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Hour of Code Kicks Off In Chile With Dog Poop-Themed CS Tutorial

Posted by timothy on from the localization-is-important dept.

theodp writes: In an interesting contrast to the Disney princess-themed Hour of Code tutorial that 'taught President Obama to code' last December, Chile is kicking off its 2015 Hora del Codigo this week with a top-featured Blockly tutorial that teaches computer science by having kids drag-and-drop blocks of code to pick up dog poop. "Collect all the shit you have left your dog," reads the Google translated instructions for the final coding exercise. In its new video for the Hour of Code 2015 campaign, tech billionaire-backed Code.org notes that it's striving to reach 200 million schoolchildren worldwide by this December. Presumably towards that end, Code.org warns that it will penalize Computer Science tutorials that "work only in English."

49 comments

  1. Sheeps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mehhhhhh....

  2. Down under by pushing-robot · · Score: 2

    "Collect all the shit you have left your dog"

    The southern hemisphere never ceases to amaze me.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google translator misbehaved.

      Not a Spanish speaker, but "Recoge toda la caca" is "Collect all the shit" alright (not sure about "caca", though).

      But "que han dejado tus perros" means "that have left your dogs" with a stylish order change (the real meaning is "that your dogs have left").

      How can you tell that?

      Though verbs don't agree in number in English, they do in Spanish (and in Portuguese, my native language). "Han" is plural so it refers to the dogs.

      I'd criticize Google's translator, but as a matter of fact even people might fail at understanding that. We also often omit the subject inferring it from verbs, like in "tienes" ("you have").

      About "working only in English", it's about time we have something like Europe. They can make products with labels in 12 languages, why can't we use 4? (at least)

      Let's face the facts: some people will not learn English, no matter if they live a hundred years. A few people won't learn English even after going to an English speaking country!

    2. Re: Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How can you expect any translator to properly function when the source language admits to intentionally leaving out information?

    3. Re:Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google translator also doesn't usually shoehorn you into a single interpretation - click each word of the result and you can choose from other likely possibilities. Just like really translating a language in your mind!

      Leave it to journalists to miss anything to do with "in their mind", meanwhile painting others as ignorant.

    4. Re: Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > How can you expect any translator to properly function when the source language admits to intentionally leaving out information?

      The information is there:

      tienes means "to have" ("tener", I guess) and 2Â singular person "you" (the "es" ending").

      Saying "usted tienes" is redundant and even people stopped saying the whole thing. BTW, I suppose it was already like that in Latin (and even worse, in fact), so it's not really something new. I've seen some rare occasions when even English leaves the subject omitted (normally in reference to the one speaking thus omitting the "I" IIRC).

    5. Re: Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2Â is actually 2nd.

      BTW, I wrote it wrong and Slashdot ended up wrecking it with their usual bad Unicode rendering.

    6. Re:Down under by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      But "que han dejado tus perros" means "that have left your dogs" with a stylish order change (the real meaning is "that your dogs have left").......but as a matter of fact even people might fail at understanding that.

      If you wanted to clarify that the dogs were left (not the caca), then you can add 'a' to indicate the object, as in "...que han dejado a tus perros."

      (not sure about "caca", though).

      Caca is correctly translated as 'shit' (though swear words vary depending on the country. We do this in English too: bloody and shag are not swear words in America, but are in England).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re: Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, it would be "tu tienes" or "usted tiene" not "usted tienes". The "tu" conjugation form is the familiar form while "usted" is the formal version. But, as stated in other posts, it is not necessary in Spanish to use the pronoun that corresponds with the conjugated verb because it is considered redundant.

    8. Re:Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Caca" is what we use to mean something dirty in Portuguese, as when a toddler drops candy on nthe ground and when he tries to get it back and put it on the mouth, we say "Caca!". For us, it means "Dirty!" (actually "dirty thing"). Sometimes it means "baby poop" or even a pet's poop.

      In Brazil, "fazer caca" ("do caca") is a slang for "fscking up" but it's quite not gross, you can use in a family setting on TV, for instance.

      Not possible in a business presentation, but ok in the smalltalk among executives while eating snacks after the presentation.

    9. Re: Down under by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I would say 'usted tienes' but, then again, mi Espanol es muy mierda.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    10. Re: Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for the explanation, I just really speak Portuguese not Spanish. I suppose it's almost like a Dutch trying to speak English: similar but not quite the same.

    11. Re: Down under by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > To be fair, it would be "tu tienes" or "usted tiene" not "usted tienes". The "tu" conjugation form is the familiar form while "usted" is the formal version.

      And I should know that. In Portuguese, we say "você" which the same etymology as "usted". At least in Portuguese, it is considered to be in the 3rd person (i.e. with the same conjugation as "he"). That's strange, but that's how it is, and it seems Spanish/Castillan is not different in that aspect.

  3. Using Ubuntu? by tomhath · · Score: 2

    Ubuntu's desktop color scheme looks like poop to me.

    1. Re:Using Ubuntu? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Got purple poop? I suggest you see a doctor asap.

  4. English+spanish in the code. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I wrote code in spanglish (a combination of words in english and spanish) and this is not a problem.
    The compiler accepted this language spanglish, so that it is not wrong in its parser, except invented an english-only-compiler.
    Hispanic people is big for writing all code in english only, almost them do not understand english.

  5. Is this from the same people... by Rei · · Score: 1

    ... who brought us the available-in-30-languages childrens' book "The Little Mole Who Wanted to Know Who Pooped on His Head"?

    --
    The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems.
    1. Re:Is this from the same people... by vikingpower · · Score: 1

      Nope. Those were Germans. Who else would have?

