There are pretty much no newspapers in Maltese, the only quality Maltese newspapers are in English. There is pretty much no literature in Maltese, all authors write in English, shop signs are 90% of the time in English, all education is in English and even the working language of the government is English.

Despite how weighed Maltese life is towards English, when you visit Malta, despite being highly English-influenced, the local language used is still obviously Maltese, a semetic tongue. Despite how encouraged they have been to abandon Maltese, and how little material there is available in it, they still ultimately speak it amongst themselves.

Where do you draw the line and say it’s gone too far? If you read Dutch forums/ newspapers you will find it quite hard not to find English words and phrases being used. Especially in adverts… the youth can hardly speak proper Dutch anymore.

I know this is happening too in different languages like German, French etc but it’s more frequent in Dutch.

Have the Dutch got no pride?

The same is happening with hispanics, the USA is an expert at absorbing millions of immigrants without any major problem!

It did for centuries and it’s still doing it now.

1. Everyone? Well maybe not everyone. It wasn’t like I really meant everyone. What I really meant was everyone that wouldn’t otherwise not be doing it.

2. What is English? Hmmm. Not sure, but I know it when I hear it.

Maybe I misunderstood the question.

3. That Globish guy says that English language learners have lots of mutual comprehension regardless of native language, since language learners all speak the same simple English. I’ll be posting on some research that suggest that adult English learners are driving simplification of English as we speak (type).

This statement begs various questions:
1. Does “everyone” include those who already speak a form of English?
2. What is “English” anyway? Is the legend of a common language sustainable in the modern world?
3. To what extent is “second language English” mutually comprehensible? (e.g. the English of reasonably educated Germans, the English of reasonably educated Indonesians, the national form of English in multilingual states such as India and various African states, the descendent of pidgin English in parts of the Carribean).

My theory is that in an age of global communication which crowds out some minority languages, there is also a contrary trend of language diversification. In other words, the Tower of Babel is still happening.

Around the globe everyone wants English as a second language. How much truer for your average immigrant trying to make it in the US of A. English pays, as they says.