English in Maltese

Here are a few words taken from my children's Junior 1 and Junior 3 Maltese schoolbooks: Fojl (foil), xawer (shower), ħiter (heater), kuxin (cushion - incidentally, why not imħadda?), blekbord (blackboard), trakk (truck), ħelow (hello - what's happened to bonġu?), jott (yacht - what's become of dgħajsa?), ġerzi (pullover), kompjuter (computer), vann (van), flett (flat/apartment), mekkanik (mechanic).

Where, oh where, is the Akkademja tal-Malti? Surely they should revert to the old way where a word borrowed from another language - because there is no Maltese equivalent - retains its original spelling, but is written in italics or within inverted commas?

More worrying is the fact that many children may - and probably do - end up with very poor English spelling and pronunciation. (Blekbord is a case in point - why with an "e" to boot?)

I find that the few times I help my children out with their Maltese homework, it turns into a marathon, because I end up having to explain that certain words are actually mis-pronounced by some people, and hence - despite being spelt phonetically in Maltese - mis-spelt too.

I always also write down the correct English spelling for them so that the (incorrect) "Maltese" word is not the one they'll remember.

What next? Kabord for "cupboard"?