Ira Losco has played down criticism at the relatively high level usage of English on the X Factor Malta, backing a call by fellow judge Howard Keith Debono for viewers to chill out over the language issue.

“I’ve been speaking Maltese all my life and, while I occasionally slip up, when someone speaks to me in Maltese, I always respond to them in kind,” Ira said. “As far as I remember, every single interview I’ve given on a Maltese broadcaster has been carried out in our national language. All this criticism which makes it seem as though we don’t understand Maltese is little bit exaggerated.”

Meanwhile, fellow X Factor Malta judge Alexandra Alden expressed her frustration at the ongoing language debate.

“I feel like no one has any idea how to navigate the language debate,” she said. “It’s years old and we always run into the same arguments and there’s always some underlying political agenda most of the time too.”

“The point of a language is to communicate. A language should facilitate communication and in the end the objective is always to get your point across in the most natural and easiest way possible. In this case, sometimes it’s going to be in English, sometimes in Maltese. Sounds like either way the level of fluency needs to be worked on then, perhaps. But how much can we blame ourselves for that?”

What is your take on the ongoing language debate?

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]