Anybody.....Living aboard in a Marina?

Gordonmc said:
That is a good site.
The view of St. Georges appears to have the cam on the roof of one of the best bars in the area, a former forge still in the hands of the family that ran the smithy.
Far more intersting than anywhere in St Julians/Paceville.
Re. the weather, I spend half of December on Malta last year, including Christmas and apart from one day of rain it was shirt-sleeve weather the whole time.
The Gregale can kick up at times, though.
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Question: do the Maltese speak fluent English as a first language, Or is Maltese their first language of choice.
Or maybe Somewhere between first language, and second spoken language?
Confused? Me too.
 
Bonju, kif int? Oh dear, unsurprisingly Maltese people speak Maltese as their first language. The majority are fluent in English. We spent a few weeks there, learn to use "mela" for everything from but to very, maybe and oh well :).
There's a lot of (ancient) Sicilian mixed with Arabic, a working knowledge of Italian will get you by with older generations. Very friendly folk if you make the effort to communicate.
Grazie hafna :)
 
rustybarge said:
Question: do the Maltese speak fluent English as a first language, Or is Maltese their first language of choice.
Or maybe Somewhere between first language, and second spoken language?
Confused? Me too.
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I think that the fact that the Maltese live on an island called Malta which has a spoken language of Maltese is a bit of a give away!
 
I don't think that it was a requirement that any ex British colony had to maintain English as the first spoken language, by an interesting discussion with India! I think in any case it was a part of the Empire and maintained its distinction as a country. It has been invaded/ruled by practically all of the Mediterranean countries at some point in any case. Just for the record (before I am corrected) English is an official language there as well as Maltese.
 
SamanthaTabs said:
Yes it is, then again what do I know? Next thing I'll lay claim to is that women can sail.. I'll get my coat!

(Of the population 100% Maltese, 88% English and 66% Italian spoken)..
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That makes quite a big percentage.:p

Th reason I ask is because I've met a lot of Dutch people who appear to speak fluent English, but become totally lost when we speak in the vernacular. Do you have to speak English slowly so that they can understand?
 
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Oh oopsie, in Malta 100% of the population speak Maltese; 88% of the population also speak English; 66% of the population also speak Italian. Apologies for lack of detail, perhaps I should have typed slower?

Unable to comment on your experience with Dutch people, I'm just a bog standard multi lingual Brit actually. Must endeavour to learn troll, seems fascinating :)
 
SamanthaTabs said:
Oh oopsie, in Malta 100% of the population speak Maltese; 88% of the population also speak English; 66% of the population also speak Italian. Apologies for lack of detail, perhaps I should have typed slower?

Unable to comment on your experience with Dutch people, I'm just a bog standard multi lingual Brit actually. Must endeavour to learn troll, seems fascinating :)
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Are you a hobbit?
 
chinita said:
Malta was part of the British Empire between 1814 and 1964.

It was never 'colonised'.

A great place to winter - or even spend a year. Just the total lack of commercialisation over Christmas makes it worthwhile IMO.
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The architecture looks gorgeous; Beautiful stonework.
It must be quite busy with 400,000 residents on a small island; but maybe that's a good thing in the winter. Lots of tourist resorts are like graveyards out of season.
 
chinita said:
Malta was part of the British Empire between 1814 and 1964.

It was never 'colonised'.

A great place to winter - or even spend a year. Just the total lack of commercialisation over Christmas makes it worthwhile IMO.
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I think, but I am not sure, that Malta was the only part of the empire where the inhabitants 'invited' us to relieve them from an occupying army (the french) rather than us just invading and planting the flag? Eddie Izzard had the script:-

We stole countries with the cunning use of flags. Just sail around the world and stick a flag in. "I claim India for Britain!" They're going "You can't claim us, we live here! Five hundred million of us!" "Do you have a flag …? "What? We don't need a flag, this is our home" "No flag, No Country, You can't have one! Those are the rules... and I'm backing it up with this gun."
 
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