This is the most stupid website or tool I have ever seen(UPDATE: I said it’s stupid because of the reason the founders had,okay?). Yamli.
The Arab world has one of the highest internet usage growth rates. Yet, access to and development of Arabic content has been difficult, mainly because of the complexity of typing Arabic. Although Arabic keyboards are available, the vast majority of Arabic-speaking Internet users are accustomed to an English keyboard. Users often resort to spelling Arabic words out phonetically using English characters, a process known as transliteration. Yamli allows users to convert these English characters into Arabic words.
Taken From the Yamli Facebook group
What’s so good about it? Is it that hard to learn how to type Arabic letters?!?!?! To me, it’s a pure insult to the Arabic language! Read Haitham’s post about Arabic language and how -according to the Encarta Encyclopedia- it’s ranked as the second most spoken language in the world after Chinese (NOT English which came in the fourth place!!!!!). If they’re accustomed to English keyboards, let them get accustomed to Arabic keyboards too!! They make it sound as if it’s mission impossible or something!!
It would have been much better if they offered a simple and free Arabic typing lessons!! I’ve searching for such a program since forever!! (any help:$ ?).Yes I’m a slow Arabic typer but I was really offended when I read about this tool and I would never use it!!!
Yamli, yamli this: ana ra2ye enno hayde fekra sayyi2a jiddan! loghatak lazem tkoun masdar fakhrak msh masdar ellet khasseytak!!
19 Comments
I see this tool as an opportunity to discover arabic content on the web, content that was invisible to me for practical reasons (I dont have an arabic keyboard, nor do I have an arabic version of an OS – how can I use the search engines to discover content in arabic?)
You don’t like it, don’t use it. Calling it “stupid” is a misplaced insult.
If it was so easy to write arabic using arabic letters, why is your blog so full of transliterations(look it up)?
Your rant ignores reality. Many Arabic speakers do not have access to Arabic keyboards yet still want to search Arabic websites. Considering the search results come up in Arabic, one would have to know and most likely be already able to type in Arabic. In the future you should actually have real arguments rather than just rants and insults. This website provides unique and easy access to Arabic websites and is a great tool. It is also great to see such advancements and tools coming from an Arab.
abbes..
you’re absolutely right!! the tool is perfect in your case (absent of arabic keyboard) but they considered the “accustomed to english keyboard” is the main problem which i thought is weird! sorry if the word offended you…my bad
dear anonymous!! i didn’t say it’s easy, but i’m trying and i’m looking for a tool for teaching arabic typing!! and i try to avoid it in my blog posts…my blog isn’t FULL with transliterations at all!! i might include a word or two!!
and if you’re referring to my last couple of lines in the post i wrote them on purpose
joeleb26
take it easy guys i was just provoked by the argument the facebook group raised…”people aren’t accustomed to english keyboards”
again the tool is great in the other case which the founders didn’t even consider!!!
again i quote:
Co-founder Habib Haddad explains: “I would often experience frustration trying to find Arabic news on the web. Like millions of users, I could easily express my Arabic words using English letters, but I had difficulty typing them in Arabic. The need for a technology that efficiently converted those phonetic spellings into meaningful Arabic words seemed natural to me. It would have to be so seamless that users would be able to write Arabic text and forget they were using English characters. This is how Yamli was born.”
they didn’t have the absent of arabic keyboard issue in mind!!!!
they only had difficulty in looking for the letters!!!
..”people ARE* accustomed to english keyboards”
sorry for the mistake..
I don’t understand why you fail to see the positives in yamli.
It is just a matter of fact that people today, be it in lebanon or abroad, do not need arabic keyboards in everyday life/work. Also getting familiarized with using one is not obvious (even you admit that you’re not good with it). Most people in this situation including myself end up never typing arabic or acessing the arabic web!
Yamli clearly solves this problem as it allows us to produce arabic text in a way that we have gotten accustomed to! Saying that people should instead get accustomed to arabic keyboards is a pretty narrow-minded statement and doesnt solve any problems and in any case is clearly not very realistic.
Also i think yamli has a huge potential as an educational tool for westeners trying to learn the language.
For me it is clear that the tool will only help spread and promote the arabic language and in now way does it insult it and
as a lebanese person I think you should be welcoming it even if you would personally prefer to use an arabic keyboard.
