The reason I don’t blog in Arabic
The first question most of my friends ask me the first time they visit my blog is “Why aren’t you blogging in Arabic?”. The answer is: I’d really love to, but i can’t.
When it comes to Web Development, Arabs are still (unfortunately) living in the late 90’s. Web Design to them is basically “front page” or “Dream Weaver”; Usability and Accessibility are two things I’ve never seen discussed in any technical Arab forum; JavaScript is underestimated and abused; Web standards are considered “luxury” instead of “requirement”. Why would I want to target an audience who won’t have even the slightest interest in my posts?
On top of that, most of the technical terms don’t have standard Arabic words to describe them, and a plenty of terms simply can’t be translated without losing some or all of their true meanings. So, even if i wanted to blog in Arabic, it would be very difficult for me (especially when i have to use a right-to-left language with a left-to-write markup).
I hope that I didn’t offend any fellow Arab with my post. I’m not trying to underestimate my people. They do pretty well in many things, but Web Development didn’t happen to be one of them.