Lack of access to an Arabic keyboard or lack of familiarity with one are two of the most common problems preventing Arabic users from communicating in their own language.
Microsoft Maren is a Windows extension that comes to the rescue, allowing you to type Arabic in Roman characters (Romanized Arabic, Arabizi, Arabish or Franco-Arabic) and have it converted on the fly to Arabic script.
Maren integrates seamlessly with Windows and works in most Windows applications and websites.
Mohamed Marwen Meddah at StartUpArabia puts Maren in context:
Users around the Arab world widely use romanized Arabic in instant messaging and on social networking sites, and Microsoft’s Maren is following in the footsteps of Yamli and Google’s Ta3reeb in offering these users the possibility to have whatever text they type converted into Arabic.
Up to this point Yamli has been the user favorite in the region, with a number of portals integrating their service, a Firefox toolbar extension that many people were glad to get and even an unofficial Yamli extension called Arabzi that exists for MSN Messenger. Yamli also uses its transliteration technology as a basis to enrich and provide better Arabic search online.
What Microsoft’s Maren offers as a plus is the possibility to integrate the transliteration technology into Windows, and use it everywhere, not just online through a browser; so basically users can use Maren while typing in a Word document or on Instant Messenger or any other Windows application.
The fact that the tool is installed on the user’s machine also means that the solution is available to the user even when he’s offline, and it could even be a bit faster than other solutions that have to send requests back to a server.
While Maren is a useful tool, I understand the sentiment of an Egyptian friend who wrote on Twitter:
This video is what prompted her comment:
I think there is a big difference between aiming a transliteration tool at people without access to an Arabic keyboard (as Yamli does), and assuming that Arabic speakers don't know how to use an Arabic keyboard - and shouldn't have to learn. While it is true that many Arabic speakers find it difficult to type in Arabic, perhaps because they have always used the Roman keyboard, or never have much occasion to write in Arabic, there are also plenty of people who have no problem at all using the Arabic keyboard and type Arabic with ease.
It seems a bit insulting that Microsoft markets Maren as "coming to the rescue" because the Arabic keyboard is just too hard. Personally I don't write a huge amount in Arabic, but I do send emails and search using Arabic terms all the time. I have resorted to tools like Yamli when I am without an Arabic keyboard but I can't manage for long without one. I know plenty of people who type Arabic (using an Arabic keyboard) as well as English; I feel it is a perfectly natural situation for many, and is perhaps related to their educational and cultural environment.
However, it seems some agree with Microsoft's premise, and even take it a step further. I received some responses (condensed here) from Jeremy Bicha, an American based in Bahrain:
I don't think the Arabic keyboard has a good layout & it's better to type in English/French, etc. than designing & learning a new one…What helps a person more in 2009? Typing in Arabic or being able to type in any Western language? & with tools like Yamli or Microsoft Maren, that's enough to type in any language in the world…with only so much time to teach students, what is most useful, profitable?
So what do you think? Is it worth the effort of learning how to type on an Arabic keyboard, or should Arabic speakers take the easy route and just use the Roman keyboard when typing? Is this an issue of having respect for one's language and culture, or simply a question of practicality?
15 comments:
Wow, I didn't know about Google's Ta3reeb either, thanks for sharing!
I don't like reading transliteration, for one reason: it's hard. It seems that the transliteration depends on the writer's English- how they hear the sounds, how they write them, how they read them. I use it sometimes when in the middle of an English conversation and in need for an Arabic word, but I find reading whole sentences, and worse whole paragraphs really tiresome. There is no standard- your eyes get tired with the actual "reading". When reading in a language one is fluent in we don't actually "read" every letter and every word- we read by looking at patterns and you can't have that luxury with transliteration because people supposedly write what they hear, and things are spelled in ridiculous ways sometimes.
I find the idea of this tool really interesting, because if I struggle with deciphering the Arabzi, I wonder if this tool is actually going to do it, and if it will help someone like me who sometimes wishes to translate Arabzi to actual Arabic to understand it.
I had recently received some Arabzi messages on Facebook that I had trouble reading. I tested these in Ta3reeb. Like me Ta3reeb got confused, because the word read something, but that can't be what the person meant. It does not make sense.
I think the tool can be useful, not as a replacement to typing in Arabic as such. Maybe to improve the readability of online communication (if it works well).
I don't understand the part about typing in Arabic being "so hard". Typing in Arabic is no harder than typing in English. The layout of keyboards in most languages (at least true for Arabic & English) was done at time of typewriters, and it was important to slow down the human typer because the machine could not mechanically handle a faster typing. The layout of the English keyboard is such to achieve the slowest typing possible. Same with Arabic.
