All this talk about Jawi...but do people really know what it is? This is an article I wrote years back when a French friend asked me what writing we use in Malay. Sure, we use the Latin alphabet. But there was previously Jawi...
As you can see from the picture in the blog post, it is an alphabet. Different symbols to represent different sounds, similar to Russian and Korean, to name a couple of languages. Of course we wouldn't want to make it compulsory for our kids to learn Russian or Korean in school...it would be too much work! However, Jawi is a writing used for the Malay language which they are already learning. And as far as I can see, the plan is not to force students to be proficient enough in Jawi and use it to replace the Latin alphabet.
I actually learned a bit of Jawi when I was little...self-taught using a book that my grandfather had. It wasn't difficult to understand the concept, but to read a text, of course I had to decipher each letter of the alphabet one by one, like when we started learning how to read as kids! In the end I stopped learning because I spent too long deciphering the texts and it became boring. (it was just me and the book...and not very interesting texts at that :P ) Now I have forgotten most of the alphabet. The only thing I remember very well is "petua roda"...which those who have learned Jawi will probably know. :P
So I have no objections to learning a bit of Jawi. And I fully support it being for everyone. After all, imagine going overseas and having a special code to write to your fellow Malaysians in... ;P
As you can see from the picture in the blog post, it is an alphabet. Different symbols to represent different sounds, similar to Russian and Korean, to name a couple of languages. Of course we wouldn't want to make it compulsory for our kids to learn Russian or Korean in school...it would be too much work! However, Jawi is a writing used for the Malay language which they are already learning. And as far as I can see, the plan is not to force students to be proficient enough in Jawi and use it to replace the Latin alphabet.
I actually learned a bit of Jawi when I was little...self-taught using a book that my grandfather had. It wasn't difficult to understand the concept, but to read a text, of course I had to decipher each letter of the alphabet one by one, like when we started learning how to read as kids! In the end I stopped learning because I spent too long deciphering the texts and it became boring. (it was just me and the book...and not very interesting texts at that :P ) Now I have forgotten most of the alphabet. The only thing I remember very well is "petua roda"...which those who have learned Jawi will probably know. :P
So I have no objections to learning a bit of Jawi. And I fully support it being for everyone. After all, imagine going overseas and having a special code to write to your fellow Malaysians in... ;P
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