[WATCH] TikTok meets Vassalli: Kurt Meli’s mission to teach Maltese Gen Z style

Maltese can be a hard language to master. A blend of semitic roots and romance influences, it has puzzled students and adults alike, but Kurt Meli wants to change the way we look at our mother tongue.

Armed with his phone, social media, popular culture and a hint of sassiness, Meli wants to change how we look at the Maltese language.

From the etymology of għoxx (vagina), pepè and Mnarja, to answering more complex questions such as the pronunciation of Maltese words, a self-proclaimed ‘homosexual apprentice to Mikiel Anton Vassalli’, Kurt Meli is doing it all.

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An interpreter in Brussels, Meli describes himself an introvert, despite racking up thousands of views on his TikTok and Instagram pages.

“I was always a reserved child, and as a teenager it was a hurdle I wanted to overcome,” he said. “Nowadays I am very proud of how much I have grown.”

His love for Maltese came at an early age, and he explained how in secondary school he realised how deep his love for the language is.

Meli said he enjoys the linguistic aspect of the language the most.

“The little details are what fascinate me, such as why we use certain terms and not others, or why we use certain pronunciation. I am a bit of a nerd you know,” he said jokingly.

A fresh perspective on an old language

Kurt’s decision to take on the social media stage started around two years ago.

“I was in Brussels for work, and it was around 1am, and I couldn’t sleep because the bar down stairs was pumping out music. I always wanted to combine my love for Maltese with entertainment,” he said. “At the time I was studying proof reading in Maltese, and in the course, they teach you how the language has evolved, and that is one of the most interesting aspects for me in Maltese.”

He said he was champing at the bit to share what he had learnt, and decided to film a video in “Gen Z style.”

“I wanted to speak from a perspective of someone who grew up in the 2010s and was raised in the internet age. I also wanted to share the perspective of someone who understood cultural references,” he said.

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Meli said his target audience are native Maltese speakers, as he hopes people start to appreciate the language “a little bit more”.

He said he hopes his videos help to keep the language fresh. “I really hope I can contribute in doing that. I continue doing them because people really seem to like them, and while I try to make the videos entertaining, I try to include information which is educational.”

“The moments I enjoy learning the most is when I am not aware I am learning,” Meli said.

While heaping praise on the Maltese Department at the University of Malta, Meli said sometimes the way the language is taught, fails to give it the respect it deserves.

“I want to provide a fresh perspective,” he said. “For example, when we teach Maltese poetry, we fail to get into the crux of what the poems represent, and this tends to lead people into not appreciating the magic of Maltese literature.”

The creative process behind the reel

For Kurt Meli, inspiration is no problem, saying he tries to channel what is going on around him in popular culture, or his personal life, into his content.

“It started with me drawing inspiration from what I was learning during my linguistics class, but nowadays I draw inspiration from whatever is being discussed nationally,” he said.

But sometimes an idea just pops into his mind. “Like for example the word sulluzzu (hiccups) where does it come from? And I just made a reel.”

Kurt also said it takes more than just sitting on the sofa and pressing record.

“Almost every time I prepare a script. Sometimes the videos are spontaneous, but others I want to make sure that a number of points get across,” he said. “I also try to research the topic a bit beforehand.”

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He also thinks to himself: “What message do I want to get out from the video?”

“It’s this sort of internal monologue I have with myself throughout the day in the lead up to filming the bit,” Kurt said.

A mostly positive public reaction

In the past six months Kurt has slowly risen to fame, and is managing to secure steady viewership on his social media pages.

He said the reaction has been “very positive”, and appreciates the fact that people are now stopping him in the street to tell him how much they enjoy his videos.

“To have helped someone appreciate Maltese a bit more, and to have them take the time to tell me how much they enjoyed my videos is a blessing,” he said.

But social media can sometimes have its dark corners.

“In some rare instances I had people calling me a faggot (pufta),” he said. “But it does not affect me that much. I have experienced this hate way before I started recording the videos.”

In one of his videos, Kurt flipped the situation on its head, and posted himself correcting grammatical mistakes by those who tried to insult him.

“It’s easy to focus on the negative, but I make a conscious effort to remember these are the absolute minority, and the majority do not care about my sexuality, but my content,” he said.