It just struck me
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RickZeeland wrote:
always amazes me how bad some people are at speaking English
Back in real life (i.e., as a chemist) it was always understood that the international language of science is broken English. By and large, the domination of English is probably a consequence of it not shielding itself from "foreign influences" - some "schmucky" places think protecting their language ("think: surrender monkey") will maintain its strength. On the contrary - it is mercifully hurry its long-overdue demise. Aside from the crazy spelling and other stuff, it's actually a rather welcoming.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
To fully appreciate the inaccuracy of this comment, imagine a linguist with no programming experience trying to explain the issues with php.
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It just struck me that it must be difficult to be a programmer in a non-English-speaking country because all of the classes and function names in a given framework are in English, so picking the correct class/method must be somewhat difficult.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013My mother language is Spanish and it's very helpful when my variable names stand out in the middle of English names: int contador = 1; float precioFinal = 0.0m; // cheers!!
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Regarding "not shielding itself from 'foreign influences'": Old English was strongly influence by conquest. First by Old Norse (during the DaneLaw the Norse ruled most, sometimes all, of England). The roots of both languages were the same, but word inflection differed between the two. Middle English solved this by dropping almost all inflection. This was followed by two doses of French: Norman French, then Parisian French. As for "crazy spelling": it was actually phonetically correct ... about 600 years ago based on the local dialect of the first Englishman to own a printing press.
Steven1218 wrote:
As for "crazy spelling": it was actually phonetically correct ... about 600 years ago based on the local dialect of the first Englishman to own a printing press.
Actually, as I understood it, until comparatively recent times, spelling was ad-hoc. Although not the first dictionary, Webster's Dictionary can be given some credit:
Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge. His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a spelling reformer, Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced American English spellings, replacing "colour" with "color", substituting "wagon" for "waggon", and printing "center" instead of "centre". He also added American words, like "skunk" and "squash", that did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828; it sold 2500 copies. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes.
Standardization of spelling, which does not attack the validity of your claim, is rather recent. The influence of frog-speech* may have much to do with too-many silent letters. * A language that didn't evolve past counting to 'sixty', having to go to 'sixty-ten' because seventy was just too much for them to comprehend.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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To fully appreciate the inaccuracy of this comment, imagine a linguist with no programming experience trying to explain the issues with php.
The language of "the country formerly known as Vichy France" is dying. They'd not make protective laws if they weren't clearly observing the proto-carcass decaying. That's the kind of thing you do when you're desperate.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Ed Aymami wrote:
There's nothing wrong with grits (girls raised in the south) either.
You haven't spent enough time in the South :) Bless their hearts...
Almost all my life. I guess you forgot to "set the compilation flag to Southern" :-D And I have been married to a southern girl for 45+ years so I can assure you that I understand better than you can possibly imagine.
One never know for sure, do one? -Fats Waller
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NO thanks!!!! It's horrible, I'd rather forget I ever did it.... :-D
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NO thanks!!!! It's horrible, I'd rather forget I ever did it.... :-D
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The language of "the country formerly known as Vichy France" is dying. They'd not make protective laws if they weren't clearly observing the proto-carcass decaying. That's the kind of thing you do when you're desperate.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I was more referring to your suggestion that English is so widespread due to any linguistic qualities. English spread because at a time when they had bigger ships and guns than most of the world, one of the most imperialistic and genocidal groups of people in history decided to set forth across the world and force everybody to work for them, and these people were certainly in no hurry to learn the languages of the locals they encountered. As for France's moves to keep their language "French", this is in no way a suggestion that the language is dying. French people, as well as people in various former French colonies are in no rush to stop speaking French. In fact ask any Frenchman and good luck convincing him that English is a superior alternative. All spoken languages naturally evolve over time, the change is artificially slowed if it's a written language, but no generation of any language speaker speaks the same as their parents did at their age. The French preservation efforts are basically the equivalent of refusing to sell T-shirts over size L to prevent people from getting overweight. But there are many dialects of French alone within the country of France, not to mention various dialects and Creoles in its many colonies. But since we were originally talking about programming, I would say English could possibly be the worst language to be required for second language speakers, because a grasp of syntax and grammar is not really required, just being able to spell the different terms in the programming language. And English is famous for its wildly unpredictable spelling. The only caveat to this is that apparently the world Boggle (or could be Scrabble) champion in English doesn't even know how to speak English, he just memorised the dictionary.