Bottom line on top: nightS, your argument makes no sense whatsoever.
Obviously, there is something getting you angry, but I don’t think you should direct your anger at a wonderful tool like yamli… Yamli has made it so much easier for me (and I’m sure for a million others) to type and search and actually see the beautiful arabic letters that I love, without having to learn anything new. The beauty in Yamli is that it relieves you from having to learn how to use an arabic keyboard, but allows you to use the wonderful arabic language from the comfort of your regular keyboard (I stress on regular because that’s what most people in the wide world use). I beg you to let me know which of the following is a better way to read in arabic, and give me your honest opinion on how many times longer it would have taken you to type the arabic version using an arabic keyboard:
ana ra2ye enno hayde fekra sayyi2a jiddan! loghatak lazem tkoun masdar fakhrak msh masdar ellet khasseytak
أنا رأيي إن هيدي فكرة سيئة جدا . لغتك لازم تكون مصدر فخرك مش مصدر قلة خصيتك
(By the way, I used Yamli’s genius to be able to type this last sentence)
While I can understand your fury, I would have to say that Yamli is a good tool for people without an Arabic keyboard. Moreover, it offers the chance to get access to websites in Arabic, which are otherwise undiscoverable through the regular search tools.
In addition, while Arabic is a very beautiful and rich language, it is a very difficult language to read, write and speak, let alone use an Arabic keyboard! A lot of people, such as foreigners who study the Near & Middle East, are capable of *reading* Arabic but as Yamli states, are not accustomed to the Arabic keyboard, taken its difficulty. I don’t think they would want to consume their time learning how to use the Arabic keyboard (I myself find it extremely difficult and it takes up a lot of time!), while they could use that time to actually read the websites, etc. But, I don’t think this should be used against anyone and I don’t think it is something to be looked at pejoratively. The point here is that it gives access to material otherwise unavailable through other methods, it saves time and helps those who need this material but are not blessed enough with the capability to use the Arabic keyboard.
However, it is all about practice and if one has an Arabic keyboard, it is only a matter of practice. So, another major point is the absence of an Arabic keyboard in most platforms.
dear anonymous…is that you? 🙂 Mr.Anonymous?? either ways you’re always welcome 🙂
i do see the positives in yamli and i’ve already apologized to abbes (first comment) because i missed the case of the absence of Arabic Keyboards!! but the founders didn’t even mention it and said the Arabic keyboards are available! and that was it!
I still do believe that the solution is to get accustomed to Arabic keyboards 😀 and as a lebanese i have to get a bit annoyed for having english letters replacing the arabic!!! but it doesn’t seem that bad after all with the other cases 🙂 thanks again for wasting your time on my post and blog 🙂
Maurice…
believe it or not your comment made me really smile! actually yes i’m angry and my opinion was a bit TOO aggressive (shhhh, PMS :P) it’s just that i thought the solution yamli proposes for the problem they ONLY covered (the accustomed to english keyboard thing) isn’t the solution! and i got provoked that’s true!!
but what’s wrong with dedicating a little time to get accustomed to arabic keyboard? :$:$:$ bear with me please!!!
i stated my objection on the basis of the same love you have to the arabic language so we’re practically on the same side i guess!!
and i know it takes more time…but i’m getting better now…i can’t find a typing-tutor program for arabic keyboard but by practice i’m getting a bit faster!! eventually i’ll be good enough!!
thanks for stopping by!
poshlemon…
thanks for understanding my point!! yes i’m getting better with practice…it’s hard but i’m trying my best!!
it’s just the “problem statement” the founders used really got on my nerves…i hope they can change it 😀
because to think about it…it’s not that bad considering the other cases!
by the way, i know a guy who sent his laptop to the company to get arabic letters on the keyboard keys…they used laser or something to crave them into each key…because he needed arabic on his keyboard!! i wonder if he knew before about yamli…i’ll ask him and let you know 🙂
nightS, I would rather see Yamli as an “opportunity” vs. a handicap or “insult” if you look at it in a rational way. Nobody said that the Yamli tool was created because typing in Arabic is a “mission impossible” (like you stated) or to underestimate people’s ability to write Arabic. The tool was simply offered to make the process of typing Arabic “easier” and “more practical” in the online world. Many of us like to write in Arabic but do not have an Arabic keyboard, like myself, and therefore had to use English words instead to look for Arabic-language resources. With Yamli though, we now have the chance to express ourselves online in the Arabic language, using the standard English keyboard.
