You can do it in Spanish, but there's a lot of vocabulary that either sounds really weird when translated or there's not a translation. So we use English words mixed in the discourse.
Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
11–20 of 174 posts
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#12This question actually shocked me.
At least as East Asian ppl who speak Chinese, Korean or Japanese etc, it's way easier for us to discuss CS (or anything else) in native languages.
I think this difficulty only exists in certain western languages.
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#13Most of CS terms in Russian are loanwords from English with the same meaning but slightly different pronunciation.
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#14For my PhD thesis, I was required to write an abstract in my native language, German, and had a pretty hard time of it. On the other hand, I've experimented a bit with high school level CS teaching, and found that with sufficient preparation, it's fairly doable.
I suspect that when we struggle to express a concept in our native language, we may have somewhat deceived ourselves in how clearly we expressed the concept in English. I notice all the time that people think they are more profound in a foreign language, when it's in fact precisely their lack of familiarity with that language that disguises the banality (A phenomenon also known as "quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur").
Somewhat related, I see people cursing in foreign languages…
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#15I'm Flemish, so I speak Dutch. Since it's a small language, at university, most advanced courses used English (or French) books. There are a lot of concepts I cannot even start to explain in Dutch. I just don't have the vocabulary.
I also was really shocked to learn later that there are programmers who don't speak English: I once interviewed a French developer who didn't know any English. He explained me that all his courses were in French, so there's no need/opportunity.
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#16I guess the main issue is that languages outside of English generally don't have equivalent words for all of CS terms. I always have trouble explaining what I do (software engineering) in French without resorting to using English words, just because most words don't exist in French, or they don't mean exactly what you mean. This reminds me that I can't stand people coding in languages other than English. Variable nam…
I believe this website could be of some help: bitoduc.fr
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#17I often use English CS terms prefixed/suffixed for Russian inflection embedded in a grammatically correct Russian sentence. (Russian is very flexible at adopting foreign roots within in its grammatical framework.)
There are "official" Russian translations of most CS terminology, but they often feel too long, too formal for casual conversation, or sometimes even too ambiguous.
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#18I'm Flemish, so I speak Dutch. Since it's a small language, at university, most advanced courses used English (or French) books. There are a lot of concepts I cannot even start to explain in Dutch. I just don't have the vocabulary. I also was really shocked to learn later that there are programmers who don't speak English: I once interviewed a French developer who didn't know any English. He explained me that all his…
Why are you shocked? In fact I am shocked you are shocked.
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#19There was an idea in the 90s in Poland to have each and every computer/CS term have its native equivalent, but the ones proposed were awkward to say the least. To give an example: a mouse click was supposed to be called a "mlask", which directly translates to "a smack of the lips". Needless to say that didn't stick and nowadays only veteran programmers are even aware that such an attempt was made.
Same thing happened in Croatia in the 90s. Silly words were introduced and then people made up even sillier words to make fun of it leading to insanities like:
- čigrasto pamtilo "peg-top-like memorizer" for a floppy disk
- čigrasto velepamtilo "peg-top-like big memorizer" for a hard disk
- stolno potezalo - "tabletop pull-arounder" for a mouse
After a while, nobody was certain what was a real term and what was a joke one, so most of it is abandoned now and mostly English terms are used.
Re: Ask HN: Can you discuss CS in your native language?
#20When discussing things with coworkers for example, all or almost all CS terminology is in English, but those get incorporated in otherwise Dutch text. Grammar, non-CS-specific vocabulary is all in Dutch.
Comments and variable names in code are all in English.