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I was more referring to your suggestion that English is so widespread due to any linguistic qualities. English spread because at a time when they had bigger ships and guns than most of the world, one of the most imperialistic and genocidal groups of people in history decided to set forth across the world and force everybody to work for them, and these people were certainly in no hurry to learn the languages of the locals they encountered. As for France's moves to keep their language "French", this is in no way a suggestion that the language is dying. French people, as well as people in various former French colonies are in no rush to stop speaking French. In fact ask any Frenchman and good luck convincing him that English is a superior alternative. All spoken languages naturally evolve over time, the change is artificially slowed if it's a written language, but no generation of any language speaker speaks the same as their parents did at their age. The French preservation efforts are basically the equivalent of refusing to sell T-shirts over size L to prevent people from getting overweight. But there are many dialects of French alone within the country of France, not to mention various dialects and Creoles in its many colonies. But since we were originally talking about programming, I would say English could possibly be the worst language to be required for second language speakers, because a grasp of syntax and grammar is not really required, just being able to spell the different terms in the programming language. And English is famous for its wildly unpredictable spelling. The only caveat to this is that apparently the world Boggle (or could be Scrabble) champion in English doesn't even know how to speak English, he just memorised the dictionary.
What a load of snail-turd! [poop d'escargot] France was quite the imperialist - and a bloody one at that. You do remember Napoleon? Ultimately, however, the English gave him the kick-in-the-ass he needed. By that time, the French gene-pool was reduced to drugs (and so it remains). English became the world language in recent years - heavily do to influences not of war but of people like the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and the like. Everyone wanted to learn English. Here are two superior qualities to English: (1) everyone is welcome in to the language and can contribute, and (2) the best stuff to read and listen to is in English. French is just a language of of the paranoid - having been the whipping boys for war for over a century (and stuck as to what comes after sixty-nine when counting), I can understand. Official list of names to pick from for children. Fines for using non-French words when a French equivalent exists. Hell, look here[[^](https://mashable.com/2013/01/29/france-renames-twitter-hashtag
/#_yJiw0SjQ8qd "New Window")]! They've simply taken the title of "losers" and extended it to all things they have do. As for spelling? Your spelling-champion blurb: it has no point and makes no sense whatsoever. The French equivalent of a dictionary appears to have been gone over by a random character generator. All the more reason why anyone would want to protect that corpse-in-waiting excuse for a language. Well - apparently you do. Who knows. Be it a few weeks, months, perhaps even a few years and you'll be the only one left."The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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What a load of snail-turd! [poop d'escargot] France was quite the imperialist - and a bloody one at that. You do remember Napoleon? Ultimately, however, the English gave him the kick-in-the-ass he needed. By that time, the French gene-pool was reduced to drugs (and so it remains). English became the world language in recent years - heavily do to influences not of war but of people like the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and the like. Everyone wanted to learn English. Here are two superior qualities to English: (1) everyone is welcome in to the language and can contribute, and (2) the best stuff to read and listen to is in English. French is just a language of of the paranoid - having been the whipping boys for war for over a century (and stuck as to what comes after sixty-nine when counting), I can understand. Official list of names to pick from for children. Fines for using non-French words when a French equivalent exists. Hell, look here[[^](https://mashable.com/2013/01/29/france-renames-twitter-hashtag
/#_yJiw0SjQ8qd "New Window")]! They've simply taken the title of "losers" and extended it to all things they have do. As for spelling? Your spelling-champion blurb: it has no point and makes no sense whatsoever. The French equivalent of a dictionary appears to have been gone over by a random character generator. All the more reason why anyone would want to protect that corpse-in-waiting excuse for a language. Well - apparently you do. Who knows. Be it a few weeks, months, perhaps even a few years and you'll be the only one left."The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I don't know what the French did to you to make you hate them so much but you'll be disappointed to learn that I'm not one of them, nor do I speak more than a few phrases in their language. But if you think France is the only place in the world where they speak any dialect of French then you are hilariously out of touch with reality. Although, given that it appears you have a quote from yourself in your own signature I guess that has already been well established. Slight irony in that it contains a French phrase too. If you think English is widespread because the world just had to listen to the Beatles then I don't even know where to begin. I think maybe you should pull your head out of your ass and read a history book or experience the real world instead. Your perspective has been an eye-opener for me. I won't be replying after this.
