Renowned author Trevor Zahra has aired his discontent at calling up hospital and not being able to be served in Maltese. Writing on Facebook, he described not being able to be helped in his native language as shameful, while also adding that those on the other end of the line had a bad English accent, so much so that it was hard to understand a word.

"I don't know if there is another country in the world where you cannot be served in your own language (which is already a grave situation), but not even in what is meant to be a second language."

"Then you hear of a Chinese person who, in eight months, learnt to speak Maltese perfectly."