Hedy is a new programming language designed for pedagogy that can be localized to different languages.
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026
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As somebody with a friend who speaks Chinese as their first language, I know she often uses non-English file names, variable names, etc.
It's still standard Python and C++ though (and excellent code at that!), nothing esoteric.
Online: everything in English for me, except for some explanations sometimes but that's just at random as I'm a hobbyist/amateur.
Offline (a course I did): explanations in Portuguese (Brazil), we learned Portugol (programming language that uses Portuguese keywords) as an introduction then switched to C.
About every programming language is based on English. Names for functions, objects, variables are based on personal, project, or company preferences. In reality you'll find these only in two languages as far as I've seen in the last decades: either English or Chinese. I've seen German and, sadly, French, but they are outliers.
I quit my degree in computer science in 2018 after studying for two years, but I remember that it was a big focus on using norwegian for variable names.
Most popular programming languages have English-language keywords and that can't be changed, so we certainly have to learn those.
How we learn to name symbols (variable/function names), that obviously depends on the programming course. But most real-world code has most symbols written in English with the possible exception of business-specific terminology that the business doesn't use in English. The same is true of comments.
The real deal isn't the language barrier but the keyboard layout. Most special characters usually used for coding are just perfectly at hand when using the US layout.
At one point i started buying US keyboards set with the US-int layout, which i find easier to use than ES and latam.
Everyone should code in Armenian. Why? Because it would be funny.
i've seen both. there is german program code with german variable names and german comments. yeah, it sounds about as strange as it is.
// diese variable beschreibt den luftzug an den messrohren
var trötflöte = lese_zahl_aus(datenbank);
but it's rare. most people who work in IT in germany will write english variable names and english comments.
In my experience it's more common in industrial (plc) and embedded software. Where people don't have to work in large teams.
what does "plc" mean here?
Programmable Logic Controller
No, your controls are cursed! It stands for "Pretty Lame Computer"
Context
There is a YouTube channel called cursed controls which calls them that.
It's super common if it's any sort of open source project because the collaborators can be anywhere and English is a good baseline.
IIRC one of the big tasks when Star Office became Open Office (later Libre Office) was translating a bunch of the German comments to make the code more accessible.
I'm sure I've seen some majority french code bases as well. There are certainly academic hypervisors out of China which have comments in Chinese kanji.
Also air traffic control and commercial aviation radio communication are in English, worldwide.
For handling international traffic under ICAO rules, ATC is indeed supposed to be done in English.
But if we take a look at some of the terminology in aviation, the French words cannot be ignored. Mayday and pan-pan are from the French venez m'aider and panne.
When radio silence is required, a station might command "SEE-LONCE" but this comes from the French word for silence. Though I think this is a rarity in aviation.
And then outside of aviation radio, the French left their mark on aircraft parts names: fuselage, empennage, aileron.
Maritime radio has a lot of French in it
Preferably in English. Nothing is worse than reading code with a mixture of languages. Although false friends can also be quite annoying.
Although false friends can also be quite annoying.
What does "false friends" mean?
In a nutshell, words that look the same / similar but with different meanings in their respective languages, making it pretty confusing.
What should you do if you inherit a project where they are already mixing languages because they just copy pasted from tutorials?
Exacerbate the problem by using your own style that's not been used before.
The only solution to having too many standards is always to add another new standard. /xkcd
int main(){
cout << "It's more compact this way and yeah I'll die on this hill";
Return 0;}
//see you even get to end lines in devious winky smilies who doesn't love that
It depends honestly.
Key words like If, Match, Else, From, This ,etc will be in English, but variable names can be in any Unicode language as the var name gets converted to machine code after compilation.
Sadly, in the horrible english language
I teach my students to just code in English from the start. Not all languages/compilers/linkers/whatever handles the Danish characters 'æ', 'ø', and 'å' all that predictably, most companies will require you to use English for international collaboration, and besides most documentation is in English anyway. Last reason is why I urge my students to just use English versions when available. Some FLOSS translations are crap, and you can't just copy paste an error into askjeeves and get an answer.
The only thing that has to be in Danish is Excel automation, because for some bizarre reason Microsoft translated ~~all~~ some of the functions. I say some because I've seen functions in English that just wasn't available in Danish Excel.
A mix. In uni we learned algorithms in pseudo code and that was always in native language. Actual coding was typically English, but older professors often did it in their language.
You'll be surprised to learn that WinDEV can be programmed in a ton of diferent languages. I mean the instruction set and all. It feels dirty to read code written in french, and that's my mother tongue. What a shit show. Only 'logo' for kids in primary school makes sense to have in their native language. EDIT : mostly french or English actually https://pcsoft.fr/wlangage.htm
I learned English before learning Programming, but there are localized programming languages targetting learning like Portugol https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugol
Do non-English speakers learn to code in English
Why should they?
Code is programming language, not natural language. If they have already learned some natural English, then maybe it seems practical. Otherwise, no reason to try that.
Well, unless you specifically take steps to change how types and built in functions are called, you're going to be writing "string" "for" and "if"
Doesn't matter. Could be any symbols instead. The same as math symbols.
Well they're words. Good luck typing the logic symbols on regular keyboards
&&
||
Sure.
Great. Now do integer, string and while.
Just because some keywords are in English doesn't mean the code is in English, variable names, function names, and comments could be respectively in latin, Russian, and Klingon.
I think you missed my point. My point is that it doesnt matter that in English if while string integer mean something. You don't have to know the language to be able to understand the operation they convey, just like math symbols.
"string" "for" and "if"
That's the part that the experts call "programming language"
And those words are written in what experts call, "English".
And that's all English. So, in order to use "programming language" , they are going to have to use some English
@TheImpressiveX Back in 2000 I briefly taught at UC Santa Barbara. One class was a summer, two week course in Adobe Director for Japanese high school graduates prior to entering Ritsumeikan University. I cast about looking for a Japanese version of the program, but could not find it. One of the students later told me they wouldn't expect such a thing to exist, as English was the language of coding.
ymmv