My New Life in Malta

I got lost yesterday. Well, not fully lost. I tried the walking route I had figured out from that sliver of a map that I found in a tourist guide at a shop. And of course, it did not work. I wound up walking around and could not find the right street. I viewed it all as a one hour stroll and went back home. In the evening I finally found a comprehensive street map of Malta. It is calle "The mAZe" (A to Z, get it?). I would hardly call it user friendly but is it the best thing they have, said the shopkeeper. The only thing they have, I said in my mind. I complain because each page, which shows one town/village/subdivision, is listed alphabetically. So when you walk out to another town, you have to go and flip 20 pages to find the continuation. But here is the real problem: each page has north in a different direction. So you are walking along road X and reach the right edge of the page and it says "see page 32."  So you flip to page 32 and try to find the continuation of road X, but it is not there. It is, in fact, at the top of the page instead of the side. So it is difficult to get an idea of how it fits together. But enough complaining! I have a comprehensive street guide of Malta and Gozo, and I was able to see where I had gone wrong. It is also fairly small and not too heavy, so that I can take it with me if I am going on a particularly complicated outing.

The book also has such trivia as how the Maltese license plates work (a personal dorky interest of mine), translation of all street terms from Maltese to English (road signs are often bilingual but sometimes only in Maltese, which this little book reminds you is the official name of the streets), conversion charts for metric/US measurements, seating charts for the major theatres, and some cultural highlights. It is like a tourist guide for the resident. I will study it well.

Along my walk yesterday, I went by a shop called "Tal-Lira."  Everything there costs one lira. (Mind you, a lira is worth US$3, UK£1.58, €2.33, so is that really such a good deal?)  I wondered what will happen when the euro comes. Will it be the "€2.33 Shop"?? Will they round prices up to €3? "Everything for 3 euros" just does not sound that great. M thinks they will keep the name but come up with some other idea. I am really intrigued. 14 months to go.

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.

A few details of Maltese life: 

Malta still has the old fashioned opening hours. This means that stores close from 1pm to 4pm for lunch/siesta, and then open again from 4pm to 7pm. So whatever you need to buy, if you do not make it to the store by 1pm... you have to wait. I am not used to this. In the US there is the 24 hour culture, and even in Peru they did away with lunch closing hours years before I was born! Just yesterday I wrote a letter, but finished it around 1:30pm. The local post office in my area does not reopen in the afternoon, so I had to wait until today. I did find another one that opened in the afternoon, but I had no idea where it was.

(Which leads me to respond to a few comments... Google maps only has half the country at a detailed level, and it is the half that is less inhabited, so I cannot use it for the places I need to go. I am still looking for a good road map of Malta, before I go crazy trying to figure everything out).

Pharmacies close at 7pm too, like all the other stores. I asked at a pharmacy if there is one that stays open later in case of emergency. The cashier looked at me puzzled. No, she said, after hours you go to the hospital, where they have an emergency pharmacy open 24 hours. Silly me, how did I not think of that.

Yesterday I was also on a mission to get a converter plug so I could recharge my phone. It is international and multi-voltage, but it only came with a US-style plug. My trusty store at the corner did not have what I needed, so I had to go hunting to another hardware store. The plugs here are not European, with two round holes, but rather British. This means they are square, not round, with a third hole for the ground/earth. These plugs are only used in Britain and some of its former colonies. The odd thing is that each individual socket has a switch. That is, you can turn it on and off as if it were a light. I found this bizarre. Why would you turn an electric socket on and off? Who ever heard of such a thing? This adds another level of decision making to my every day life. I am done with the toaster, should I... turn it off? I have turned off the radio, should I... switch the socket off too? I only appreciated this yesterday when we used a power drill to make a hole in the wall. You really do not want to leave that thing plugged in, as bumping into it the wrong way could cause injury. So, M leaned over and... turned off the socket. Pretty neat, eh? Also, you *can* make European plugs fit, meaning you do not have to buy a converter every time the appliance you buy happens to have a European plug (most of the time, now that Malta is in the EU and things get bought across borders). To do this, however, you have to stick a pen in the third hole to "trick" it. I saw M do this and freaked out. "You are sticking a pen in the electric socket!!!!"  Ah, but do not worry... he had turned it off first.

The new dishwashwer is coming this afternoon. I am excited as we will not have to hand wash everything any more. And this is where learning Maltese is coming in handy. The delivery men will call on the phone and speak Maltese. I will understand what they are telling me, even if I wind up replying in English. At least it worked last week.

In preparation for the day I start driving here, I have been paying very close attention any time we go anywhere. The mental exercize is exhausting.

