Joseph Muscat (‘The importance of English’, The Sunday Times of Malta, January 12), bemoans the deterioration of the English language in the Maltese population.

Let me tell you of my experience of this problem in my county of Northumberland, and I stress that I have no experience of any other part of the UK.

I use the bus quite often at home. If I catch the 9.30am one, it will have in the rear a bunch of students on the way to college.

The conversation can go like this: “So like what like are you like going to like do tonight like?” Reply: “Well like I might like go to the like pub and like meet the lads like”. This is probably worse than it is, but you get the drift. I have also left out the swear words which seem to pepper all the youth conversation.

A lady and I were sitting near the rear of a bus one day. We looked at each other and as one we moved forward away from the atrocious language being used by two youths in the back seat.

I get a text now and again from a friend and the first thing to do is decode it. That takes as long as it does to read it. I am sad to think that these kids will want to be employed at some stage. Let us hope that somehow they find the English language in time.