but”.
@Baxter – “Steve, we don’t have a space programme, and no space for a nuclear reactor. Is that enough?”
Why is that a disadvantage? How many countries have a space programme anyway? Your answer baffles me!
Great merciful heavens. Why is that a disadvantage? Because on this fucking rock – excuse my fury – you can only become one of three things: a doctor, an architect or a lawyer. Now we’ve added programmer. And that’s it.
You don’t have to stay on the rock just as much as someone from a small village in any other European country doesn’t have to stay in their village! I still don’t see the disadvantage! If you want to become an astronaut or a nuclear physicist, then leave. Just as anyone in 90% of large countries would have to move to follow their dream!
OH DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN. We are not an ESA member, so I cannot become an astronaut. I won’t even go into the reasons why I cannot join the Chinese space programme.
I did leave. But even with an EU passport I’m still barred from certain jobs. So yes, I hate my passport.
Daphne’s overall analysis is striking. And she plainly says it is a Constitutionalist (read Imperialist) analysis, not in the continental sense but in the Stricklandian sense. Hers is not a Constitutionalist analysis in the constitutional monarchy sense of the word, by in the sense of a follower of the Strickland position. Daphne is coherent in her beliefs.
The Imperialist/Strickland view seems to be: we are the Maltese members of the British Empire/Commonwealth, as opposed to the OTHER members of the British Empire. The British Empire has one common language, English, whereas each part of the Empire has its own language – in our case, Maltese.
This analysis is not passe’ because of a historical development which brought about a unique phenomenon. The British Empire model overlapped with the New Europe (the European Union). (The shift from personal to territorial sovereignty which occurred during Early Modern times make it necessary to call it Union rather than Empire.)
The British Empire has been dismantled, like all the other Empires headed by European monarchs: the Austro-Hungarian, the French, the German, and, to a certain extent, the Russian.
The New European Union is being transformed into a large conglomeration of nations, or rather peoples, joined into one overarching political entity. In all probablity, the common language of this new entity will be English, whereas each people will have its own language. This is not dissimilar to the model obtaining in the Middle Ages (only difference being, as we said before, territorial rather than personal sovereignty). This is why certain historians speak of the new Middle Ages. Not in the sense of religious superstition (even though one might substitute homo scientificus for homo religiosus, and still have a sort of superstitution – irrational belief in the invincibility of Science vs. irrational belief in the invincibility of the Cross) but in the overall socio-economic and political formation.
In the case of Malta, Stricklandian theory (Imperialism) was confronted by (Italian Irredentist) Nationalism. Once again, Daphne is right. The Irredentist movement collapsed with the fall of the Republic of Salo’. (Even though the Italian Constitution, in art. 51, still keeps vestiges of this greater Italy, by referring to the Corsicans, Dalmatians, and Maltese, among others.) Anti-Maltese feelings came from this camp because of the perceived rivalry between Maltese and Italian in a United Italian Kingdom/Republic. There could be no such rivalry in a (British) Empire with English as the lingua franca and Maltese as the local language. But if Malta became part of Italy, there would have been place for only one local language: Italian. (Look at Sicily to get the picture.)
Where is the place of Maltese in all this today? Politically, Maltese is the local language of a member of an Empire – today no longer the British one, but the European one, both of which (by mere historical accident) use(d) the English language as lingua franca, the former de jure, the latter de facto (at least for now).
Linguistically, Maltese ought to keep drinking from the Italian stream, otherwise it becomes pidgin. (Or has already become pidgin because it has started to drink from the English stream.)
If I understand Daphne’s analysis well, then BRAVISSIMA! She has depicted a stupendous picture of the obtaining situation, for which I thank her.
If Maltese appears to be inadequate to express scientific realities it is only because of the linguistic ineptitude and laziness – not to mention absolute lack of national self-respect and pride – of local scientists and science teachers. In literary studies, linguistics and philosophy we have developed our own terminology, simply because our intelligentsia in that field were capable of the effort required by those who pioneer studies in particular area in a particular country.
I will not discuss whether Maltese is a fantastic language or English is the only way to go for the younger generation’s future. Much has been said already.
What worries me is the decision process involved in all this situation. Instead of a blunt “no to Maltese” in exams introduced last October, the way forward should have been providing a list of courses for which Maltese is accepted and publicised the facts in October and obviously discussed before the changes come into force. It’s March and we are discussing an issue that we cannot change.
