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I'm shocked too. Even if your language has all the necessary words it still seems unreasonable to me to avoid learning English if you are interested in IT. One

I'm shocked too. Even if your language has all the necessary words it still seems unreasonable to me to avoid learning English if you are interested in IT. One of the reasons I'd mention: almost all of the adequately fresh information is in English. Original manuals are in English, StackOverflow is in English, HN is in English, English is the lingua-franca for comments and function/class/variable names (I've seen non-English source code some times but that's rare and feels weird). English is not my native language but I'm glad it unites ~99% of the industry and the science.

rglullis 6y ago
> StackOverflow is in English cough cough - https://pt.stackoverflow.com/ https://pt.stackoverflow.com/ - https://ru.stackoverflow.com/ https://ru.stackoverflow.com/ - https://es.stackoverflow.com/ https://es.stackoverflow.com/ - https://jp.stackoverflow.com/ https://jp.stackoverflow.com/ More seriously though, it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue: more content being available in English which leads to more people having to learn English and might end up producing English content. But this in no point is an exclusive thing. There is nothing that says that if you participate in HN in English that you must always write in English. Back when I used to collaborate on a blog, we made a point of writing in Portuguese and I tried to avoid anglicisms and loan words whenever possible. My rationale was simple: I was much younger and most of the things I wrote would never be of interest to any thought-leader or something to advance the state of the art. It could however be of interest for those in Brazil that had some interest in programming, and I didn't want the language to be yet-another-barrier for them.
- wenc 6y ago
  Check out the number of questions on those sites: Pt: 140,876 Ru: 322,061 Es: 122,603 Jp: 22,743 Stackoverflow.com (EN): 19,580,539
  - rglullis 6y ago
    Does it matter? If I spoke no English, I'd rather have 1% of the equivalent English content in Portuguese than 0%. And having the site such as pt.SO is at least a sign that there is a significant number of people that prefer non-English to keep the discussion. Also, there is a good amount of people that can read something from English SO, but would never contribute. Having a language-specific site is a chance for them to help more people in their situation. Again better than nothing.
    - viklove 6y ago
      Seems like you'd just be better off learning English so your ability to find help online isn't hamstrung.
      - rglullis 6y ago
        So imagine a typical teenager from Brazil that is finishing his (very bad quality) public high-school and has some interest in technology. He likes to tinker with things, electronics which he can find books in Portuguese. He has access to a computer and manages to install Linux, wants to start about programming. Do you really think that the proper advice you'd give to him is "Learn proper English first"? More likely than not, you are just killing his interest in learning and shooting down the best chance he would have to lift himself out of poverty. Remind me to come back to this in 10 years when China surpasses the US in production of, say, AI Research. Let's see if HN will still be okay with the idea of "just go and learn Mandarin" to find stuff online.
  - mappu 6y ago
    Stackoverflow doesn't have a Chinese version - what domestic site is popular there? (And how many questions does it have?) I looked at Segmentfault (CN) but I can't see any total number of questions - but if I refresh StackOverflow the 5 most recent questions were all asked within the last 1 minute, whereas on SegmentFault the 5 most recent questions were asked within the last 20 minutes. Although it might be biased by the current timezone.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  > cough cough I know of the localized versions of StackOverflow but they hardly are worth visiting. > it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue: more content being available in English which leads to more people having to learn English and might end up producing English content. It's not an issue, it's awesome. > But this in no point is an exclusive thing. There is nothing that says that if you participate in HN in English that you must always write in English. Obviously. Yet I would never use any other language to name a variable or a function. I would also use English and only English to write a manual for a library I might invent as that would mean most of the developers would be able to read it immediately without me having to waste my time on writing in different languages.
  - GoblinSlayer 6y ago
    Naming a variable? Definitely. Writing a library? Very few people do it, even less do it for global market. Shitposting on reddit? Maybe; you have fewer options with English, because anglosphere is very monopolized. Speaking English in sound? Absolutely retarded.
  - sanxiyn 6y ago
    People considering writing in different languages to be waste of time is part of the problem.
  - rglullis 6y ago
    I think we are talking about two different things. You are talking about uniformity and standardization as being a good thing. I am talking about accepting that input from people in other languages as a way to increase accessibility. Expecting everyone to speak English before being able to make any meaningful work is not that different than expecting only able-bodied people to make any meaningful work. You being shocked that there are non-English speakers working with tech is no different than being shocked by blind programmers.
    - mnemonicsloth 6y ago
      That's pretty insensitive. Non-English speakers have the option to learn English. It takes a couple of years, but I know a lot of people who have done it. And I can't think of a better investment. Disabled people do not have the choice to make their disabilities go away. We have to learn to live with it. Compared to what I've already done to try to make my life normal, learning Russian, Urdu and Swahili simultaneously would be much easier.
matz1 6y ago
>almost all of the adequately fresh information is in English Thats because you know english, naturally you would look for english resources. There are as many(probably more) fresh information in chinese too but if you don't know chinese you wouldn't aware of it.

