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!
I agree the Euro is going to be a good thing for Malta, I wish there was less opposition here in the UK to take on the Euro but I don’t think that it will happen here any time soon.
The slight increase in prices happened right across the EU on the change over to the Euro, but I think that you are right to raise the point as it may stop some retailers taking advantage of the situation…….
Some increases will happen, and that is inevitable. Part of it is, unfortunately, the darker side of human nature. And part of it will be practical. If the bus fare goes up to €0.47, it will be a pain to have so many coins and it will pretty soon change to €0.50. This is a case where we must look at the bigger picture, and realise that this is good for Malta in the long run. Also, people love getting into the “crowd mentality” of hearing someone say that the euro is bad, and then repeating it over and over. So I’d like to spread the word that the euro is good