Saying Maltese is rubbish or that English is the best will get us nowhere. It’s better if we try to improve teaching methods (and I am not simply pointing fingers at teaching – parents should be more involved in their children’s teaching-learning process).
My suggestions would be that even students in Maltese History and to some extent Religious studies can hand in their exams/assignments in Maltese. There should be a continuum even with A Levels. For A level Philosophy, for example, they can in a particular section choose to answer in Maltese (one of the texts required is in Maltese) http://home.um.edu.mt/matsec/syl2008_10/AM25.pdf
As for Maltese O level, a form of testing in the local language should be compulsory not simply for Law courses but for all the courses which will lead to a customer/employer oriented approach. I understand the argument against the current written grammar/literature exam, but at least an oral exam should be compulsory (maybe both in speaking and in comprehension skills). The reason is very simple: any human resources manager or architect or doctor should know the language spoken by the people (yes, everyone should understand and speak English but the reality is that we still have people who listen and speak only Maltese) They may also be illiterate but they can communicate in one language only and although it is a deficiency, they will work somewhere and will definitely need healthcare assistance and nurses and doctors would need to express themselves also in Maltese.
Last month I had the task to “interpret” a Maltese doctor’s words to a patient’s family member. The doctor, although very professional and one of the best in his specialisation, could not speak Maltese well enough to be understood by a person worried about her loved one’s condition. The woman, on the other hand, could not understand the level of English used and all she could come up with was a “Sorry ta mhux nifhmu!”
Sad but this is part of our island’s reality.
“The doctor, although very professional and one of the best in his specialisation, could not speak Maltese well enough to be understood by a person worried about her loved one’s condition.”
So should we have lost “one of the best in his specialisation” because of his inability to speak Maltese, and the woman’s inability to speak English?
“In these past eight years I’ve worked with three types of student. The first comes from a relatively privileged background where English is de rigueur. They tend to do well and go on to get good jobs that require a high standard of English.
“The second type comes from a background where only Maltese is spoken. They usually find university hard to navigate and, because they are lazy and refuse to make an extra effort to learn English properly, get shoddy degrees and equally poor jobs.
“But there’s a third sort, which thankfully is not short of numbers. These are students who come from the same background as the second type but, because they are unhappy with their birth estate, spend their time reading and working hard on form. They realise soon enough that a solid command of English is the key to their aspirations. For this group, University is an epiphany.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100321/opinion/the-language-non-question
But nobody is mentioning that the Maltese department at University is in the hands of an intellectually-limited arriviste who once said on Xarabank that he would vote Labour if George Abela were to be elected Leader.
This would-be-Labour-voter-if-it-were-George-Abela was initiated into lectureship with only a first degree when there are many others, holders of Ph.D.s and far more intellectually valid than him, who were left in the cold.
Are you still surprised that the situation regarding Maltese is what it is?
Maltese has always been regarded as a fiefdom – and now it has become a hereditary fiefdom, not through blood but through adoption.
By the way, I doubt whether this arriviste – whom Godfrey Wettinger thanked for his youthful enthusiasm (note: youthful enthusiasm not intellectual prowess) in his dictionary of rare words – can write in proper English. Have never seen anything penned by him in that language.
And what he writes in Maltese is – oh my gosh, is pathetic too strong a word for this blog?
An incredibly silly argument. I come from a Maltese-speaking family, as do most of my friends. We were not lazy, did well at university and landed very good jobs. We were perfectly content with our birth estate (whatever that is) and certainly did not need to go to university to realise that a solid command of the English language was key. That was something that our parents had made very clear to us as of kindergarten. Some of our fellow university students who came from English-speaking backgrounds were lazy, scraped through and went on to a less successful “estate”.
I believe that was exactly the point that Mark Anthony Falzon was making. Did you read the rest of the article?
Is the reponse you got to the article an all time record?
I challenge anyone to state Pythagoras’ theorem in Maltese. Just state it, not prove it.
F’kull trianglu b’anglu kartabum, il-kejl tas-superfici tal-kaxxa mibnija fuq l-ipotenusa huwa ekwivalenti ghas-somma tal-kejl tas-superfici tal-kaxex mibnijin fuq il-kateti.
