Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: 2nd Spoken/Written Language For Software Developer?
ichimunki writes "I am a mid-career software developer. I am from the Midwestern U.S. and my native language is English. I've studied a few languages over the years, both human and computer. Lately I've begun to wonder what is the best second (human) language for someone in this field to have. Or is there even any practical value in working to become fluent in a non-English language? I am not planning to travel or move/work abroad. But if I knew a second language, would I be able to participate in a larger programming community worldwide? Would I be able to work with those folks in some useful capacity? Perhaps building products for foreign markets?"
I would say Russian. It's my 3rd language (English being my second), and it has helped me a lot when searching for some specific info on the net. There is a wealth of information on programming to be found; especially if you are interested in security. This might be less relevant for you if you are looking for information that might be considered 'shady' (e.g. jailbreaking phones, breaking certain security features), but I've found it very helpful.
About all I'd say is: Pick a language mostly-unrelated to your own. Bonus points if you expect to have coworkers who speak it natively.
I see a comment saying it won't help you to learn a second language. I am unpersuaded. I generally find that anything I do which makes me more flexible makes me a better programmer. Being able to think in another language can be really useful for shaking up some of your presuppositions and assumptions. On the other hand, so can a philosophy degree.
I learned Chinese well enough to dream in it, and then mostly forgot it over the next decade or two. I still have an easier time understanding Chinese coworkers, because their English is often idiomatic for Chinese. But mostly... I am a more flexible person. I have concepts that there's a word for in Chinese and no word for in English. I learned to handle different ways of thinking about grammar. Overall, a good experience, and not one I regret. It's not as though it's a huge time sink; I'd guess I've spent more time playing video games in any given two-year period than I spent learning Chinese.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
No, please... Don't do that unless you're also culturally involved in your target market and actually understand the countries you write software for. Look at the whole "locales" mess. It works fine, if you have a single region with a single language, beyond that, it becomes very fishy... and $DIETY help you if you actually want an English system with date and time set to your geographical location. Language and regional settings should be entirely independent, but they aren't. On Linux, I found a workaround by just generating my own locales, but still.
I have worked on many multilingual projects, and I assure you: localization is not mere translation and translation is not merely swapping out strings with language. I would say, I can help on projects that to language for a sizeable part of Europe, but I am not good enough to include Asian languages, the Cyrillic typeset or even plain Greek.
While it's very interesting... I just wanted to warn you: you don't just walk into Localization.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
If I lived in the US I'd learn Spanish as a second language. It ought to be compulsory for all American school children. It's the second most spoken language in the U.S. It's the language of the majority of the Americas from Mexico down. And trends I don't see changing significantly seem to indicate it will only have a stronger presence in the U.S. over time. So that's what I'd focus on first, regardless of vocation.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Part of the Empire? India was part of the thuggish, cretan British Empire for around 200 or so years.
Hold on a minute, please don't assume that I'm a fan of my country's imperial past. I'm not.
It was Bharat for a bit longer than that (a few thousand at least). Hindustani is the official language of India as codified in the constitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi-Urdu#Official_status). Hindustani is actually a mix of Hindi and Urdu. I suggest you read more before you comment on something you know shit about.
Well I'm guessing you're from the north, because there are plenty of speakers of Dravidian languages who would take issue with you. The official status, as explained in the article, is as the language of the federal government and half of India wants that to mean exactly what it says. Hindi is not "their" language and they're happier speaking English with other Indians as a neutral language. Here's an experiment for you: hop in an auto in Thiruvanathapuram and speak to the driver in Hindi. Then, at your destination, hop in another and speak to the driver in English. Tell me which works better for you.
And you're unlikely to find much discussion on the finer points of any programming language in any language other than English. That's just a retarded remark to begin with considering that English is the lingua franca of the planet.
Go back to school and learn something. Idiot.
Well considering that was part of my point, there's no need to insult me about it.
But the situation is different in India from other countries because English is so common. If you go into a book shop in most countries, you'll find a lot of programming books in the local language. The last time I visited Landmark in the Forum (Bangalore), I don't recall seeing any programming books in anything other than English. For that matter, I went to the spoken languages section too, and as far as I recall, the only books in Kannada were to learn Hindi or English, and the only books in Hindi taught English or Kannada....
Now why don't you go back to school and learn some manners!
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
A language is a dialect with an army and navy.
In Poland, some folks speak the Kashubian language which is less intelligible with Polish than for example Czech, yet during the soviet puppet regime people went to jail for daring to suggest it's anything more than some regional accent. The government said Polish is one language with no dialect continuum with the neighbours, and that regional dialects need to be eradicated.
So do the French with Breton, Occitan and others: they deny them the right to exist, fine companies who try to allow their employes to speak these languages at work, and do everything to eradicate them. For added hypoctisy, they demand that French should be preferred over English in parts of Canada.
Some countries want 1 country:1 language so much they artificially declare their languages as separate: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are identical baring a small number of words (below 1/100 the difference between British and American English), yet significant amount of taxpayer money goes into proving they have nothing in common with each other. It's so ridiculous that in the Wikipedia you have 7 (or more) copies of the identical language for purely political reasons.
I thus don't believe the language variety in China is going to survive long.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
It's actually a fascinating dialect/language to study. I used to be able to speak it, but I can't any more.
I love the Indian English word "prepone" (to bring a meeting forward). Its such a logical opposite of postpone!