In the 1990s, if you were Maltese and didn’t communicate in Maltese, most people would be openly hostile towards you. I remember returning from the UK, where I had been since I was a baby, and struggling to hold whole conversations in what should have been my mother tongue.

I got into the habit of telling people my life story early on in conversations because I realised that only when I gave a backstory would I get some form of linguistic reprieve.

It didn’t matter that the people shooting me deathly stares didn’t exactly sound like Mikiel Anton Vassalli either, or that English was an official language: my neck was perpetually on the chopping block.

I could also understand why they felt that way, though. To be such a small country with its own language is a beautiful thing and one to be proud of. When we returned to Malta for good, I made a lot of effort to learn how to read and write Maltese properly because I felt I owed it to myself and my country. Given that our education is free, I’ve always felt that there is no reason why we shouldn’t all be able to be equally fluent in Maltese and English. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to feel the same.

Just this week, the announcement of a “brand new” national airline brought with it the news that Maltese had been dropped as a language requirement for its staff because it expects “more than 80 per cent” of its customers to be foreign and, to be honest, I’ve never heard such twaddle.

Can you imagine being French or Italian and flying back home on your national airline, only to have to ask questions in English whenever you need something? There would be riots in the middle of the sky. Pilots would probably be taken hostage and heads would roll.

With language being such an integral part of identity, what does it say about us as a people that someone thought it was okay to make the Maltese language largely redundant to its national airline?

They say a language is a reflection of its people. If that’s the case, we have much to be worried about- Anna Marie Galea

It’s so bizarre that this was even considered an option in post-colonial Malta and harks back to the il-Malti l-lingwa tal-kċina days, which certainly have no place in 2024. The problem is that this latest policy to come to light is not an isolated incident and is, indeed, symptomatic of how Maltese is treated as a whole.

I mean, one only has to turn on the television and listen to any local programme for a few minutes to see how dire the situation is. English words are constantly being used instead of Maltese ones in the simplest sentences and that’s when words aren’t being made up completely.

English doesn’t fare much better either, with “English speakers” displaying much of the linguistic ineptitude we have grown accustomed to. We have become lazy with our language and careless about its use, and, as with everything else in this country, we have adopted a laissez-faire attitude.

The u iva mhux xorta brigade seems to have an increasing stranglehold on the country and no one seems to be too bothered about doing anything about it.

They say a language is a reflection of its people. If that’s the case, we have much to be worried about.