Or:
F’kull trianglu b’anglu kartabum, il-kejl tas-superfici tal-kaxxa mibnija fuq il-hajpotenjus huwa ekwivalenti ghas-somma tal-kejl tas-superfici tal-kaxex mibnijin fuq iz-zewg nahiet tal-anglu kartabum.
In English:
In any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle).
Simple and easy.
Don’t know about the Maltese, but it seems that old Shakespeare has forgotten his English. “right triangle” makes no sense in English. Is it perhaps American?
You did not even get the English version right.
“The square of the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle is equal to the sum of squares of the other two sides.”
As regards what you tried to write in Maltese, its just gibberish. ipotenusa trianglu ekwivalenti anglu mhux bil-malti . Kaxxa is not a square but a cube and that is a fundamental mathematical mistake.
The Pythagoras’ theorem is one of the most basic rules in geometry and algebra and was already in use in Babylon and must have been known to the temple builders of Mnajdra.
Maltese does not have any words or concepts to describe such basic mathematical rules. How would anyone try to explain differential equations or quantum physics or calculus in Maltese.
The sycophancy to the colonizer is nothing new historically; educated Vietnamese became ‘French’ in all things cultural and derided their own culture after spending time in France.
Indian upper classes became English in manner and culture after attaining intellect with the notable exceptions, amongst others, of Gandhi and Jinnah who still sought an Indian identity.
People will always leave their culture and take on a new nationality and identity, if there is the chance of leaving the dust for the paved streets of The West.
This applies to those Maltese who refuse to accept the Maltese language as their native language and struggle to emulate their former colonisers and they are ill at ease with their own identity.
The language problem is actually a farce. I come from an English-speaking background as my mother is English, however I can speak and write in Maltese well.
My kids also come from an English-speaking background for the same reason – they had to endure hours of private lessons to learn Maltese so they could enter university. They passed their O-levels, but still could not speak or write Maltese properly. They have been to and graduated from university, and hardly ever needed Maltese when they were there.
On the other hand they have many friends who are fluent in Maltese but could not pass their O-levels and so could not continue their education. Basically it needs a re-think and Maltese as any other subject should be a pre-requisite only for courses which will need Maltese.
We used to foster a girl a few years ago – she could not speak any English at all – her homework and text books were all in English – she struggled big time and could never progress. She attended a government school. She picked up English quite quickly with us, but when we attended her school’s parents’ meetings and brought up this hot subject, the teachers actually said that they would prefer if English was given huge importance at early school as it was causing problems to a lot of children to progress – but parents resisted this as they did not want their children speaking in English.
In my view, being Maltese is being able to speak, write and read English and Maltese fluently and comfortably. Being Maltese is being bilingual. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable using one of these languages, he/she is NOT Maltese.
J ABELA – actually your attempt to describe what a Maltese person should be like is quite frankly ridiculous – a Maltese person identifies himself/herself through an intricate knowledge of swearing, intimidation and corruption. If you learn these skills – you will progress big time. No seriously, a Maltese should not have to prove anything above the fact that they love their country, and care about others.
“What we are talking about here is young people who cannot read, write or speak English, who have somehow managed to get into university, and who imagine that they can come out the other end three years later without reading a single book or paper and after answering some simple questions in Maltese”
You do realise that O level passes (grade 5 and C or above) in both English and Maltese are required for entrance into the University of Malta?
Furthermore if any language needs protecting its the Maltese one. The level of Maltese spoken and written today is horrendous to say the least.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s not important to pass the Maltese exams at this moment in time – many pass the O-levels and simply cannot write or speak Maltese. The problem is with conversation – this is what should be emphasised – not just for university but for life in general. Forget about exams – they cause excess pressure, but yes maybe an interview in the Maltese language before acceptance into university may well serve more to protect the Maltese language than the exams.