Imagine a small highway, but none of the exits are marked. Every so often you come upon roundabouts or go through tunnels. There are some signs, but they do not make much sense to me at the moment, and in any case the place we are going is never on the signs until we are very close. M keeps drilling me: "okay, we are at the roundabout with the palm trees, where do we go from here?"  I think hard and look around and shyly point... that way. Then, "we are going through the square tunnels, what comes next?"  I sit there puzzled, the square tunnels come after the round tunnels... but before the other round tunnels? Or are those the *other* round tunnels.

Pretty soon my brain feels like it has just spent an hour at the gym. It gasps for air and cannot see clearly. Invariably, I lose concentration at some point and frantically ask, "Have we left the main road? Did we go through any roundabouts? Did I miss something??!!??"

And so I quietly dread the day that I have to take the wheel on my own, and navigate the tunnels and roundabouts, highways and side streets, concentrating intently so I will find my way. And did I mention that in Malta you drive on the left? I get nervous just thinking about it all.

I look forward to the day when I look back and laugh, and say that I cannot believe I was ever nervous about driving in Malta. Let us call that a happy goal.

Watching television in a new country is fun. More than the actual shows, I love the commercials. You see, commercials, like humor, vary from place to place, and it is interesting to see an entirely new type of idea. Add this to the fact that here in Malta we get television from many countries, and things get a bit unique.

At first, just the thought that we get television stations from Malta, Italy and the UK, along with US cable channels such as Discovery and National Geographic, was exciting in itself. I sat there and went from one to the other, incredulous that I could travel around the world with the flip of a button. And then one day I discovered something even odder. I was watching the National Geographic channel, in English, and all of a sudden the commercials came on in... Romanian. It was no accident, as even the NG logo announcing them was in Romanian. I was hooked. I began to watch NG for the commercials, and would change the channel when the show came on. I pointed this out to M, and he said it is not unusual, and that they used to get the Dutch NG before.

A few days went by, and I stopped on MTV. I had been avoiding the US channels, as the European ones still have the novelty effect on me. They were having a European top 20 countdown, with songs from different countries. Then the commercials came on... in Turkish and Hebrew. They kept alternating. And you see, the Maltese market is very small (population 400,000) so hardly anything is made specifically for it. Except for local companies advertising directly in Malta, commercials and the like are often borrowed from the UK, as English is an official language and the historical ties with Britain are recent and strong. So it seems that with the cable system, they pick and choose channels from all over Europe, with the result that I am now hooked on commercials.

Well, not only commercials. I also watch Maltese TV to try to get exposure to the language, and Italian TV as I have always loved the language, and as I did not have cable TV for the past few years, channels such as Discovery and NG and the others are nice to have as well. To be fair, I do spend relatively little time in front of the tube. But the internationalness of it all keeps bringing me back.

Hello everyone! I have not written for a couple of days, as I was celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I take this opportunity to wish everyone a sweet, happy and healthy year ahead for you and your families. Celebrating in Malta was interesting, as the Jewish community is very small (they calculate less than 100 people). The synagogue is also small, and perhaps 40 people at most were there. They were quite friendly and welcoming, and I was told that this is something they are particularly known for, considering how few they are and how they often get tourists visiting. I was quickly recruited to help out with the services on the spot (apparently they do not have enough people to lead the services), by being asked to read the haftorah (reading from the prophets) with no advanced warning. Normally one has to prepare a few days in advance, as the Hebrew words have to be read with specific cantilations. I accepted, and had quite the challenge doing it all with no preparation. This is going to be a fun ride.

Getting around in Malta requires a shift in thinking. At least, it required a shift in my personal way of looking at the world. For all the funny talk about how small the country is, it does have distinct towns and villages and countless streets, and no, the Maltese do not know every little street on the island. Add to this the fact that many small streets are not labelled. Actually, many main roads are not labelled either. I will be fair, most are, but just when you need to find your way...

The street where we live, for example, only got a name a couple of years ago. Granted, it is very small side street that only has a few buildings. But a street sign was never put up by the local council. And so every time I give the address, it has to be followed by an explanation: how it is a small street, how it is right off of a bigger one, the landmarks that are nearby. To complicate matters, the bigger street has no name sign either! I guess that one is SO big that everyone is expected to know it. And as a coincidence, the street heading down to the sea also has no name. Now, it is not always like this, but it just so happens that if you visit me and I want to tell you how to go down to the seaside, I would have to say: " make a left onto the main road, keep going for a long block, then make your first left, which is downhill, and you should see the seafront; pay close attention for coming back, as it is less clear without the sea to guide you."

