More on Language, and the Euro
I am going to cheat little bit today. Jessica Moritz, a fellow new arrival in Malta, has written a great piece on the use of language in Malta. It covers some points that I missed in my own posting, and it really gives a good description of some of the quirks of language on the island. Check it out at http://gossip-from-malta.blogspot.com/2006/11/revelation-about-maltese-language.html
While on the topic of language, I took further baby steps last night. M and I went out for dinner, and the waitress spoke to us in Maltese the whole evening, even though we were conversing in English amongst ourselves. She was very polite (must have been about 18) and once again I was happy that she gave me the opportunity to practice. Mostly I gave very short replies to her statements, but it counts!
In other Maltese news, it appears that we are on track for adopting the euro on January 1, 2008. How exciting! There is some fear that merchants will take this opportunity to raise prices surreptitiously. Well, yesterday I went to the hardware store and found that they are already complying with the dual display of pricing, showing the prices in both Maltese liri and euros. However, I did the math on the handy calculator that is built-in to my mobile, and discovered that the euro price was 2 euro cents too high. This is a very tiny amount, but I realised what people have been going on about. I hope they were just rounding up such a small number, and that this does not mean all prices will be rising. I am pro-euro and the last thing we need is more excuses for people to complain about it.
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend in this fine autumn/spring day, whichever applies to you!