Mill-bosta kummenti validi li saru f’din id-diskussjoni, dan ta’ J.Bianco nhoss li hu l-aktar prattiku, daqs kemm jaghmel sens. Ghal ragunijiet diversi nistghu ingibu diversi argumenti favur jew kontra l-uzu tal-lingwa maltija…u forsi kullhadd ikollu kull ragun, PERO ahna m’ahniex niddiskutu dwar lingwa bhat-taljan jew l-ispanjol f’konfront mal-ingliz, izda ta’ lingwa li hi maltija daqs kull haga li taghmilna poplu malti. Anke jekk il-malti hu wzat mill-izaghr porzjon ta’ poplu fid-dinja, dan ghandna nibzaw ghalih u naraw li ma nitilfuhx daqs kemm ghandna nibzaw ghal kampanja; wirt artistiku u ‘l bqija, anzi la darba ahna ftit huma akbar ir-responsabilitajiet li naghmlu dan. IVA, ghandu jkun rekwizit importanti li l-istudenti taghna, aktar u aktar fil-livell terzjarju (fil-kaz ta’ maltin), li jkollhom gharfien solidu tal-malti, miktub u mitkellem. Mela naqghu fl-assurdita’ li lecturer tal-universita’ ma jafx jikkoregi karta tal-ezami bil-malti!!!? Jien ghandi bosta qraba tieghi fl-Australia u whud minnhom twieldu hemm. Meta nitkellem maghhom dejjem juru rispett lejn il-lingwa maltija daqs kemm dik ingliza li saret il-propja lingwa taghhom, filwaqt li jipruvaw jitkellmu bil-malti kif jistaw meta qed jitkellmu ma maltin. Minflok jintilfu fir-rettorika ta’ kemm hu mportanti l-malti f’kuntest globali, jqisu bhala t’unur il-fatt li poplu ckejken fi gzira icken ghandhom lingwa differenti minn ta’ pajjizi u razez ohra, minkejja li tista’ titqies limitata. Mela ghax pajjizna m’handux muntanji w xmajjar ifisser li m’ghandux pajsagg sabih!
Dan pero ma jnaqqas xejn mill-bzonn li KULL individwu (mhux f’malta, izda fid-dinja), ghandu jkollu gharfien tajjeb tal-lingwa ngliza, miktuba u mitkellma, certament mhux kif irriducewha bosta f’pajjizna fejn minnha ghamlu parodija. F’dan il-kuntest, IVA hadd, mill-istudenti, specjalment f’livell terzjarju, m’ghandu jithalla bla ma jkun imkisser sew fil-lingwa ngliza, li ghandha tkun rekwizit primarju f’kull kors, inkluz tal-Malti, ghax min hu tajjeb fil-malti suppost ikun tajjeb ukoll fl-ingliz.
Naqbel perfettament ma dak li qalet Daphne fil-bidu ta’ l-artiklu taghha li: “…this is not about linguistic snobbery or class distinctions based on language…”, alla j’hares ikun hekk, filwaqt li kullhadd ghandu jritt li juza l-lingwa li jippreferi ghalih. Pero ma nhossux gust l-istatement li: Maltese will get you nowhere. Jekk ghal xejn il-malti jwasslek tikkomunika ahjar mal-Maltin, f’Malta u fid-dinja! Jien sincerament, ma nixtieqx li nkun fil-pozizzjoni ta’ xi hbieb tieghi li huma maltin u li jhossuhom imbarazzanti meta jmorru qalb maltin ohra f’certi ambjenti u ma jkunux jistaw jidjalogaw ghax ma jsegwux. Mhux patetiku li tiprova taqdi p.ez. klijent li ma jafx hlief bil-malti, meta tinsab f’xi restaurant jew negozju iehor? Jigifieri, ghalkemm il-lingwa ngliza hi ESSENZJALI kullimkien, il-malti hu wkoll bzonn gewwa Malta.
Exam questions should be answered in English, because most of the coursework is in English, and it is assumed students are able to read it. — Agreed
Maltese should not be held as highly on the academic scale as English, as most educational material is written in the latter, not the former. — Agreed
Lectures should be given in English. — Disagreed
I have never met a single Maltese who could speak English in a manner which is both natural and concise. The flow of speech is usually grating, clumsy, and fragmented — less like a river and more like a mud slide. Even a vast Anglo-Saxon vocabulary usually fails the Maltese once he places himself in front of an audience — without leaving him the proper colloquialisms to make himself fully understood.
The fact of the matter is: we’re not used to speaking this Language in our everyday lives. We may be used to reading it, writing it, listening to it, or even speaking pe-pe, but unless we train our tounges in the English of the English, we remain what we are: Maltese speaking English.
