Been a few times for work and holidays. It is a cheap place to eat and drink. Practically everyone speaks English. Plenty of places to go if you're the partying type. However, in the summer it's really hot, over 40C. It's quite crowded. It sort of feels like an English outpost, e.g. they drive on the left and there are English phone booths, banks etc. The people are a bit old fashioned.
The younger women can be really pretty but they get very fat after 30.
Mdina the whispering city is worth a visit, so is Valletta, and the casino there is great. And yep the local language is arabic-ish and really bizarre sounding.
Don't go there if you plan on killing anyone - there's nowhere to run. Just sayin'.
And from Malta you can fly to Italy really cheaply.