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I don't know what the French did to you to make you hate them so much but you'll be disappointed to learn that I'm not one of them, nor do I speak more than a few phrases in their language. But if you think France is the only place in the world where they speak any dialect of French then you are hilariously out of touch with reality. Although, given that it appears you have a quote from yourself in your own signature I guess that has already been well established. Slight irony in that it contains a French phrase too. If you think English is widespread because the world just had to listen to the Beatles then I don't even know where to begin. I think maybe you should pull your head out of your ass and read a history book or experience the real world instead. Your perspective has been an eye-opener for me. I won't be replying after this.
grolarbear wrote:
I won't be replying after this.
You needn't replay, as promised. But like essentially all of your posts, it's presumptuous and incorrect. In this hemisphere we have Quebec - also :elephant:ing with people so that they induced an exodus of English speakers (the province on welfare). We also have Haiti. Martinique, although unlike the others, at least it isn't an disaster. A few African nations are similarly cursed. Belgium. By and large, however, no place that is important does the frog-croak. Ego - it's all they have left. Too bad you didn't address anything in that link - recounting a tiny example of the ludicrous excuse they have made of there culture.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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English can be called a lot, but not difficult. Since most development is traditionally in English, I'd be assuming that any dev knows the language well enough to follow a movie without going for the dictionary.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
Except for the fact that there are more dyslectic people in English speaking countries than anywhere else....
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Except for the fact that there are more dyslectic people in English speaking countries than anywhere else....
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It just struck me that it must be difficult to be a programmer in a non-English-speaking country because all of the classes and function names in a given framework are in English, so picking the correct class/method must be somewhat difficult.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013...and then take Excel. All functions are translated into some localized words. I use the term words because if you do not understand the language you are stuck reading that code. And in case you can decipher function name, there is no way to find another function. Better broken or even bad English than this nightmare.
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English and Dutch mix well, so I imagine English and German do too (English being a Germanic language, it kind of works well anyway, and is quite amusing. Like 'fuckoffen', 'to go home'. :) ). But yeah, English has become the worlds language through the net and IT.
They mix too well. I often stumble upon bullshit bingo winning entries that are basically "Let's take an English word that means vaguely what I want to say so I sound modern and management'y". Mostly from management, OFC. As someone who actually understands real English, that's rather cringeworthy.
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By the way, I am not a native speaker, but I always prefer English for "communicating" with my computer: be it the Default language of my operating system, the names of variables and/or objects and comments in my source code... But I still wonder how that would all work if I were to use Esperanto in stead ;-)
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I did not say causing... However, there are striking examples of people being dyslectic in English, whereas they are fluent in another language; I read about such a person, born in a mixed marriage, who moved from England to Japan for this reason... Think about the many many words looking/sounding the same or similar/very different in English, like hart, hard, heart, heard, herd... plough, tough, though, thought, thaw... led, lead, lead, read, read, red... (there are a lot more of these...) Hard for spelling, but also for dyslectic people te read back...