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    2. Re:Is this from the same people... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does it have a twist ending where it turns out to have been a couple girls with a cup?

  6. Re:work only in english? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about penalizing the ones that don't work in English?

    How about RTFA. This is Chile, why would school children in a South American country be expected to code in English?

    How about someone besides a Clinton or a Bush?

    How about staying on topic? Every thread doesn't have to be political.

  7. systemd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dog Poop-Themed CS Tutorial

    The first thing I thought of.

  8. Re:Training schoolchildren for reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Freudian cybernetic slip. I meant "dog".

  9. Inappropriate hyphen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So a dog made a CS tutorial that's poop themed?

  10. Every human language leaves out information by tepples · · Score: 1

    when the source language admits to intentionally leaving out information

    Every human language leaves out information. Different languages just leave out different amounts in different ways in different circumstances. This is why instead of relying on Google Translate, the author of an Hour of Code activity this year is going to have to hire a professional translator who can ask the author for the information that one language left out for use in a translation to another language.

  11. On the other hand... by CODiNE · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is a pretty accurate description of how management views coders. Who's behind code.org again? Oh right... Better get the kids used to the idea of digital poop scooping so they can expect appropriate pay when they grow up.

    --
    Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
    1. Re:On the other hand... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The kid can expect all he wants. The reality is that by the time he finishes his "education", there will be so many fungible shitty "coders" like him, that he must accept permanent minimum wages (and force the same thing on all properly educated college graduates), or get the fuck out of the way.

      Or he could flip burgers at McDonalds' and feed the next generation of slaves.

    2. Re:On the other hand... by danomac · · Score: 1

      Yep, it's preparing the kids for a crap-tacular job dealing with crap-tastic management!

  12. If they want more girls to go into programming... by Nutria · · Score: 2

    I don't think that shit-gathering contests are the way to stir up that interest.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  13. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Code.org warns that it will penalize Computer Science tutorials that 'work only in English.'"

    Seriously, f*** you, code.org.

    1. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow. the derp is strong with this one.

      english isn't the only language spoken in the world. seems like it shouldn't be that hard to accept.

    2. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why teach programmers in Engligh when you're only going to be hiring people from other parts of the world, where they don't speak English and shitting in the street is normal?

    3. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other words, they value tutorials that have been localised into multiple languages.

      I just hope that doesn't encourage machine translations...

    4. Re:Really? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Because coding isn't a job. It's a skill. You sound like the last of the keyboardists throwing up their hands going "But everyone will know how to type. Our jobs are doooooooomed.".

      What was once hard is now easy and is now curriculum for kids. Just like Algebra and Calculus before it.

  14. Re:work only in english? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    How about RTFA. This is Chile, why would school children in a South American country be expected to code in English?

    Esdger Dijkstra codes in English.
    Linus Torvalds codes in English.
    Guido van Rossum codes in English.
    Heck, even Miguel de Icaza codes in English.

    English is _the_ human language of coding. Get over the fact.

    If you can't code in English, you don't deserve coding.

    And you know what's even worse than software systems of H-1B quality? Barely readable comments and documents written by a third-worlder who didn't bother to learn the basic rules of English.

  15. Re: work only in english? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude chill, its for small children who just learned to read, I doubt they are in dijktras league. If they choose to persue CS im sure they'll learn english on the way

  16. Re: If they want more girls to go into programming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was at the launch event yesterday and most of the atendees were girls, just sayin'.

  17. Re: If they want more girls to go into programming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was at the launch event yesterday and most of the atendees were girls, just sayin'.

    and they had a pretty good time collecting dog's poop :D

  18. Re:work only in english? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Esdger Dijkstra codes in English.

    I doubt it. He's been dead for years.

  19. Re:work only in english? by theodp · · Score: 1

    Go To Hell Statement Considered Harmful: "In our definition of an algorithm we have stressed that the primitive actions should be executable, that they should be done. "Go to the other side of the square." is perfectly acceptable, "Go to hell.", however, is not an algorithm but a curse, because it cannot be done."
    --Edsger W. Dijkstra, 11 May 1930 - 6 August 2002

  20. Oh Boy!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More H1B coders!

    I guess I'll have to switch careers and become a dancer or artist, maybe we can have an hour of teaching me that???

    1. Re: Oh Boy!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 for that. very much to the point indeed

  21. Re:work only in english? by ATMAvatar · · Score: 1

    English is _the_ human language of coding. Get over the fact.

    The phrase you are looking for is lingua franca (which amusingly is not itself English).

    --
    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  22. Re:work only in english? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good one. Very good one. *slow clap*

  23. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is a campaign that obviously prides itself by the numbers, not by quality. Billionaire-backed, reaching 200 million, and sure enough we will read about the say 20 billion lines of code crafted by the oh so talented participants. Politicians will be flabergasted and calculate the economic value that was created by just one hour of learning to code (say one line of code is tsaid to be worth $1). Imagine what is possible when everyone codes, full time! By conclusion the world will stop doing whatever it is we are up to and from there on live on code and code alone. Wow.

  24. No. Learn English. by russotto · · Score: 1

    If you're eventually going to be working with me (that is, if I'm going to be "knowledge transferring" to your next-to-worthless ass so I can get one last bonus before they lay me off), learn English. Because I'm not going to be learning anything else.

  25. Re:No. Learn English. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you're eventually going to be working with me (that is, if I'm going to be "knowledge transferring" to your next-to-worthless ass so I can get one last bonus before they lay me off), learn English. Because I'm not going to be learning anything else.

    Don't worry, buddy, the good ones among us "filthy third-worlders" already know both English and code much better than you.