Like the title says - is English a necessary skill for a developer? What do you think?
![[deleted user] image](https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fthepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fi%2F99mvlsfu5tfj9m7ku25d.png)
Like the title says - is English a necessary skill for a developer? What do you think?
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Fixing code doesn’t have to be the worst part of your day. Learn how Sentry can help.
Hanzla Baig -
José Pablo Ramírez Vargas -
Hanzla Baig -
Mercy -
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.