Is English a limitation for programming?

Question

I learned English by myself when I was 11 yo, but there are some friends in my school that don't speak any English, but they're good programmers anyway, the question here is: Will they have problems because of it?... By the way, my native language is Spanish and I'm Mexican xD

Answer 1

Their Writing and Reading should be good. Their Listening and Speaking, not so much.

Todo bien mientras entiendan qué hace "x" palabra en inglés, el concepto detrás de cada una es lo importante :) por ejemplo, conozco programadores que no saben qué significan las palabras "for", "while", "each" pero sí saben que sirven para hacer bucles :)

Answer 2

#DidYouKnow that there are so many non English based programming languages are really exists . Chinese python is one of the example .click the link if you want to know more about non English based programming languages

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-English-based_programming_languages

Answer 3

You're simultaneously improving your English while programming. It's a Win-Win situation.

Answer 4

If you don't know English you're at least missing out on some very valuable community resources like stack exchange.

Answer 5

People who can't speak any English nowadays are like the people who couldn't speak Latin during the times of the Roman Empire: marginalized because of their ignorance.

Answer 6

no perhaps programming leanguages have englush as root or basis but you do not need to learn english to program

Answer 7

its not limitation but really benefit to master it.

think english like a bridge that connect you to other resource in programming, like book, official documentation, tutorial and some nice tips and trick in the sea of internet.

Answer 8

No, there is enough literature and people also using another language in the field of programming.

Answer 9

Its not essential but preferable you learn English.

Answer 10

Thank you all for your answers, I'll tell 'em so! :D

Answer 11

No because half the programming keywords do not accurately correspond with their English counterparts. I speak en_za which == en_uk/en_gb and I've written "color" as "colour" in so many scripts that it's pitiful.
Besides, remember when we used assembly? Those were pnuemonics[?] like "cmp" "jne" "jnz" etc. They were loosely English-based but you look up a piece of assembly and tell me if it looks English.
Back to my point, "do" is an English word and fairly literal, but "class" could have been called "asdf" because it really doesn't translate nicely. I thought "mobject" would make more sense, Object with Members vs "sobject" as in Simple Object. Just saying.
Also some of the best coders are non-English. So, no, I don't think it's a disadvantage.

Answer 12

This isn't, but it's more easy and logical to understand English currently to remember commands and know what it means :)
For exemple: when you understand "print" you can figure that this will write something on a screen and remember this better than if you retain "print" as a 5 letters magical formula from Narnia that will allow you to write something :)
Of course it's easier for English people more than others because it's their native language (even if sometimes they're speaking or writing so bad that you're wondering if they are really talking in English or in a freaking unknown language from Amazonia...)

Answer 13

found books speak about techenolgy

Answer 14

english books ? written in spanish are not ? nothing

Answer 15

mostly yes, but in current scenario it not the limitations as one can get translation(web translation)

Answer 16

Many of my coding teachers are not english speakers and that has not limited their ability to code, in fact they perform very well. It is funny when I hear them pronounce the words though.

Answer 17

reality in Mexico is all good jobs will require English, all good projects are in English too, do you want to be in a big community online? English!

so, yeah, being Latin American and not speaking English will be a problem.

Answer 18

I am actually imagining an alternate history where other countries dominate the world.
I would probably be typing in German, Russian, Italian, who knows?
It's because Great Britain made empire that many are qctually speqking English. That's trying to erode culture

Answer 19

latin in the pasta roman empire dominated the world

Answer 20

we speak english because we are a colony of USA :-)