MELAKA, Feb 21 — A professor at South Korea’s Busan University of Foreign Studies, Prof Dr Kang Kyoung Seok is currently developing a keyboard for typing in jawi.

Kang, 61, who is the only South Korean citizen recognised by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka as a jawi expert, said the existing keyboard used Arabic as a model and was not suitable for writing jawi.

He said the jawi keyboard he was developing was modelled after Roman writing which was seen as easier to master especially among the current young generations.

“Although, Arabic writing is similar to jawi, it must be remembered that there are too many differences between Arabic language and Bahasa Melayu, so it is not an easy matter when I want to spell Bahasa Melayu in jawi using an Arabic language keyboard.

“The young generations, not only in Malaysia but worldwide, learn and know Bahasa Malaysia via Roman writing, so when there is a jawi keyboard modelled after Roman writing they will find it much easier to understand,” said Kang, who is fluent in Bahasa Melayu, via an e-mail to Bernama, here.

Kang is in the final phase of developing the keyboard and did not rule out expanding it for using other gadgets such as smart phones other than keyboards for personal computers and laptops.

He is also scheduled to table his keyboard at a conference on jawi writing at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris in Tanjong Malim, Perak this year. — Bernama