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You don't need to know English to write code. I wrote my first QBasic and Visual Basic programs (one of them was "photo editor") when only foreign language I kn

You don't need to know English to write code. I wrote my first QBasic and Visual Basic programs (one of them was "photo editor") when only foreign language I knew was German (my native is Russian).

tim333 7y ago
Or at least just a few words I guess - if, for, while etc.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  You don't really need to know what these words mean in English. You just have to know what they do in the code.
- np_tedious 7y ago
  It's a headstart for sure, but English speakers do have to learn those reserved words and control structures in each language. The difference is we have the benefit of grounding them in their similar, but not identical, ordinary meanings The bigger deal is standard lib classes and functions. An English speaker can guess for the names of things they want whereas a nonspeaker would have to remember them explicitly
Digit-Al 7y ago
I'm really curious now. If you don't mind me asking, how did you learn the meanings of the keywords when they were in a language you didn't understand? Did you have to learn to translate "for", "while", etc into Russian equivalents?
- EugeneOZ 7y ago
  I knew meaning of "if then else", "function", "go", "return", other keywords were just keywords for me - I knew what they do and it was enough.
- usrusr 7y ago
  Same way you learn to use the ternary operator in c-ish languages? All the binary operators that have no equivalent in daily life?
- gumby 7y ago
  How do you learn to read music when all the keywords are in Italian? Do you have to learn to translate “fortissimo” etc into English equivalents?
- rfhjt 7y ago
  Context. I don't know what lingua franka means, but I also know what it means. I could bother and find literal translation, but why would I? The same applies to obscure English words, weird programming language keywords or math symbols. Integral and differential symbols don't really translate into anything and we use the word "integral" only because we can't type this symbol on an average keyboard.

You don't need to know English to write code. I wrote my first QBasic and Visual Basic programs (one of them was "photo editor") when only foreign language I knew was German (my native is Russian).

tim333 7y ago

Or at least just a few words I guess - if, for, while etc.

Mirioron 7y ago
You don't really need to know what these words mean in English. You just have to know what they do in the code.
np_tedious 7y ago
It's a headstart for sure, but English speakers do have to learn those reserved words and control structures in each language. The difference is we have the benefit of grounding them in their similar, but not identical, ordinary meanings The bigger deal is standard lib classes and functions. An English speaker can guess for the names of things they want whereas a nonspeaker would have to remember them explicitly

Digit-Al 7y ago

I'm really curious now. If you don't mind me asking, how did you learn the meanings of the keywords when they were in a language you didn't understand? Did you have to learn to translate "for", "while", etc into Russian equivalents?

EugeneOZ 7y ago
I knew meaning of "if then else", "function", "go", "return", other keywords were just keywords for me - I knew what they do and it was enough.
usrusr 7y ago
Same way you learn to use the ternary operator in c-ish languages? All the binary operators that have no equivalent in daily life?
gumby 7y ago
How do you learn to read music when all the keywords are in Italian? Do you have to learn to translate “fortissimo” etc into English equivalents?
rfhjt 7y ago
Context. I don't know what lingua franka means, but I also know what it means. I could bother and find literal translation, but why would I? The same applies to obscure English words, weird programming language keywords or math symbols. Integral and differential symbols don't really translate into anything and we use the word "integral" only because we can't type this symbol on an average keyboard.