Maltese people who go abroad know what it means when they find it hard to communicate with foreigners who do not speak English. Some of us speak a third language such as Italian, French and German, but buying something or asking for directions in a foreign land is often not easy.

The Maltese language is not spoken anywhere else except for Maltese descendants who try to keep it alive in communities living abroad. So, unless one has a good command of English or at least gets by in what is after all a second official language in Malta, communication with others abroad may be a high hurdle to overcome.

It’s something that Maltese travellers are used to. It is harder to accept when communication is an obstacle in one’s own country.

While we do have the privilege of having easy access to the English language, with most of us speaking it rather fluently and understanding it well, the Maltese language is still used predominantly in our exchanges. This is something that makes us – or should make us – proud. A country of just 500,000 people having its own language is quite remarkable.

What has been noticed in the last few years is that many Maltese have to resort to forcibly speaking in English even in Malta – especially when they go to restaurants and shops, but not only. This is because so many foreigners have come to Malta and have found jobs, mostly in the catering industry.

But sometimes not even speaking in English is enough, as many of the foreigners who are coming to Malta do not speak that language either. Problems are compounded when the foreigners do not speak English well and the Maltese also find it difficult to communicate in English. In such situations, it is not uncommon that someone who orders pasta without sprinkled cheese gets a plate of spaghetti which is covered with it.

There have also been situations when someone asks for a “pudina” in a confectionary, and the shop assistant does not understand what the customer is talking about. There follows sign language and pointing to the desired item until the shop assistant realises that the client wants a piece of bread pudding. But the customer leaves the shop frustrated as “pudina” should have sufficed.

One understands that, to a foreigner, the Maltese language is not easy to learn. Since its roots and sounds are more Arab than European, people who arrive here from North Africa or the Middle East find it much easier to grasp than foreigners who arrive from continental Europe.

But it would make things much easier if foreigners who have settled in Malta, particularly those who work in jobs where they have to communicate regularly with customers, make the effort to learn both English and Maltese. Some of them have been here long enough to have made inroads into speaking and understanding the languages that are more commonly spoken on the islands.

We all know about the saying “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”. Well, in our case, “when in Malta, try to learn English and Maltese.”