I hear a lot of comments in the USA from people who speak in terms of
"standard" versus "foreign" alphabets, meaning latin versus
non-latin. For example, "Oh good, Maltese is written using
the normal [sic] alphabet." (Even though non-English letters are
used.)

Can anyone speak to if or how this perspective differs in other
parts of the world? Some alphabets are supersets or subsets, or have
a large overlap (Serbian Cyrillic and Russian), how are these
relationships perceived in everyday life?

Thanks,
-steven