Therefore, whenever one of my Maltese lecturers has to speak English because of the foreigner in the class, I am faced with one of the options: Blow my brains out, or wish I did two hours later.
Daphne, don’t you think that Maltese is a required pre-requisite for those who would want to work in the media? I mean in four years at University, reading Communications I never had the opportunity to attend one lecture in Maltese because we had to express ourselves in English as we had Erasmus students in the classroom or our lecturers simply were not Maltese!
[Daphne – If you want to work in the Maltese media, learn Maltese and you don’t, don’t bother. I can’t see how university lectures come into it. It’s up to your employer to decide what languages are required when recruiting. It’s a communications course, not a language course.]
You’re soooo right , Daphne!
All this fuss about Maltese language is sheer bigotry and misplaced patriotism.
I’ve always viewed it as an everyday language for locals. Forget if when it comes to literature, poetry and official/technical documents (existing ones are all written in bastard form).
Inevitably, Norman Lowell’s irreverent description of a typical Maltese poet springs to my mind:
“Anton Buttigieg, poeta Malti…kiteb poezija fuq il-kabocca!”
IR-RAGGI TAL-KABOCCA
Fis-skiet u l-hemda ta’ filghodu
Ganna bdiet itlesti l-brodu
qalet “Madonna k’f jista ikun ?
Il-hgieg sarli nugrufun !”
Pront hi griet u telqghet kollox
biex bil-broxk tipprova tobrox
hmieg krudil li troxx il-Marsa
frott sistema fqira u falza.
Imma r-ras ghaqlija qalet
“hares !, jien qed nahli l-hin”
daqshekk jiena skjava d-dar
jien irrid nsir ahjar.
Naqra Descartes, Shelley u Dante
mhux brodu u skart ta’ dilettante
addijo l-kabocci u l-kanarini
waqt li nlegleg il-Martini.
As a Finnish linguist who has for professional reasons learnt some Maltese, I cannot but be exasperated at Ms Caruana Galizia’s hair-raising contempt for the national language of Malta. In my country, our native language, Finnish, which is way more unintelligible and impenetrable for the foreigner than Maltese, is well kept and cared for, it is used for teaching science and mathematics, and lots of popular science books, written by local scientists, are published in it. Youngsters interested in science, physics, astrophysics, chemistry (you name it) can actually acquire a substantial knowledge body simply reading the books available in their native language – no English skills are necessary.
The result is, that we in Finland not only perform well in science and mathematics, but also speak and write excellent English. In fact, I am positively sure that we surpass the Maltese both in science and in the English language, because we do not hold our native language in contempt and disgrace.
As an Irish man who was brought up through English I can onle say that many of the comments here sadden me. Although taught Irish in school the opportunities for using it are hardly aided by the state and the envirionment and people with the attitude of Ms Galizia.
As Mr Hoegland (sorry I can’t find the umlaut on my keyboard!) says many languages (like Finnish and Hebrew for instance)do not become suddenly dumb upon encountering modern technology. The idea that English is “neccessary” to function is a typical idea which falls flat on its face when one starts to travel – It’s not much good in China for instance and in my own experience in latin America. Even technical English – as used in Engineering – falls down in advanced nations like Germany.
Finally I would like to quote Breandán Ó Cochláin of the Irish Federation of University Teachers some years ago: “Would any other country propose, that its national tongue not be compulsory in its exam system?”
It appears that Ms Galizia wishes Malta to join that sorry band.
There is one big difference between Maltese and either Finnish or Irish. Finnish and Irish are native European languages that evolved from languages present in Europe for thousands of years. Maltese is essentially a bastard. A Afro-Asiatic language based on Classical Arabic via the means of Maghrebi Arabic.
It only came to Malta due to conquest of foreigners from Sicily, who spoke a corrupted form of Maghrebi Arabic which itself is a form of corrupted Arabic koine. A bastard born of a bastard born of a bastard.
If you are wondering, I was born in Malta as were my parents and theirs. I don’t speak Maltese, won’t speak it, as it is just a sign of the Maltese people being conquered by foreigners who imposed their language and religion on my ancestors. Yes, Maltese people were Muslims for hundreds of years.
