Screenshot of Gmail in Burmese that also shows users how to change to the new script, which was launched on Wednesday. PHOTO/ GOOGLE
Hi Myanmar,
This is Gmail.
I just wanted to let you know that I can finally speak the language of the Golden Land.
So begins the email from Google’s Asia Pacific blog informing Burmese language users that Gmail is open for business in the local lingua franca. The note, written in the friendly, informal tone of a president heaping praise on far-flung constituents, is addressed to ThePeopleofMyanmar@Gmail.com.
As someone who speaks 74 languages, I always enjoy the challenge of learning a new one. But let me tell you, getting my fonts around Myanmar’s gracious script and penchant for connecting words was a whole new ball game.
Since the tech giant launched its Myanmar search engine in 2013, the email says, “the folks at Google have been working to bring more products to the Golden Land.”
The folks at Google?
But maybe this is a little harsh. Like most international companies, Google is somewhat new to Myanmar, as is internet penetration in general.
“As a country of 53 million, Myanmar’s recent opening-up has triggered an explosion of people coming online,” said Brian Kemler, Google Product Manager, in a blog post on Wednesday. “As recently as 2011, a mere 500,000 Myanmar citizens were able to access the internet, which was less than 1 percent of the population. That number has grown to 2.6 million people as the availability of mobile phones has made it easier to get online.”
Indeed, as more Burmese buy the cheap simcards ubiquitous in Yangon shops, Gmail in Burmese – and Google Translate – which launched in Burmese in December, will come in handy.
One of the companies providing the new sims, Qatar-based Ooredoo, was ecstatic about the change.
Google is using the standard unicode script for its Burmese language tools because, as spokesperson Robin Moroney put it in an email to Coconuts Yangon, “it’s a global standard, which means that what people write in Myanmar become[s] accessible across the world and makes the world’s content more accessible to people in Myanmar.”
For those in Yangon this weekend, Google is hosting Myanmar’s first translate-a-thon. More info here.
