Why are you shocked? In fact I am shocked you are shocked.
cough cough
- https://pt.stackoverflow.com/
- https://ru.stackoverflow.com/
- https://es.stackoverflow.com/
- https://jp.stackoverflow.com/
More seriously though, it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue: more content being available in English which leads to more people having to learn English and might end up producing English content.
But this in no point is an exclusive thing. There is nothing that says that if you participate in HN in English that you must always write in English. Back when I used to collaborate on a blog, we made a point of writing in Portuguese and I tried to avoid anglicisms and loan words whenever possible. My rationale was simple: I was much younger and most of the things I wrote would never be of interest to any thought-leader or something to advance the state of the art. It could however be of interest for those in Brazil that had some interest in programming, and I didn't want the language to be yet-another-barrier for them.
Pt: 140,876
Ru: 322,061
Es: 122,603
Jp: 22,743
Stackoverflow.com (EN): 19,580,539
If I spoke no English, I'd rather have 1% of the equivalent English content in Portuguese than 0%. And having the site such as pt.SO is at least a sign that there is a significant number of people that prefer non-English to keep the discussion.
Also, there is a good amount of people that can read something from English SO, but would never contribute. Having a language-specific site is a chance for them to help more people in their situation. Again better than nothing.
Do you really think that the proper advice you'd give to him is "Learn proper English first"? More likely than not, you are just killing his interest in learning and shooting down the best chance he would have to lift himself out of poverty.
Remind me to come back to this in 10 years when China surpasses the US in production of, say, AI Research. Let's see if HN will still be okay with the idea of "just go and learn Mandarin" to find stuff online.
I looked at Segmentfault (CN) but I can't see any total number of questions - but if I refresh StackOverflow the 5 most recent questions were all asked within the last 1 minute, whereas on SegmentFault the 5 most recent questions were asked within the last 20 minutes. Although it might be biased by the current timezone.
I know of the localized versions of StackOverflow but they hardly are worth visiting.
> it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue: more content being available in English which leads to more people having to learn English and might end up producing English content.
It's not an issue, it's awesome.
> But this in no point is an exclusive thing. There is nothing that says that if you participate in HN in English that you must always write in English.
Obviously. Yet I would never use any other language to name a variable or a function. I would also use English and only English to write a manual for a library I might invent as that would mean most of the developers would be able to read it immediately without me having to waste my time on writing in different languages.
Expecting everyone to speak English before being able to make any meaningful work is not that different than expecting only able-bodied people to make any meaningful work.
You being shocked that there are non-English speakers working with tech is no different than being shocked by blind programmers.
Non-English speakers have the option to learn English. It takes a couple of years, but I know a lot of people who have done it. And I can't think of a better investment.
Disabled people do not have the choice to make their disabilities go away. We have to learn to live with it. Compared to what I've already done to try to make my life normal, learning Russian, Urdu and Swahili simultaneously would be much easier.
Whether they can learn or not is a different discussion. And I really do not want to get into some "who has it harder?" victimization game, but it surprises me that you don't see the exclusionary nature of expecting people to learn English to study and participate in discussions regarding Computer Science.
"mnemonicsloth" point is valid. And he's only asking for more consideration, and in a polite manner afaic.
Portuguese is my native english but I never use the portuguese version of StackOverflow. The english version content is just so much better that I don't bother looking at the portuguese one.
Wikipedia is an interesting case as well, since it's also available in several languages. I tend to favour the english version when looking for content that is somewhat culturally neutral.
> It's not an issue, it's awesome.
If you're a native english speaker it's really awesome. If you aren't and don't speak the language it's yet another barrier for learning. Even greater if developers that speak your language decide to dismiss it and adopt english at all times. I believe that's the point "rglullis" was trying to make.
Thats because you know english, naturally you would look for english resources.
There are as many(probably more) fresh information in chinese too but if you don't know chinese you wouldn't aware of it.
Now I am shocked that you are shocked that s/he is shocked.
If you’re not interested in an international careeer (many people aren’t), you have quality education available in your local language, and there’s a thriving local tech scene I don’t see why it has to be that much of a disadvantage.
There are many other languages that are big and used by tens of millions of people. In most of those languages you can find all the books, courses, and conversations you need to take up computering.
You can of course find the answer in your native language also, but it will be less likely it exists, it will be harder to find, and less "peer-reviewed".
There are tons of resources in other languages but you wouldn't aware of it, you wouldn't even know how to look for it because you don't know the language.