So, navigating the streets of Malta is a mental challenge. While I am used to street names and turns, here it is very much landmarks and getting a feel for the place. To illustrate, I received an e-mail from a friend yesterday giving me directions to a house. I copy it here, with some details blanked out for annonimity:

"Go to the roundabout with the tall palm trees, take the road that goes to San Gwann.  Her street is the second from the left (from the roundabout) and the second house on the right is hers.  The name of the house is XX and the street is XX."

And there you have it! Without my prompting, a perfect example. Ane before you ask, the house does have a name. Most houses in Malta have names. While in the capital city of Valletta they do have numbers, outside of it people started naming their homes instead. While many were later numbered, the name remains anyway and must be used as part of the address. The funny thing is that people come up with all sorts of tacky ideas, and it is amusing to walk by and just read house names.

Some people use women's names: Jessica, Marija, Gennifer. I assume they are named after the house's inhabitants, children, mothers or wives. Others get religious: Our Lady, Santa Marija. The other day I saw one named Unser Traum, which is German for "our dream."  Returned emigrants will come up with Canada House or Tasman Court. Just yesterday we drove past a row of flats called Dallas Apartments, New Jersey Apartments, California Apartments. It really adds a layer of personality to your house. Nobody gets to name the street they live on, but here you can name your house, and thereby make up part of your address!

I often wonder what I would name a house, if I stay here long enough to buy one. It is such a big responsibility. It cannot be too tacky, or so strange sounding that nobody will understand it. It has to be short. It should reflect an aspect about you, as it is the first impression people get of your home. It is not something to take lightly. It is almost like naming a child.

So, we are driving along and I am attempting to read billboards in Maltese. I comment that I feel like I am a child again, reading out loud everything that is written everywhere. We go by a huge sign that turns out to say "store cooked foods in the top part of the refrigerator, and raw foods in the bottom part."  Interesting. I have never seen a commercial or public service announcement instructing people how to arrange their refrigerators. Later I see one that says "wash your hands often."  Interesting. It is the sort of thing I  expect to see in a kindergarten class, or in a poor country that is rampant with disease.

A couple of days later another of these signs pops up, saying what translates as "cook chicken and other poultry at an appropriate tempreature."  And then I notice the website: www.pandemic.gov.mt . Wow, quite strong! Is there a PANDEMIC going on in Malta? Did I miss something? Is the plague back?

This public campaign strikes me as odd for many reasons. First, it has the paternalistic overtone that I would expect from the Swedish nanny-state. It almost verges on having a Communist-era feel to it. Next, I am troubled by listing the word "pandemic" on these signs. Everyone seems pretty healthy on the island, I do not hear of people dying any more than usual, and besides, all of these tips seem like common sense to me. Further, is this supposed to be about bird flu? It is no longer making the news and it really was an exaggeration to begin with.

Things get weirder when I go and visit the pandemic website. It simply redirects you to the "Ministry of Health, the Elderly and Community Care."  There are links to a whole list of prevention tips against bird flu (in Maltese and English, with no particular consistency). So why not just list the Ministry's website to begin with? Is this an attempt to spread a bit of panic? Did they figure they would use a bit of fear to educate people about hand washing? Are refrigerators being used incorrectly, to the point where the government had to step in?

I leave the website, no less puzzled than I was before. Some things you come across are just plain strange, wherever you are in the world.

There are some things which "normal" tourists would never think of doing, but which I find a great experience when traveling overseas. One of them is going to a foreign supermarket, which I already touched on. My friend K and I are always going to supermarkets when we have travelled together. Things are a little different, products are different, it really adds to the cultural experience. Well, another of these things I like to do is going to the cinema. It sounds standard enough, but oh no! Everyone does it a little different.

As a child in Peru, we used to get a short documentary before the main feature. In Puerto Rico they have a full 30 minutes of commercials... and people come early to watch them. In Spain your seats are assigned and an usher has to seat you, never mind that you could easily find the seats yourself. And so it was time to find out what the Maltese movie experience was like.

We headed for a US-style multiplex in the trendy area of Paceville. This is an area with a cinema, a bowling alley, a little beach, nightclubs, etc.  I had strolled through it at night before and found the teenage crowd with their latest fashion trends and mobile phones, but during the daytime it is tamer. So in we went to see "Lady in the Water," the latest  installment from M. Night Shyamalan's spooky paranormal movies with a message. I had been wanting to see it for a while. At first everything seemed pretty normal (except for the men's bathroom that had only urinals). There was no usher, even though the seats are numbered. There were a couple of ads, and the movie started. About an hour later, in a tense and crucial moment, where Malta was the furthest from my mind.... the screen went blank, and the lights went up. There was no warning or apology. Great! The reel is ruined! We'll never know what happens! I looked around and everyone seemed pretty calm. The group of teenagers got up and left, some people stretched. I turned to M in confussion, and he simply stated: "intermission."

