Stop using English for everything. (and stop being anglio-centric.) English is mostly widely-used by people who, in the past, tried colonialism and tried to find "helpers" around the world, anyway.
Not using English for everything is going to be impossible. English is the language of business and like it or not connects the world. That doesn't mean that other languages are not important, valid, for viable; but it will be next to impossible to shift the entire world to a different language.
I think French and Esperanto have tried at some point, but failed.
The only alternative I think is possible is, Simple English. That is, English with limited words. However, there would still be things like black, white, and main.
It is hard to be politically correct and please everyone.
You suggest French as an alternative to English, as if they’ve been somehow less colonial and oppressive throughout the ages?
Simple English isn’t a language. We’re programmers; our very work involves a lot of specialized terminology that wouldn’t come close to meeting the requirements of a “simple” English.
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Please, let's not get ridiculous. There's no feasible alternative to English. I've been writing about this since 2008. English unites us, regardless of native tongue, ethnicity, skin color etc.
It's a terrible argument to say
"English was used 200 years ago for something bad, therefore we should stop using English"
By the same logic, we should stop using computers because computers were used to perpetrate billion-dollar hacks.
Spot on. You could even expand further on it.
Don't forget that IBM provided the logistic systems that were used to run Hitler's concentration camps.
Swiped a Master-card recently when shopping? How about Visa, thinking about borders here...or American Express, which could be argued makes references to the US railroad system, built in part by slave labor. Where should we stop?
English is the most spoken language in the world, and the 3rd in the number of native speakers. Computers, and most modern technology is derived from inventions created by English speakers, mostly native ones. That is not going to change any time soon.
I assume you're joking in which case: Classic! I love it.
Let's take this to its logical extreme where people who never owned a slave in their life are not able to use the only language they know how to speak: English, because some of their distant ancestors owned slaves. What about black people whose distant ancestors were actually slaves but only know how to speak English? Should they also stop using English?
The concept reaches ridiculously humorous outcomes in mere milliseconds so I think it's worth further exploration.
Maybe we should use French, Dutch, Portugese or Spanish... dang! They were all colonizers also...
A crazy thing I heard of recently is that in the 1600s the English enslaved hundreds of thousands of Irish (white) people also - sending them to the Carribean. They were actually worth only about 1/5th the value of an African slave for some reason - maybe they blistered up with sunburn and were in constant pain in the hot, sunny climate that they their skin had not evolved to deal with.
It was enlightening to realize that some white people were also slaves to other white people.
Ok, if you want it, then do it. No harm.
But you have to see that all the projects are being written and given support in english because from the languages that are spoken by the majority, is the easiest of them (Spanish and Chinese are not as easy as english).
Yes, we could use Esperanto, but not everyone knows it.
Think as a developer: how many of your libraries/frameworks you'll have to replace and refactor if the Original Developer decides to write the whole resource in their native language... And also, how many will stop being available because of this?
But as I said in the beginnning: you may do it to your own code, but you'll have serious issues when trying to look for some support.
Or, as Jason Tibbetts stated: what solution do you propose? This is causing more troubles, rather than giving a solution.
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On a deep thinking, there is indeed another way.
Stop using English for everything. (and stop being anglio-centric.) English is mostly widely-used by people who, in the past, tried colonialism and tried to find "helpers" around the world, anyway.
Not using English for everything is going to be impossible. English is the language of business and like it or not connects the world. That doesn't mean that other languages are not important, valid, for viable; but it will be next to impossible to shift the entire world to a different language.
OK, I've never thought about this before. You just blew my mind...
One of the things we never discuss is the language we use...
Wow. As a French speaker, I can't believe I never questioned once that... Thank you ❤️
What alternative do you propose? What language would be widely understood and has never been used by an oppressive culture?
I think French and Esperanto have tried at some point, but failed.
The only alternative I think is possible is, Simple English. That is, English with limited words. However, there would still be things like black, white, and main.
It is hard to be politically correct and please everyone.
You suggest French as an alternative to English, as if they’ve been somehow less colonial and oppressive throughout the ages?
Simple English isn’t a language. We’re programmers; our very work involves a lot of specialized terminology that wouldn’t come close to meeting the requirements of a “simple” English.
(And what’s wrong with “main”?)
Please, let's not get ridiculous. There's no feasible alternative to English. I've been writing about this since 2008. English unites us, regardless of native tongue, ethnicity, skin color etc.
It's a terrible argument to say
By the same logic, we should stop using computers because computers were used to perpetrate billion-dollar hacks.
Spot on. You could even expand further on it.
Don't forget that IBM provided the logistic systems that were used to run Hitler's concentration camps.
Swiped a Master-card recently when shopping? How about Visa, thinking about borders here...or American Express, which could be argued makes references to the US railroad system, built in part by slave labor. Where should we stop?
English is the most spoken language in the world, and the 3rd in the number of native speakers. Computers, and most modern technology is derived from inventions created by English speakers, mostly native ones. That is not going to change any time soon.
I assumed he was just being funny with such a ridiculous suggestion.
I don't think he got the memo, lol.
World class troll. Thanks for this 🤣
That wasn't my intention, but it did indeed go further than I thought.
I assume you're joking in which case: Classic! I love it.
Let's take this to its logical extreme where people who never owned a slave in their life are not able to use the only language they know how to speak: English, because some of their distant ancestors owned slaves. What about black people whose distant ancestors were actually slaves but only know how to speak English? Should they also stop using English?
The concept reaches ridiculously humorous outcomes in mere milliseconds so I think it's worth further exploration.
Maybe we should use French, Dutch, Portugese or Spanish... dang! They were all colonizers also...
A crazy thing I heard of recently is that in the 1600s the English enslaved hundreds of thousands of Irish (white) people also - sending them to the Carribean. They were actually worth only about 1/5th the value of an African slave for some reason - maybe they blistered up with sunburn and were in constant pain in the hot, sunny climate that they their skin had not evolved to deal with.
It was enlightening to realize that some white people were also slaves to other white people.
Ah, it's a strange, mixed up world we live in...
Ok, if you want it, then do it. No harm.
But you have to see that all the projects are being written and given support in english because from the languages that are spoken by the majority, is the easiest of them (Spanish and Chinese are not as easy as english).
Yes, we could use Esperanto, but not everyone knows it.
Think as a developer: how many of your libraries/frameworks you'll have to replace and refactor if the Original Developer decides to write the whole resource in their native language... And also, how many will stop being available because of this?
But as I said in the beginnning: you may do it to your own code, but you'll have serious issues when trying to look for some support.
Or, as Jason Tibbetts stated: what solution do you propose? This is causing more troubles, rather than giving a solution.