Like the title says - is English a necessary skill for a developer? What do you think?
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Like the title says - is English a necessary skill for a developer? What do you think?
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Doug Bridgens -
Michael Tharrington -
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Max Barker -
Top comments (5)
Absolutely necessary? No (usually).
Useful? Very. Most software you're likely to use as a developer has documentation in English, and a lot of software is written in a very anglo-centric manner. Quite simply, just like for international business, English has become a lingua franca for software development.
Necessary? No.
I will say that if you can read and write it without help then you are very lucky.
So if at least a working proficiency of English is preferred, should/could anything be done? I’ve dreamt of the ideal coding boot camp overseas that teaches English and software dev. That would open up a world of possibilities! (Speaking as a linguist and a developer)
Language keywords are in English so I would say yes. For example, "map," "while," "class," "list," "string," etc.
It is necessary to the extent it helps the developer in question accomplish whatever task they are doing.