Watch: MEP Candidate Opens Up About Feeling Like An ‘Outcast’ At School For Not Speaking Maltese
ADPD MEP candidate Mina Tolu has given another perspective on the English-Maltese debate and this time, it’s coming from someone who wasn’t brought up speaking Maltese and felt isolated because of it.
“Why is it that when I went to primary and secondary school I was treated like an outcast because I didn’t know Maltese?”
“Throughout my primary and secondary school years, I was afraid to speak Maltese and it took a long time of work, reflection, and studying other languages to be able to get onto this stage and speak to you all in Maltese and battle those anxieties that I had,” they said during a debate held at the University of Malta earlier today.
Tolu said that they learned Maltese as their third language, explaining that when “your family doesn’t speak Maltese because they don’t understand it and you go to school to learn it, it’s very difficult.”
The main crux of their argument was based on the idea that the pedagogy in Malta to learn the language is very much based on the assumption that everyone uses and listens to Maltese at home.
“I know a lot of people who come from abroad and want to live in Malta and want Malta to become their country too but don’t find resources that will help them learn Maltese properly.”
“We have a huge demand of people who want to learn Maltese but the development of the pedagogy to learn Maltese as a foreign language isn’t adapted to this demand.”
Tolu went on to say that it took a lot of work to become proficient in Maltese, highlighting the fact that during the debate, they answered the questions both in Maltese and in English.
“Obviously, everyone has their own knowledge. As an English-first speaker, I think that there needs to be more space for English-first speakers, Maltese-first speakers and for those who still need to learn.”
“Unfortunately, there’s the expectation in local politics that to be a politician in Malta you must speak only Maltese. Many of us who are English-first speakers understand Maltese perfectly but it doesn’t come that naturally for us to speak it. In my case it’s difficult because my second language is Italian; Maltese is my third.”
“There is the need for a lot of work but also destigmatisation of languages in Malta and openness to diversity of how we speak and what languages we speak. This is the first time in Malta during an electoral campaign that we’re in a space that almost welcomes speaking in English, it’s something good.”
Tolu ended their five minutes of speaking time before rushing off to catch a flight to Brussels stating that they hope that everyone recognises the need for voices from ADPD in the European Parliament.
“We need a Maltese person in the Green Group so that we can fight for the cases specific to Malta when we are discussing changes to laws regarding the climate. If we don’t have our perspective as Maltese in this group in the EP, a lot of these laws will be decided without us.”
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