Speak in tongues! Multi-lingual Maltese fare better than European counterparts

The Maltese are definitely more proficient in languages than their former colonial masters: 68% of British respondents to a European Commission survey say they only read or write in one language, but that number falls to just 2% among the bilingual Maltese.

Indeed, nearly half (46%) of Maltese respondents can read and write in three languages while 16% can read and write in three or even more languages.

This means that 62% of Maltese young people can speak more than three languages compared to 37% of all EU citizens.

This emerges from a European Commission survey conducted among 15- to 30-year-olds in all 28 member states.

The survey also shows that one-third of young Maltese people can read and write in two languages. This includes the mother tongue.

The Maltese are the second least likely in Europe, after the Danes, to read and write in only one language.

Luxembourgers are the most likely to know more than three languages (69%) while in the EU only 10% can read and write in three languages or more.

However, although the Maltese are among the most likely to be trilingual or bilingual, they are less keen to learn a new language. While 77% of all EU citizens want to learn a new language, only 63% of Maltese would like to do the same.

When asked which language they know they would like to improve, the Maltese were the only people among the EU-28 to mention Italian. In fact, 46% of Maltese would like to improve their Italian. Youths in 24 other EU countries would like to improve English while the Irish and English would like to improve their French.

38% of 15- to 30-year-olds in Malta also said they would like to learn Spanish as a new language if given the opportunity, the survey shows.

Spanish – which is the second most spoken language in the world emerges as the first choice in 20 other EU countries, German in six countries, French in the top choice in two countries and Russian in Cyprus.

Only 15% of Maltese have studied trained or worked abroad. This is lower than the percentage of all EU 28, which amounts to 26%. The most likely to have studied, trained or worked abroad were the Luxembourgers (61%) followed by Latvians (42%) and Cypriots (39%).