My New Life in Malta

I discovered yesterday that not all the Maltese speak English. I was at the post office, waiting in line, when an old lady cut the line in front of me. She rattled off a long explanation. Mind you, my Maltese is improving. I read an entire brochure related to the upcoming introduction of the euro, and I only had to look up a handful of words in the dictionary. I can read through newspaper articles and understand the main idea. Even when we go to shops and I listen as M speaks to the salespeople, I do fine. But when strangers talk to me and I do not know what topic to expect, I still fail. I looked at the old lady with an exaggeratedly puzzled expression. I did this, I am ashamed to admit, because that usually triggers an English translation. I know, I know, the very attitude I criticise, but I had no idea what she was going on about. Then she said to me “ah, mhux Malti” (“oh, he is not Maltese”) and turned to the lady behind me. She then translated, saying the old lady had been seating over there while the line moved and that she was not cutting in line.

I brought this up with M later in the day. He said some old people do not, in fact, speak English. This is because, ironically, during the British rule English was not very widespread. Apparently the British never made a point of teaching it. However, people had to speak English to get high-level jobs with the colonial government. And so speaking English was somewhat of a status symbol.

Although the people always spoke Maltese, traditionally the educated elite spoke Italian. The law courts and legal documents used to be in Italian as well. Maltese was considered “a kitchen language” and had a bit of a stygma. In the 1920’s, the British were afraid that Malta would want to join the growin Italian Republic, and so they did away with Italian (which only a few people on the islands spoke anyway) and made English and Maltese the official languages. Maltese had never had that status before.

It was World War II that spelled the final death sentence for Italian in Malta. Eager to show their difference with Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship, Italian fell out of grace among the Maltese. It was only after the war that English began to be widespread and taught to everyone. After independence, Maltese and English remained the official languages.

However, history has many twists and turns. When television arrived, Italian stations were at first the only ones available in Malta. Even when Maltese stations and the BBC began operations here as well, there were not that many channels. And so, the next couple of generations grew up trilingual. In addition to Maltese and English, many people learned Italian from a young age, simply from watching television. M recounts that one day his sister, then five-years-old, corrected their mother as she was talking to an Italian tourist. She had just picked up the language on her own. And you see this all over the place. Italian tourists talk with the Maltese, who switch effortlessly among languages. Then came cable television, and things changed again. With so many channels, and most of them in English, Italian no longer has a predominance. And so those under the age of 25 have lost that edge. Italian is just another foreign language they learn in school.

Still, growing up with only two languages is not that bad.