May I appeal to the Maltese website commentators to, please, write their responses to the content in the language in which the content is written?

By that I mean it would be helpful to all readers if they were written in English.

I am well aware that, after my being here for so long, I should be fluent in Maltese. But even with the aid of a dictionary I find some of the comments impossible to read. Or to make sense. And my Maltese friends who speak good English sometimes translate these offerings in different ways.

I am also aware that Maltese is the national language while English is merely the other “official language of Malta”. But the language of this newspaper is English and its readers can read English. All of them. And many cannot understand Maltese.

My simple point is that if you can read an English language newspaper you can probably comment on its content in English and then everybody could understand what you are writing.

There are Maltese-speaking people who tell me they usually skip website comments writtenin Maltese.

In an English-language newspaper it is, surely, common courtesy to respond to stories within it in the language in which they were written.

I am saying please. But what is the point in writing a comment on an English-language newspaper story in an English-language newspaper in a language that many of the readers (including some native Maltese) do not understand or can’t fully comprehend?

You know it makes sense.

And, before anybody starts typing out a response to this, it has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.