11–20 of 69 posts
Working in markets with large numbers of non English speakers is quite difficult, as the article implies. Very profitable though. Chinese people like games as much as we do, and they will actually pay for them!!!
The overwhelming majority of programming languages use English keywords Can anyone tell me any programming language which doesn't use english keywords!?! English is the common language of communication throughout the world, and consequentially the effect has percolated into the hacker world too I guess !
Open a 400 person coding shop in Ningbo and try to get everyone there to write in English, or even understand it. Good luck with that. Working in markets with large numbers of non English speakers is quite difficult, as the article implies. Very profitable though. Chinese people like games as much as we do, and they will actually pay for them!!!
Yes, the Chinese would never pirate software!
The overwhelming majority of programming languages use English keywords Can anyone tell me any programming language which doesn't use english keywords!?! English is the common language of communication throughout the world, and consequentially the effect has percolated into the hacker world too I guess !
Can anyone tell me any programming language which doesn't use english keywords!?! APL?
Open a 400 person coding shop in Ningbo and try to get everyone there to write in English, or even understand it. Good luck with that. Working in markets with large numbers of non English speakers is quite difficult, as the article implies. Very profitable though. Chinese people like games as much as we do, and they will actually pay for them!!!
> Chinese people like games as much as we do, and they will actually pay for them!!! Yes, the Chinese would never pirate software!
Or probably English is simply the most easy to learn.
Being Danish I can attest that this is very true - I write my code-comments in English, my business plans in Engish and do my financials in English. Even my blog is English. It just makes it easier to communicate, and I've never met a Dane that complained about it.
There's one language for the home and the family and friends, and other that's used in formal, academic and business settings.
It wouldn't surprise me if soon even formal regional official documents can be handled in English to facilitate some the free flow of work in the EU.
To disagree with this comment from Jeff's blog, see
http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/ranto/
English comes by its huge network advantages honestly. All four of my grandparents were born in the United States, but three were born in households in which a non-English languages was spoken, and two were educated entirely in another language (German). Everybody learned English, and that was no big deal. The majority of Americans have ancestors who didn't speak English before they arrived in America. English is by no means perfect, but it is pragmatic, as Jeff says.
This really doesn't need discussion. English is simply the language for science and computer stuff, just as latin used to be in the past (not for the computer stuff, but for science).
Being Danish I can attest that this is very true - I write my code-comments in English, my business plans in Engish and do my financials in English. Even my blog is English. It just makes it easier to communicate, and I've never met a Dane that complained about it.
Same here. English is not my native language but I just do everything in English. Code, documentation, blogs, requirement docs, etc. Really, everything. Is this even remotely controversial these days?