This is AWESOME! I even get emotional about this and here is why.
TL;DR: I am a Brazilian and it would have been much easier for me if I had the resources I needed available in my mother language.
Long story:
I am a Brazilian. I was born in a small town in Brazil (population: 13k) and I only had access to public schools. Public schools in Brazil do have English classes, however all I remember was them teaching the verb "to be" in every single grade.
When I was 15, in 1998, my mom found a way to finance a cheap computer for me. My first access to a computer. Everything was in English. I did not have access to internet initially, but the computer came with a few softwares installed. At the time I also asked my mom to buy me a translation dictionary, so I could learn English. Translating most of the things I was seeing on the screen did not make sense at all, so I just assumed them as part of my vocabulary giving them meanings, but not translations, like "software", or software names...
Later, with access to internet (long distance dial up after midnight), it was really, REALLY, hard to search for stuff related to programming because there was almost nothing available in portuguese. I had to learn how to translate properly what I was looking for before I could even do the search. Not sure native English speakers understand this part.
So what I tried to do instead was to learn English. I did that by finding lyrics of the songs I liked online (they were easy to find since no translation was needed) and translating them with the help from my dictionary. And this is basically how I learned most of the English that I know. (In fact, I never went to a real English school/class, as you can probably tell at this point by reading this).
But dude, I was able to do this because I put A LOT of effort and hours, and nights, doing this, day after day, because I really wanted to learn. (It paid off... I am a H1B living in Miami today)
Learning English is not for everyone. Learning another language is not for everyone.
Learning how to code IS WAY MUCH FUN than learning how to speak another language.
While I always tell people to try to learn English, because they're going to have better chances, I believe this should not be a barrier for the average people to learn programming. Or anything, really.
You have no idea of how many great developers in Brazil do not speak proficient English.
So, thanks to the guys at Stack Overflow for doing this. I'll make sure I share this with everyone I know that always wanted to learn programming but had English as a barrier.
I am confident that the IT industry in Brazil will be thankful for this in the long term.
> I never went to a real English school/class, as you can probably tell at this point by reading this
No, I couldn't. You give yourself too little credit. Except for "way much fun", everything you wrote was perfect idiomatic English.
I actually think a lot of us native English speakers are kind of jealous that we have little incentive to become proficient in a foreign language since so much of the worlds information and communication is in English. I know I am. I'm trying to learn Portuguese right now, just for fun, but I know I will never be as fluent in it as you are in English.
Would you have learned English if it hadn't been a by-product of learning about computers and programming? I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't really even try to learn a little Portugese while I was in Brazil.
I really wanted to learn the meaning of the lyrics I was listening too as well, but you are right... the big motivation came from the need to learn English in order to find what I was looking for from the computer/programming world.
SO isn't anything special, or a complicated site. There is no reason a Portuguese equivalent couldn't be whipped up by someone from Portugal or Brazil.
TL;DR: I am a Brazilian and it would have been much easier for me if I had the resources I needed available in my mother language.
Long story:
I am a Brazilian. I was born in a small town in Brazil (population: 13k) and I only had access to public schools. Public schools in Brazil do have English classes, however all I remember was them teaching the verb "to be" in every single grade. When I was 15, in 1998, my mom found a way to finance a cheap computer for me. My first access to a computer. Everything was in English. I did not have access to internet initially, but the computer came with a few softwares installed. At the time I also asked my mom to buy me a translation dictionary, so I could learn English. Translating most of the things I was seeing on the screen did not make sense at all, so I just assumed them as part of my vocabulary giving them meanings, but not translations, like "software", or software names... Later, with access to internet (long distance dial up after midnight), it was really, REALLY, hard to search for stuff related to programming because there was almost nothing available in portuguese. I had to learn how to translate properly what I was looking for before I could even do the search. Not sure native English speakers understand this part. So what I tried to do instead was to learn English. I did that by finding lyrics of the songs I liked online (they were easy to find since no translation was needed) and translating them with the help from my dictionary. And this is basically how I learned most of the English that I know. (In fact, I never went to a real English school/class, as you can probably tell at this point by reading this). But dude, I was able to do this because I put A LOT of effort and hours, and nights, doing this, day after day, because I really wanted to learn. (It paid off... I am a H1B living in Miami today)
Learning English is not for everyone. Learning another language is not for everyone. Learning how to code IS WAY MUCH FUN than learning how to speak another language.
While I always tell people to try to learn English, because they're going to have better chances, I believe this should not be a barrier for the average people to learn programming. Or anything, really. You have no idea of how many great developers in Brazil do not speak proficient English.
So, thanks to the guys at Stack Overflow for doing this. I'll make sure I share this with everyone I know that always wanted to learn programming but had English as a barrier.
I am confident that the IT industry in Brazil will be thankful for this in the long term.
Thank you guys.