(This is teaching Malay language in English)
Cikgu Shafiee bin Zakaria, our Malay language teacher once taught us how to spell loaned words in Malay language such as 'Ramadan, terawih' etc.
He said, many people tend to exaggerate the spelling of the words, for example Ramadan.
In Malay, the correct spelling is simply, 'Ramadan' with capitalized letter R. Yet, many people spell it as 'Ramadhan.'
Cikgu Shafiee explained that there is no exact Roman letter to be pronounced like the Arabic letter 'ض,' so there's no need to put letter 'h' after 'd' in 'Ramadan' to make it sounded like the letter 'ض.' He reiterated that it is already known pronouncing 'd' in 'Ramadan' is not as same as pronouncing 'd' in the word 'meredakan.'
Same goes to the word 'terawih.' That is the correct spelling! Yet, some ignorant people out there claimed that it is important to preserve the nature of the pronunciation of the word, so they spell it as 'taraweh,' and more pathetically, 'tarawikh!'
It intrigues me, how come these idiots who claimed that they are opposing PPSMI, and had learnt Bahasa subject for about twelve years during compulsory education yet persistently making such simple mistakes. Shame on you. It would be oxymoronic to say that you are an anti-PPSMI but not competent in your own language (suppose you are a Malay).
Anyway, wishing you a blessed Ramadan.
Mihrab of Muhammad bin Abu Bakr Mosque, Mit Damsis, Dakahlya
Thanks to whoever-she-is for the pictures. And for those whose excuses are '
