For a look at how the English language is being massacred on a daily basis, one need only open a Maltese English-language newspaper.

As it happens, some are worse than others but I will not mention any names. The level of English has taken such a nosedive over the years that I am not even able to start listing some of the errors. If I were to do so, my letter would turn into a thesis. There are literally hundreds of grammatical errors, errors of syntax and other linguistic errors in just a single issue.

While we claim to be bilingual in Malta, I am afraid that not even our top journalists have a good grasp of either of our official languages. You can just imagine how the common man on the street is coping. My question is: how can this issue be tackled?

I sometimes think that your average Slovak or Spaniard for example, while possibly only being monolingual, at least knows one language well. Here in Malta we fudge our way through, while systematically destroying both.

Julian Falzon

ST JULIAN’S