spelling. Using Zawgyi means that when people that want to write in their language, like
Karen, Chin or Shan-users, they need to adjust the characters. This means that they need to
make something close enough to the original character using what is available. This problem
is mainly caused by the way the Zawgyi font uses Burmese language characters when
someone writes in Shan, or other languages, these languages have different characters (Liao,
p. 20).
Unicode gives the proper character for the language. Zawgyi is, therefore, an obstacle in
maintaining the proper writing of different languages in Myanmar. This was described to me
as directly discriminating minority languages. To be able to communicate appropriately with
your language is essential. Language is more than just a way to communicate with others; it
also functions as identity markers and, through its pragmatic, it is a cultural institution (Laitin,
2000, p. 144). These personalities and identity markers are an essential part of day-to-day
interactions in Myanmar. I experienced that whenever they greet a new person, they would
talk about which area they originally come from and connect from this. During my language
lessons, the different groups of people and areas they lived in were something that was
emphasized. Traveling with Dedan, he would comment on the different styles of houses
alongside the roads and show me how different groups build houses in their own, distinct
styles. It is similar to traditional clothing. Visiting the university, Mimi and Pemala showed
me paintings of people in their traditional clothing and told me about the different people in
their country. When buying a Longyi at the marked, you are always told of which part in
Myanmar the pattern originated. From my experience, people in Myanmar take much pride in
their cultural identities.
Everything considered it would seem strange that Zawgyi, then, is the most commonly used
font. It is connected with what has been discussed earlier; lack of experience, convenience,
and a common; “this works, why change it”-attitude; as illustrated when Win describes his
frustration in Figure V. Earlier in this conversation, he also states that the government cannot
handle the font problem. It is the taste of a poem-challenge, how it is challenging to try to
describe it to someone that only know the letters. Often some do not need to know more than
the letters. That knowledge is enough, it makes the day to day life, and there is really no need
to be able to taste or feel the words, as long as you understand them. As long as Zawgyi
allows communicating, even though it is far from perfect, why spend valuable time and
money on something new and strange? Besides, the government has not made any substantial
effort to speed up this process, which could be due to a political reason. Facebook, as it is in
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