The access to the Arabic keyboard can be a problem. This is how I actually learnt my Arabic typing. When I was in the UK I bought my computer from there, and of course it came with an English only keyboard. I used "Online Keyboards" for a while but they're not practical for more than a few words. I had to learn to blind-type Arabic on English keyboard. I can type without an Arabic keyboard now.
On a different note, I like your blog's face lift, but do put back "things that caught my eye" please! I read those regularly!
To take this a different direction, what do you suggest for someone wanting to learn to type Arabic?
Looks to me like Google Ta3reeb is doing the same thing except that Microsoft is being more innovative by applying it to any program on the computer, not just the web.
Thank you Aysha for quoting me.. and thank you for understanding..
I really hated microsoft video because its like tackling a problem from the surface..
The Arabic real problem is rather with the keyboard layout.. with the platforms that doesn't accept RTL text..
the problem is with youth understanding that if they didn't defend their culture, no one will ever do for them..
God! I was outraged.. because microsoft could have easily asked ppl to type in english, than arabic in english letters :S
I'm boycotting this software..
Thumbs up to Cradle's request. Please bring that section back
Cradle of Humanity, BuZain - done. How could I refuse? :)
When I was in the UK, all those centuries ago, I bought a PC with your vanilla flavoured keyboard, and I had Arabic on my system but didn't know where to find the letters!
At first I started doing a hit and miss strategy (with one finger always on the backspace button!) and then after a while I drew up a mock Arabic keyboard and stuck in on the wall as a reference.. and in no time I wrote Arabic on my keyboard perfectly, and still do
The thing I dislike about Yamli is that it doesn't use the actual Arabic keyboard pushes like if I wanted to write السلام عليكم I would naturally type "hgsghl ugd;l" based on the normal Arabic keyboard I use.
Plus writing in Arabizi is a pain in the ass, yes I do write alot using it on Facebook, especially when I'm in my lab office, but typing a single word uses up double the keyboard pushes which is a nightmare on over applications like Twitter.
المهم ليس التكنولوجيا التي يستخدمها المرء ليكتب بالعربية، وإنما المهم أن يكتب بالعربية أصلا
It is silly to be offended by a new product on the market that simply aims to make using the computer easier for people. If the product is successful, then apparently people have a use for it and commonly write in Latin characters when writing Arabic. If its successful, then apparently people aren't using an Arabic keyboard to being with. Therefore, this is only making life easier for people who already don't use an Arabic keyboard. No on is going to lose there culture over a keyboard. No need to be so defensive.
Cradle of Humanity - I can't read romanized Arabic at all...I get a headache trying to remember what the 9 and the 5 and the 2 (etc etc) stand for. I'm interested by your attempt to convert transliteration into Arabic letters using Ta3reeb. (And impressed that you can type without an Arabic keyboard now.)
Jeremy - I am the wrong person to ask; I never even learnt to type in English, and use two fingers to this day :)
Lasto adri - thanks for bringing the topic to my attention!
Yacoub - Good for you, learning to type that way. And it had never occurred to me that typing Arabizi required more characters!
Benjamin - صحيح :)
Anonymous - I don't know if you're addressing me or one of the commenters, but I am not condemning the product, I am simply questioning how it is marketed, and whether the issues raised are widespread, and why.
@bintbattuta Can you type in Arabic better than in English then or do you two-finger that too?
I think most Bahrainis can't speed-type in Arabic and this is just one indicator that the education system is not working.
Jeremy - no, I type very slowly in Arabic, with the same two fingers :)
You say "most Bahrainis can't speed-type in Arabic" - I have no idea about overall numbers, but I know many Bahrainis who do; in fact most of my close friends are more familiar with the Arabic keyboard than the Roman.
I've always been surprised by the popularity of Yamli etc, because if you already know how to touch-type on an English keyboard, it only takes a few days to teach yourself to touch-type in Arabic. I've never had an Arabic keyboard, so I just drew one on a piece of paper and propped it up against my screen for a few days. I forced myself to look at the paper rather than down at my fingers when I was typing, until I had memorized where each letter was. It only took a few days, and Arabic isn't even my first lanugage. I've been typing away happily in either language ever since. (I was wondering initially whether I'd get confused between the two systems, but actually that has never been a problem.)
Also, as for the argument that the keys on an Arabic keyboard are laid out in a way that makes it harder to use than an English one, I think it's interesting to note that the "QWERTY" layout was designed in order to *slow people down*, not speed them up! It was back in the days of typewriters, when the little arms with the letters on them would get all tangled up in each other if the typist started going too fast. So the designers of QWERTY deliberately chose to make sure that letters which are frequently used beside each other in a word are far away from each other on the keyboard, etc. And as we all know, that doesn't slow anybody down these days.
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