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4 Languages you should learn in 2009

anassina.com

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Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#21

Post by BigCanOfTuna »

whacked_new wrote: post #17
schtog wrote: post #2

"It is one of two official languages used at Google and it does power a lot of their most profitable products." One of 2? I thought 4: Java, Python, C++, Javascript. And does it really power a lot of their most profitable products? Like which? (Not bashing here, Python is my main language and I love it.)

To be blunt and disrespectful, after seeing the author confusing Cantonese and Mandarin, I am quite skeptical of the assertions.

Oh, give me a break! I did approve the comment by the user who pointed out the mistake, kindly thanked him, AND struck the comment rather than try to hide it like so many other revisionist bloggers out there.

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#22

Post by catch23 »

pavelludiq wrote: post #6
razzmataz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, could you elucidate why?

Chicks love rubies, but don't like snakes that much. :D Seriously, you should probably learn both.

well if you already know one, you might as well spend the time to learn something else that would give your brain a level up.

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#23

Post by pavelludiq »

catch23 wrote: post #22
pavelludiq wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicks love rubies, but don't like snakes that much. :D Seriously, you should probably learn both.

well if you already know one, you might as well spend the time to learn something else that would give your brain a level up.

yeah, a good tip, but still if you know one, you should at least go through the other ones tutorial just to know what you're missing :D

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#24

Post by jwilliams »

Not sure I get the logic behind the line: With the economic slow down, countries with emerging technology sectors and talented, well educated developers will be getting a second look as a means of cutting applicationd(sic) development costs.

Surely with the economic slowdown developers in "un-emerging" economies will be more competitive?

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#26

Post by whacked_new »

BigCanOfTuna wrote: post #21
whacked_new wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be blunt and disrespectful, after seeing the author confusing Cantonese and Mandarin, I am quite skeptical of the assertions.

Oh, give me a break! I did approve the comment by the user who pointed out the mistake, kindly thanked him, AND struck the comment rather than try to hide it like so many other revisionist bloggers out there.

Pardon me for that, and I was aware of the undertones, but I still didn't see anything particularly informative, especially provided that you submitted this blog to HN: it is almost a given that everybody here programs to some degree. You did not make a strong case for any of your assertions. You merely asserted.

This is different if your audience is, I dunno, designers, or people wanting to get their feet wet. That is certainly not the case in this forum.

Also, a foreign language takes a lot of time and effort to even just become functional in it. If you are thinking in terms of managing a foreign dev team with your foreign language skills, you're thinking in terms of several years. Not just "in 2009."

Maybe I have a bad temper today, but as you said you have over 10 years of OOP experience, one would expect something jucier.

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#28

Post by BigCanOfTuna »

whacked_new wrote: post #26
BigCanOfTuna wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, give me a break! I did approve the comment by the user who pointed out the mistake, kindly thanked him, AND struck the comment rather than try to hide it like so many other revisionist bloggers out there.

Pardon me for that, and I was aware of the undertones, but I still didn't see anything particularly informative, especially provided that you submitted this blog to HN: it is almost a given that everybody here programs to some degree. You did not make a strong case for any of your assertions. You merely asserted. This is different if your audience is, I dunno, designers, or people wanting to get their feet wet. That…

You didn't find it informative? That's unfortunate.

What is the audience of this forum. Looking through your list of submitted articles reveals no indication. For instance, your last submission was "Japanese Convenience Stores Thrive Despite Economic Downturn."

Foreign languages are very hard to learn. I know, I speak three. I didn't say anything about managing a foreign dev team, just that you should learn a new language. The world is flattening and I don't always want to speak English.

I don't know how 10 years of OOP correlates to a "juicy" blog post. All I can say is that in 13 hour, with close to 3500 unique visits, some people found it interesting.

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#29

Post by whacked_new »

BigCanOfTuna wrote: post #28
whacked_new wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon me for that, and I was aware of the undertones, but I still didn't see anything particularly informative, especially provided that you submitted this blog to HN: it is almost a given that everybody here programs to some degree. You did not make a strong case for any of your assertions. You merely asserted. This is different if your audience is, I dunno, designers, or people wanting to get their feet wet. That…

You didn't find it informative? That's unfortunate. What is the audience of this forum. Looking through your list of submitted articles reveals no indication. For instance, your last submission was "Japanese Convenience Stores Thrive Despite Economic Downturn." Foreign languages are very hard to learn. I know, I speak three. I didn't say anything about managing a foreign dev team, just that you should learn a new lan…

Alright, well, I just expressed an opinion inelegantly, but may it remain just one. I'll stop trolling already.

Re: 4 Languages you should learn in 2009

#30

Post by light3 »

curiousgeorge wrote: post #16
wallflower wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic essay: "Why Chinese is so Damn Hard" http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html "Someone once said that learning Chinese is "a five-year lesson in humility". I used to think this meant that at the end of five years you will have mastered Chinese and learned humility along the way. However, now having studied Chinese for over six years, I have concluded that actually the phrase means that after five year…

Classic Moser essay. I thought this would be a post about spoken languages as well, and would put mandarin at the top of the list as well. Since people are still hiring here (especially in tech related fields), I will happily take this opportunity to plug our Chinese learning product: http://popupchinese.com The ability to roll your mouse over the characters and see exactly what they mean, or just change all of the c…

Instead of 5 years how about you move to China and study / communicate (as opposed to having fun) everyday for half a year to the fullest of your potential, you'll be up and talking and blowing Moser's article to smithereens.

I say this because when I moved to Australia (I'm Chinese) I was speaking English in 3 month, given I was 9 yrs old - but it just shows how much more important your environment is compared to how much time you study a language (unless its a very close language).

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