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> Germany is still a conservative digital dinosaur underneath Using one’s native language as opposed to English is sufficient to make one a “conservative digit

> Germany is still a conservative digital dinosaur underneath Using one’s native language as opposed to English is sufficient to make one a “conservative digital dinosaur”? I think your conclusion is correct, but I don’t think this Anglocentric argument is the reason why.

Unfrozen0688 3y ago
In a way it makes it harder to then learn further on later, something required in IT. I studied IT in Sweden and all the course material is in English. MS books, Linux books, Cisco CCNA books etc. I imagine, as I can't compare, that this makes it easier to learn further in IT, and participate in communities such as this.
FirmwareBurner 3y ago
>Using one’s native language as opposed to English is sufficient to make one a “conservative digital dinosaur”? That's just my opinion based on personal experience, which can't be right or wrong because like I said, it's an opinion and not a fact. From what I saw, yes it kinda is. I'm from eastern Europe originally, and here we learn CS and everything IT related directly in English, even though we have our own words for the technical terms, nobody's using them and we just default to the English words. If you go to the Nordics or everything north of Netherlands including them, everyone is schooled in English as well when it comes to IT. It's mostly Austria, Germany, France and few other conservative countries who insist on using their local language for IT terms out of national pride or something, as using too much English is seen as an defeat/attack on their culture.
- Tainnor 3y ago
  The US is the only country that insists on using systems of units that nobody else is using and that hasn't stopped it from becoming an economical juggernaut. > That's just my opinion based on personal experience, which can't be right or wrong I think yours is actually a (theoretically) falsifiable theory about cause and effect, so it can be right or wrong.
- schroeding 3y ago
  I can't agree. It's not about national pride, IMO, but about the organic development of the language. Some of these terms date back to the pre-war period, think of the Zuse-1 era. Many IT words that used to be German were replaced by English words if they were shorter ("Direktzugriffsspeicher" => RAM) or easier to pronounce ("Hauptplatine" => Mainboard), and e.g. OS is a common abbreviation in German for "Betriebssystem" because it is shorter - but "operating system" is not, so why switch? There is no upside, so the language didn't evolve that way. Use Windows or Linux in German, directories are called "Ordner" - why would you teach "folder" instead if the course is in German?
- john61 3y ago
  > It's mostly Austria, Germany, France and few other conservative countries who insist on using their local language for IT terms out of national pride or something, as using too much English is seen as an defeat/attack on their culture. I think it is more awareness of the fortune of cultural diversity.
- numpad0 3y ago
  No offense but that's just American centrism at play. Lingua franca of computing is English, everyone should just learn "the human language" and it'll save everyone's times, computer runs in English, everything should translate clean from English, etc etc. There's nothing wrong in using local languages. Speaking not-English is not bad. Many go for English because there's a lot of money to chase in the market, not because it's objectively right by some truth of this universe.
- Barrin92 3y ago
  >who insist on using their local language for IT terms out of national pride or something We'are a nation with a IT sector, not an IT sector that happens to hve a nation attached to it. Using English is fine, but education and business in Germany must be available to everyone in German and that's why it needs to be taught. We can speak more than one language, so making sure that our culture and language is preserved and speaking English aren't mutually exlusive. There are many European countries, smaller ones especially, seriously at risk of losing their language and culture.

Unfrozen0688 3y ago

In a way it makes it harder to then learn further on later, something required in IT. I studied IT in Sweden and all the course material is in English. MS books, Linux books, Cisco CCNA books etc. I imagine, as I can't compare, that this makes it easier to learn further in IT, and participate in communities such as this.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

>Using one’s native language as opposed to English is sufficient to make one a “conservative digital dinosaur”? That's just my opinion based on personal experience, which can't be right or wrong because like I said, it's an opinion and not a fact. From what I saw, yes it kinda is. I'm from eastern Europe originally, and here we learn CS and everything IT related directly in English, even though we have our own words for the technical terms, nobody's using them and we just default to the English words. If you go to the Nordics or everything north of Netherlands including them, everyone is schooled in English as well when it comes to IT. It's mostly Austria, Germany, France and few other conservative countries who insist on using their local language for IT terms out of national pride or something, as using too much English is seen as an defeat/attack on their culture.

Tainnor 3y ago
The US is the only country that insists on using systems of units that nobody else is using and that hasn't stopped it from becoming an economical juggernaut. > That's just my opinion based on personal experience, which can't be right or wrong I think yours is actually a (theoretically) falsifiable theory about cause and effect, so it can be right or wrong.
schroeding 3y ago
I can't agree. It's not about national pride, IMO, but about the organic development of the language. Some of these terms date back to the pre-war period, think of the Zuse-1 era. Many IT words that used to be German were replaced by English words if they were shorter ("Direktzugriffsspeicher" => RAM) or easier to pronounce ("Hauptplatine" => Mainboard), and e.g. OS is a common abbreviation in German for "Betriebssystem" because it is shorter - but "operating system" is not, so why switch? There is no upside, so the language didn't evolve that way. Use Windows or Linux in German, directories are called "Ordner" - why would you teach "folder" instead if the course is in German?
john61 3y ago
> It's mostly Austria, Germany, France and few other conservative countries who insist on using their local language for IT terms out of national pride or something, as using too much English is seen as an defeat/attack on their culture. I think it is more awareness of the fortune of cultural diversity.
numpad0 3y ago
No offense but that's just American centrism at play. Lingua franca of computing is English, everyone should just learn "the human language" and it'll save everyone's times, computer runs in English, everything should translate clean from English, etc etc. There's nothing wrong in using local languages. Speaking not-English is not bad. Many go for English because there's a lot of money to chase in the market, not because it's objectively right by some truth of this universe.
Barrin92 3y ago
>who insist on using their local language for IT terms out of national pride or something We'are a nation with a IT sector, not an IT sector that happens to hve a nation attached to it. Using English is fine, but education and business in Germany must be available to everyone in German and that's why it needs to be taught. We can speak more than one language, so making sure that our culture and language is preserved and speaking English aren't mutually exlusive. There are many European countries, smaller ones especially, seriously at risk of losing their language and culture.