Perhaps you are more comfortable using an Arabic keyboard and we all respect that, but please remember that this is represents a “personal preference” that varies from a user to another and thus cannot be used to make a general extreme statement such as the tool being an “insult”. So let’s be a little more constructive in our criticism especially when the intent of tools like Yamli is clearly to facilitate online communication in Arabic, recognizing in turn the importance of the language and the need to spread it online in a practical and effective way.
Lastly, I’d like to mention that although the goal of Yamli is not to teach people written Arabic, some US-born Lebanese people who understand Arabic but don’t know how to write it, have found this tool really useful so far as they’d type in their name for example in English and the tool would automatically show them the Arabic equivalent of it, and in turn teaching them the Arabic alphabet, something that I believe an Arabic keyboard would have failed to do. Perhaps this very simple example highlights even more the extent to which the tool has been promoting the Arabic language vs. limiting its usage boundaries? I’ll leave you with that thought.
dear libanaise…
i’ll say it again…
how yamli was born “according to the FOUNDERS” is the “mission impossible” issue…they said that…and that actually was what provoked me!!
I didn’t get what the Arabic keyboard failed to do…does the English keyboard teach the English alphabet?!?! what would you think of an internet tool that would transform english written in arabic letters to english in english letters?!? will it help people to learn the english alphabet efficiently?
I have to admit that my opinion isn’t as aggressive as it was before….but i DO still believe that this isn’t the solution!!! i didn’t say i’m comfortable with arabic keyboards..i’m a slow arabic typer…but i prefer to practice a bit more rather than using yamli…
no arabic keyboard? okay it’s a good and FREE solution but you can as i said get arabic letters on the keyboard keys as my friend did and install the language on your OS et voila!!!
This is not even an original idea. If you go to Onkosh (http://www.onkosh.com/), the idea has been implemented within a whole system that is pro-Arabic. The transiltation is not a bad idea, but shouldnt be the ‘only’ idea … I am so advocate for Onkosh because of the misc. solutions there! Cheers.
Transliteration is not a new concept. The chinese have pinyin and there also exist other arabic transliteration systems : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Arabic
However what I really like about Yamli is the way it has been presented and also the smartness. The founders also claim its adaptive which in my opinion has a lot of value in it.
Onkosh’s system is not bad however its UI is very limiting and it only works on popular words, which to me makes it a dead end …
I am waiting to see what’s coming next from the Yamli guys… Hopefully they ll manage to impress me the same way they impressed me the first time…
onkosh?:) that’s an original name lol!!
well it seems that yamli is an enhanced version of onkosh?? added an editor or something?? and hey the interface isn’t that bad let’s be fair here!!!
Well, honestly i’m waiting to see what’s coming next from Yamli!!! i hope it will be good enough!!!
meanwhile..stick to arabic keyboards guys :D:P (couldn’t help it)
For the Yamli doubters. Its is a matter of practicality. Why learn two keyboard layouts. Do you want to have 2 keyboards at home or 2 OCS for that matter. Yamli extends the PC investments you have already made.
If you continue to doubt, try this. Respond to this post in Arabic using Arabic text. Let me know how you do it. Then try Yamli. It speaks for itself.
اففف
شو هالتحدي الصعب؟؟
أسرعلي أكتب هون دغري…بلا ما أكتب بيملي وأرجع إسحب التعليق لهون
ما عم بفهم وين الصعوبة أو العيب بتعلّم الطباعة بالعربي؟؟
ليه ماعندك مشكلة تتعلم الطباعة بالأجنبي؟؟
سؤال برهوم…ليه التعليق اللي أنت كتبته ما أستخدمت فيه يملي؟؟
http://search.eiktub.com offers an alternative way to google search for arabic words and phrases. This is more of a transliteration service in the sense that it has fixed one-to-one rules to go back from English to Arabic.
Also interesting is their Arabic text editor that allows writing fully vowelized Arabic with an English keyboard in a very accurate and efficient way.
What’s up with the Onkosh whiners flaming every post about Yamli ? Onkosh kids get a life, and develop a better product 🙂