What is the correct user expectation on text alignment, when English is used together with Arabic language?

Question

I was wondering, what is the correct user expectation, when English is being used together with Arabic, within a sentence.

For instance, in the 1st line, the text is aligned toward right. How I type are

1. I type انا احبك
2. I type [space]
3. I type "hello"

In the 2nd line, the text is aligned toward left. How I type are

1. I type "hello"
2. I type [space]
3. I type انا احبك

I was wondering, which text alignment is the correct user expectation?

p/s I have 0 background in Arabic language. The only thing I know, is Arabic writing system is from right to left.

Answer 1

Ah. great question, with no logical answer :)

It really depends on context. Is the interface in English displaying an Arabic label as is? Like: Push the button "أنا أحبك" then this is LTR (the word as well can be displayed in the same font).

Is it user generated content like facebook comments? Facebook detects the first letter (or may be they changed that, I am not sure). I once worked on a project we calcualted the highest number of letters, if Arabic it would be RTL, else LTR.

The above screenshot looks like user generated content gone real bad. I would avoid that completely and stick to the alightment of the interface. In a list, they must all be of the same alignment.