Igor Fraga
On The Out of the Box Developer podcast, we talked about something important for people who create tech content like me:
What language should you use to reach the most people?
I asked Java Champion Elder Moraes if only using English might stop some people from seeing my content, especially developers who don’t speak English as their first language.
This is the fifth post from a series bringing you insights from the interview with Elder Moraes, Java Champion, Red Hat Advocate, Mentor and Writer.
Elder shared some helpful ideas with us about this.
He said, “English is like the main language of the tech world now. If you publish in English, you can reach a very big audience all over the world.”
We know that some people might not be able to understand English easily, but he also talked about what is realistic when you are creating content.
During our talk, I asked Elder if only using English could be a problem for developers around the world who could learn from tech content. I wondered if I might be missing out on reaching some people by not using other languages.
Elder’s answer to us was very thoughtful. He explained, “It would be great to reach everyone in their own language, but it’s often hard for one person or a small team to do that. Making content in many languages takes a lot of time and effort.”
He also talked about why using English is helpful, saying, “because so many people in tech use English, most developers can understand tech content in English, even if it’s not their first language. So, using English is a practical way to reach as many people as you can with the resources you have.”
That’s why I write my articles and content mainly in English and you can use the resources in igorfragadev.com blog to read my articles in any language if you don’t fully understand it.
However, Elder also gave us some other things to think about:
- Think about who you want to reach: Who are you trying to talk to? If you want to reach people in a specific area who speak a certain language, then using that language might be very good. This is specially true when you are giving in person talks at a non-English country, for example.
- Start with English and add more languages later: If you want to reach people everywhere, English is a good place to start. When you have more time and help, you can think about translating your best content into other languages.
- Use translation tools: Tools that translate languages can be useful, even if they are not perfect. You can use them to add subtitles to videos or translate blog posts like you have here at igorfragadev.com blog.
- Join groups with people who speak other languages: Be active in online groups where developers who speak different languages meet. This can help you connect with more people, even if your main content is in English.
Elder finished by saying to us, “there’s no single right answer for everyone. It depends on what you want to do, what you can do, and who you want to talk to. English helps you reach a lot of people, but it’s always good to think about different languages and how to make your content easier for more people to understand.”
In the end, our talk showed that choosing a language for your tech content is an important decision. English can help you reach a huge audience, but thinking about different languages and finding ways to help people understand your content can help you reach even more developers around the world.
If you didn’t watched the whole interview, you can do it clicking here.
In the next and last post from this series from the interview with Elder, we will talk about “Creating Engaging Tech Talks Presentations, in a special post and the hints that Elder brought to us on this subject.
See you in the next post!