rglullis 6y ago

> StackOverflow is in English cough cough - https://pt.stackoverflow.com/ https://pt.stackoverflow.com/ - https://ru.stackoverflow.com/ https://ru.stackoverflow.com/ - https://es.stackoverflow.com/ https://es.stackoverflow.com/ - https://jp.stackoverflow.com/ https://jp.stackoverflow.com/ More seriously though, it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue: more content being available in English which leads to more people having to learn English and might end up producing English content. But this in no point is an exclusive thing. There is nothing that says that if you participate in HN in English that you must always write in English. Back when I used to collaborate on a blog, we made a point of writing in Portuguese and I tried to avoid anglicisms and loan words whenever possible. My rationale was simple: I was much younger and most of the things I wrote would never be of interest to any thought-leader or something to advance the state of the art. It could however be of interest for those in Brazil that had some interest in programming, and I didn't want the language to be yet-another-barrier for them.

wenc 6y ago
Check out the number of questions on those sites: Pt: 140,876 Ru: 322,061 Es: 122,603 Jp: 22,743 Stackoverflow.com (EN): 19,580,539
- rglullis 6y ago
  Does it matter? If I spoke no English, I'd rather have 1% of the equivalent English content in Portuguese than 0%. And having the site such as pt.SO is at least a sign that there is a significant number of people that prefer non-English to keep the discussion. Also, there is a good amount of people that can read something from English SO, but would never contribute. Having a language-specific site is a chance for them to help more people in their situation. Again better than nothing.
  - viklove 6y ago
    Seems like you'd just be better off learning English so your ability to find help online isn't hamstrung.
    - rglullis 6y ago
      So imagine a typical teenager from Brazil that is finishing his (very bad quality) public high-school and has some interest in technology. He likes to tinker with things, electronics which he can find books in Portuguese. He has access to a computer and manages to install Linux, wants to start about programming. Do you really think that the proper advice you'd give to him is "Learn proper English first"? More likely than not, you are just killing his interest in learning and shooting down the best chance he would have to lift himself out of poverty. Remind me to come back to this in 10 years when China surpasses the US in production of, say, AI Research. Let's see if HN will still be okay with the idea of "just go and learn Mandarin" to find stuff online.
- mappu 6y ago
  Stackoverflow doesn't have a Chinese version - what domestic site is popular there? (And how many questions does it have?) I looked at Segmentfault (CN) but I can't see any total number of questions - but if I refresh StackOverflow the 5 most recent questions were all asked within the last 1 minute, whereas on SegmentFault the 5 most recent questions were asked within the last 20 minutes. Although it might be biased by the current timezone.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
qwerty456127 6y ago
> cough cough I know of the localized versions of StackOverflow but they hardly are worth visiting. > it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue: more content being available in English which leads to more people having to learn English and might end up producing English content. It's not an issue, it's awesome. > But this in no point is an exclusive thing. There is nothing that says that if you participate in HN in English that you must always write in English. Obviously. Yet I would never use any other language to name a variable or a function. I would also use English and only English to write a manual for a library I might invent as that would mean most of the developers would be able to read it immediately without me having to waste my time on writing in different languages.
- GoblinSlayer 6y ago
  Naming a variable? Definitely. Writing a library? Very few people do it, even less do it for global market. Shitposting on reddit? Maybe; you have fewer options with English, because anglosphere is very monopolized. Speaking English in sound? Absolutely retarded.
- sanxiyn 6y ago
  People considering writing in different languages to be waste of time is part of the problem.
- rglullis 6y ago
  I think we are talking about two different things. You are talking about uniformity and standardization as being a good thing. I am talking about accepting that input from people in other languages as a way to increase accessibility. Expecting everyone to speak English before being able to make any meaningful work is not that different than expecting only able-bodied people to make any meaningful work. You being shocked that there are non-English speakers working with tech is no different than being shocked by blind programmers.
  - mnemonicsloth 6y ago
    That's pretty insensitive. Non-English speakers have the option to learn English. It takes a couple of years, but I know a lot of people who have done it. And I can't think of a better investment. Disabled people do not have the choice to make their disabilities go away. We have to learn to live with it. Compared to what I've already done to try to make my life normal, learning Russian, Urdu and Swahili simultaneously would be much easier.

matz1 6y ago

>almost all of the adequately fresh information is in English Thats because you know english, naturally you would look for english resources. There are as many(probably more) fresh information in chinese too but if you don't know chinese you wouldn't aware of it.