Think about that and the stuff about your long Christian history. Your ancestors were Muslims for hundreds of years. Now you want to keep their language. Not logical.
Personally being Maltese by ancestry, birth and as far back as I have checked, 1500s, I would say to the Finn and the Irishman Ian O’Ryan with his affected names: Butt out. Inti barranin. Il-lingwa Maltija hija bagħal.
. Finnish and Irish are native European languages that evolved from languages present in Europe for thousands of years. Maltese is essentially a bastard. A Afro-Asiatic language based on Classical Arabic via the means of Maghrebi Arabic.
What has that to do with anything? Maltese is the national language of Malta and the everyday speech of the vast majority of the Maltese. Europe is littered with languages which once were despised as jargons and peasant dialects, but which now are vehicles of great culture and literature. There is no reason at all why that couldn’t happen with Maltese.
The problem with the Maltese O level exam is that it does not cover the language spoken for everyday purposes but how middle-aged linguistics and Maltese professors wish it to be, along with their ideologies.
Paper I should obviously be reformed. The first section consists of choosing one of five 400-words composition. The titles are irrelevant to 16 year olds who sit for the exam. These consist of either social-political questions such as “The role of the elderly in society” (we need another 45 years to be considered elderly), “You have been chosen by the Mayor to give a speech on ‘The Hygiene of the Locality’. Write the discussion” or those based on the “model” sixteen-year-old such as “A known journalist has interviewed you on ‘The waste of time’. Write the interview to transmit the ideas of today’s educated teenagers”.
Unless you want to do a narrative or descriptive essay,which is a dangerous option as you might go out of point, or the examiner might not like your story, you have to choose one of these pointless topics. Not to mention that most of these are childish, such as “My favourite room at home”.
It is often very difficult to have enough ideas to fill the 400 word quota unless it is about technology (in which one would talk about all the applications of technology in society) or the environment (in which one writes what he has learnt in Environmental Studies). Our Maltese teacher, despite having to cover 40 poems (and is often behind schedule), still finds time to make long boring one-sided-discussions about these topics.
The second section “Fehim it-Test” involves a long winded essay, which is always taken form the same book, “Vjaġġi bil-Pinna”, written by George Stevens, which is about the same ideologies expected by the compositions. This is poorly written, containing “idiomatic Maltese” (idiotic is more fitting) and does not have any real substance.
After a set of questions on the piece and a grammatical exercise (we covered the whole grammar in the syllabus in two months, the majority of which were focused on verb forms, which are only worth 1 mark), we have to choose between a letter (with topics such as “Write a letter to the newspaper editor to complain about rubbish that has been left near where you live” or “Write a letter to the Headmaster as the president of the student council to recommend parting activities now that you have finished your fifth form”) or shortening a long winded piece of writing (which is quite easy considering the lack of substance contained).
To Paul Spiteri.
This is the first time that I read something written from you, but let me tell you that I just found myself perfectly with all you have written. I am in an absurd situation at the moment. I am living in franc,e toulouse (big city supposed to optimize job acquirement) and for the 5th month I am struggling to find a job. Life here is expensive more than Malta I would say about 15% more and to rent a place is a hell of paper work, they require that it is provided the work contract which is very hard for a Maltese to obtain at least for me and those that I spoke with told me so and you have to earn 3 times as much as the rent. An example is my actual place (that is rented in black) 20 meters squared!!! Size of a rat hole, for 450euros. It’s getting hard to continue eating from my bank account and finding a job is getting ridiculously frustrating. all sites are in french and those that are not offer work for engineers only it’s like I should hide myself for opting to management and I do not speak french.
Out of curiosity, how did you end up in France under those circumstances?
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Или я совсем идиот, негромко сказал Кавин, потирая лысину, или там идет воздушный бой. Голову даю на отсечение, это истребители сцепились.
Касра, послышалось над ними ворчание старого шамана. Ты, конечно, девочка талантливая, но кто тебя просил лезть, куда не просят?
С этой точки зрения Бармин вопрос не рассматривал. Он задумался. Действительно, шок в обществе будет страшный. Но заискивать перед ним начнут тотчас же. Великий маг это вам не шутки, рассердивший великого мага долго не живет.
Докладывайте, капитан.
Ты поверил этой орденской фальшивке? недоверчиво покосился на собеседника профессор.
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