Intermission?? The movie was not even two hours long! We had been sitting there for less than an hour! I got over my initial shock, and realized this was one of those cultural quirks I would have to get used to. M went on to say that the Maltese find it strange *not* to have an intermission. That they feel movies go on for too long without one.

After that some advertisements came on screen. Special deals on mobile phone plans. The details were yelled out in Maltese but written out in English. I asked if this was a way to get both the Maltese and the foreigners at once, but M had not even noticed. As I mentioned in the posting about language, bilingualism here is quite fluid and people barely notice it. A few more ads for a gym and restaurants, and the movie came back.

I have to say, the intermission killed this movie. Where in the first "act" I had been completely engrossed in the plot, I was never able to get into it during the second "half."  It was like being woken up in the middle of the night by a ringing phone, and not really going back into deep sleep again. I wonder if I will miss the intermission one day. 

The second question I usually get about Malta (after "where is that?") is "what do they speak there?"  And this is one of the more fascinating aspects of the country.

There are two official languages, English and Maltese. The former due to nearly two centuries of British colonization, which only ended in 1964, and the latter being the indigenous language. Maltese is quite unique. It is a Semitic language, having its roots in old Arabic left by the Arabs nearly a millenium ago, and further back in the Phoenician and Punic tongues of these islands' ancient inhabitants. As the language got completely cut off from the Semitic world, it began to develop on its own, and had to borrow new vocabulary from elsewhere. While the main structure and grammar of the language is still Semitic/Old Arabic, about 40% of the vocabulary is Italian/Sicilian. More recently, new words were incorporated during the British rule, leading to about 10% of the vocabulary.

So what does this leave? A uniquely blended language spoken by 400,000 people in Malta and about the same number by its diaspora and their children overseas. I often get asked what it sounds like, and that really depends what the topic is. Listen in on a daily family conversation and you might confuse it for Arabic. (Unless you speak Arabic, in which case I am told it sounds funny and archaic. Incidentally, Maltese speakers cannot understand Arabic). Listen to the news or a parliamentary debate using more complicated language and you might mistake it for an Italian dialect. Walk along the streets and hear people pepper their sentences with random "all rrrrright?"   "sorry, mister"   "good morning" and then it just gets puzzling. To complicate matters, many Maltese will switch back and forth between English and Maltese as they see fit.

Since Maltese is still classified as a Semitic language, many Europeans find it difficult to learn. This is because it does not follow the Indo-European structure of most European languages. Luckily, as a speaker of both Hebrew and Italian, I am having a relatively easy time. The sentences structure and conjugations are quite similar to Hebrew, which has helped me make great strides.

Bilingualism in Malta is different from that in other places I have seen. There are no laws saying something must be displayed in one language or the other or both like in Canada. There is no nationalist sentiment to speak only the native language as in Catalonia or the Basque Country in Spain. There is not even consistency in street signs and advertisements. Sometimes things are in one, sometimes in the other, sometimes both. No one seems too bothered by this or extends any energy on the matter. There is a strong sense that Maltese is not spoken anywhere else, and in their friendly manner towards tourists any local will switch to English in the presence of a foreigner.

This last point has brought me some praise, and some difficulties. The praise has come from the fact that I have spent several months preparing for my arrival by studying the language. The Maltese are completely baffled at the fact that a foreigner would learn their language, and are usually very touched by it.  The difficulties lie in the fact that as soon as they realize I am a foreigner, English takes over. At this rate, I am getting good at listening but it will be hard to learn to express myself in Maltese. I cannot imagine anyone having the patience to wait as I slowly put together my sentences. They might find it cute, and reply in English. Still, I am determined to at least have a basic grasp of the language and I will keep trying.

Many foreigners live here for many years and do not even bother with Maltese. I find this appaling. I understand that not everyone has an easy time learning a foreign language, particularly adults. And I understand that visitors will find it easier to speak English, as they would in most European capitals. But if you are going to be living here, I feel you should at least make an effort . Learn a few phrases. Say good morning, please, thank you, and the like in Maltese. It is just common courtesy. But the Maltese just make it too easy for you. Sometimes people can be too nice.