A restaurant in Republic Street, Valletta, was advertising ‘mild wine’ on a board outside its main door these past few days. Tourists passing by found it amusing but Education Minister Evarist Bartolo would despair at such a blatant corruption of the word.

‘Mild’ for ‘mulled’ may draw a smile but many other common examples of really bad English that we come across every day will certainly make even those having a modicum knowledge of the language squirm.

Many today can only speak pidgin English and, as to the standard of their Maltese, it often leaves much to be desired too. This may hurt our pride, however, it can hardly be denied.

The education minister was not saying anything new when he said in an interview in The Sunday Times of Malta that the standard of English has deteriorated so much that the country risks losing its bilingual status. The standard of both the written and spoken language has been sliding sharply for so many years now that it has reached crisis point.

There was a time when many spoke English well or, at least, had a workable knowledge of the language. This was a good selling point in efforts to attract foreign investment. It may be that, compared to other locations vying for foreign investment, the country is still somewhat attractive on this score.

If the downward trend is not corrected, Malta risks losing this advantage. Listening to people attempting to speak English makes one wonder why they bother to do so at all. The problem is they think they are speaking correct English.

The minister could not say how and when English proficiency deteriorated. Finding that out could very well be the subject of an interesting research study but the historical starting point may reasonably have been the time when, through independence, the country broke off its direct link with Britain.

The slide has not come about suddenly. It is a process fashioned by a combination of factors, all playing their part in a gradual change of mentality, lifestyle and outlook. Malta may well still be in the Commonwealth and, although London may still be one of the most favourite destinations for many Maltese, the link with Britain is ever weakening.

Greater exposure to the Italian language through Italian television channels is re-orientating the minds of many, drawing Malta closer to mainland continental culture. The problem is that our local television stations seem determined on stamping out the English language from the airwaves.

And, yet, there is no question that, with English now firmly established as the lingua franca, Malta stands to lose a great deal if it were to become a monolingual country. Is it too late to stop the downward trend? To what extent would the strong continental influences hamper efforts to raise the standard of the written and spoken language?

In Mr Bartolo’s view, the key to reverse the trend is investing in teacher education. Unquestionably, that is important, but equally so is to ensure that people charged with communicating in English, written or spoken, are competent in the use of the language.

If English is held to be one of the two of the country’s official languages, it stands to reason that the people are expected to know the language.

Unfortunately, the deterioration is evident in the use of both English and Maltese, written and spoken. The country needs to pull up its socks and see how it can reverse the sharp downward trend in the use of both languages.