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One of these points is way off the mark. I'll add my own two cents. Language Barrier - The web and most of the programming languages which drive it were design

One of these points is way off the mark. I'll add my own two cents. Language Barrier - The web and most of the programming languages which drive it were designed by English speakers or western corporations and hence the majority of documentation and educational resources are also in English. Although much gets translated this still causes a delay in new technologies and trends being adopted. 1. Many of the Japanese coders I've met have put in the effort to learn English. They might not be able to carry fluent geopolitical conversations, but they do tend to have enough chops to read API docs and skim code. Most of the Japanese professionals I've met, in any trade, are ultra professional, and will do whatever it takes to stay on top of their craft, including learning English if needed. 2. It's easy to forget that some of these programming languages, notably Ruby, are actually from Japan. As recently as a few years ago, some of my favorite resources for Ruby were in Japanese, out in front of English. 3. Go to a Japanese bookstore and check out the section for programmers. More recent web languages/tech, like node.js, are not well represented. But then look to the next shelf and you'll see something like Unity stacked to the ceiling. It could be that Japanese coders would rather work on different kinds of projects, spend their time learning new tech in those domains instead of the web, and only see the web as a means to an end. I wouldn't consider this a "language barrier", but rather a difference in priorities.

pflats 13y ago
>Many of the Japanese coders I've met have put in the effort to learn English. I put a longer response addressing this point in a different thread, but you're interacting with the cohort that has already chosen to be a computer programmer. It's a biased sample group. I would expect people with no interest in learning English would be disinclined to even enter programming. (This is still tertiary to actual cultural preferences in web design, mind you.)
- verisimilidude 13y ago
  Negative. One of the best Japanese coders I know runs his own property management business, and learned coding (and English) so he can stay on top of the various stuff he's created in support of his operations.
  - resetmp 13y ago
    That's one arbitrary example. It's meaningless if he represents 1 out of a 10000 sample size.
    - verisimilidude 13y ago
      It's anecdotal, but dispels the idea that my "sample group" was limited to career programmers, which was the point in the parent comment.
- chrismonsanto 13y ago
  I'd like to add to this remark that the Japanese as a whole are not as proficient at English as one might expect. I know I had some expectation that the Japanese had some working knowledge of English (maybe because many countries do encourage learning it?), but after visiting Tokyo I realized my assumption was way off the mark.
fauigerzigerk 13y ago
Your last point is dead-on, and I think it's not just true for Japan but also for Germany and Russia. People from these countries tend to approach technology from a much more hardware or math centric view. The interest in UI stuff is nowhere as great as in the US and it doesn't garner the same level of reputation.
- andor 13y ago
  Can you give a few examples?
  - fauigerzigerk 13y ago
    What would be interesting is actual data beyond anecdotal evidence and I think there is some. Just look at the size of various industries in these countries. Japan and Germany export tons of complex high-tech machinery but not much end-user facing software. And it's not just software, it's also global ad agencies, the film industry or even music. There are of course exceptions like Sony and SAP. Examples for the reputation of things are a little difficult to come by, because it's a feeling you get when you talk to people. But look at the names of contributors to open source software. If you see a Russian name, the odds are high that they are working on some of the most challenging engineering parts far away from anything user facing. You'll see them work on garbage collectors (https://plus.google.com/113761107534428240799/posts/LjPnay7hX6t https://plus.google.com/113761107534428240799/posts/LjPnay7h...), web servers (http://sysoev.ru/en/ http://sysoev.ru/en/), (http://cesanta.com/ http://cesanta.com/), that sort of thing. Of course you see people from the US do these things too, but the distribution appears to be different.
Someone 13y ago
"Language Barrier [...] Many of the Japanese coders I've met have put in the effort to learn English." If they have to put in an effort, there _is_ a barrier. Compare that with parts of Europe, where the first words kids learn to read are "OK", "Cancel", "Yes", "No", and "Level". And that's only a slight exaggeration. That's a barrier, too, but a lower one.
- verisimilidude 13y ago
  It's a fair point. I guess I should say that most of the coders I know over there have overcome this barrier.

pflats 13y ago

>Many of the Japanese coders I've met have put in the effort to learn English. I put a longer response addressing this point in a different thread, but you're interacting with the cohort that has already chosen to be a computer programmer. It's a biased sample group. I would expect people with no interest in learning English would be disinclined to even enter programming. (This is still tertiary to actual cultural preferences in web design, mind you.)

verisimilidude 13y ago
Negative. One of the best Japanese coders I know runs his own property management business, and learned coding (and English) so he can stay on top of the various stuff he's created in support of his operations.
- resetmp 13y ago
  That's one arbitrary example. It's meaningless if he represents 1 out of a 10000 sample size.
  - verisimilidude 13y ago
    It's anecdotal, but dispels the idea that my "sample group" was limited to career programmers, which was the point in the parent comment.
chrismonsanto 13y ago
I'd like to add to this remark that the Japanese as a whole are not as proficient at English as one might expect. I know I had some expectation that the Japanese had some working knowledge of English (maybe because many countries do encourage learning it?), but after visiting Tokyo I realized my assumption was way off the mark.

fauigerzigerk 13y ago

Your last point is dead-on, and I think it's not just true for Japan but also for Germany and Russia. People from these countries tend to approach technology from a much more hardware or math centric view. The interest in UI stuff is nowhere as great as in the US and it doesn't garner the same level of reputation.

andor 13y ago
Can you give a few examples?
- fauigerzigerk 13y ago
  What would be interesting is actual data beyond anecdotal evidence and I think there is some. Just look at the size of various industries in these countries. Japan and Germany export tons of complex high-tech machinery but not much end-user facing software. And it's not just software, it's also global ad agencies, the film industry or even music. There are of course exceptions like Sony and SAP. Examples for the reputation of things are a little difficult to come by, because it's a feeling you get when you talk to people. But look at the names of contributors to open source software. If you see a Russian name, the odds are high that they are working on some of the most challenging engineering parts far away from anything user facing. You'll see them work on garbage collectors (https://plus.google.com/113761107534428240799/posts/LjPnay7hX6t https://plus.google.com/113761107534428240799/posts/LjPnay7h...), web servers (http://sysoev.ru/en/ http://sysoev.ru/en/), (http://cesanta.com/ http://cesanta.com/), that sort of thing. Of course you see people from the US do these things too, but the distribution appears to be different.

Someone 13y ago

"Language Barrier [...] Many of the Japanese coders I've met have put in the effort to learn English." If they have to put in an effort, there _is_ a barrier. Compare that with parts of Europe, where the first words kids learn to read are "OK", "Cancel", "Yes", "No", and "Level". And that's only a slight exaggeration. That's a barrier, too, but a lower one.

verisimilidude 13y ago
It's a fair point. I guess I should say that most of the coders I know over there have overcome this barrier.