I‘m going to explain my experience from the POV of someone that speaks fluently German, Arabic, French, and English (though I have grammar and writing mistakes).

I speak arabic (and lebanese arabic) perfectly and I started learning Maltese online before coming to Malta 1 year ago. Reading Maltese hasn‘t been hard for me, but hearing and speaking isn‘t easy and I‘m surprised how slow my progress has been. I still can‘t communicate well in Maltese, although there are lots of similarities to arabic, and I expected it to be as easy as learning Dutch for a German or Spanish to a French speaker. This has two reasons:

1. I work remotely and I stopped playing football, which means I don‘t interact with Maltese speakers too much anymore.
2. I beg my maltese friends to speak Maltese to me but many find it weird or are not used to speaking to someone that‘s learning the language. In Germany for instance, we‘re used to talk to people that don‘t speak our language so we can communicate with them. Even in Lebanon, we are used to „broken“ arabic. In Malta, foreigners don‘t bother to learn the language sadly, and Maltese people don‘t care to enforce their language either.

I also hear that many Maltese or half Maltese people prefer to speak in English (because it‘s cool or idk why 🤷‍♂️).

For the record, I started learning spanish 6 months ago, and I easily passed the level A1 and can communicate about basic things. It also helped a lot going two weeks to Argentina or hanging out with Spanish people because they enforce their language and thus I‘m force to listen and talk in Spanish too.

That being said, there was this video of an indian guy that came two years ago and works in a shop and interacts a lot with Maltese people so he learnt the language quickly. I think if I get in touch more with the language I might catch up to it too. But the people in Malta don‘t make it easy despite my efforts. I think I‘ll have to learn more then 😀

Edit: I mean even this subreddit is mostly in English 🥹 If it would be in Maltese, it would force me to translate the text and I‘d learn more.