Chinese Python: Translating a programming language

November 21, 2008, [MD]

Update: Round-up of comments from this blog and Reddit, with some great new ideas and sites.

I remember discussing with a friend of mine whether it would ever be possible to program in Chinese. Of course, computer language isn’t quite human language, but most computer languages today are heavily based on English, both in the built in functions, and in the libraries that people distribute. Thus, you write

System.PrintScreen(”Hello”), and not Sistemo.SkribuEkrane(”Saluton”)

I explained that most modern languages have very few built-in functions, and that as long as the interpreter or compiler supports UTF-8 variables and function names, you could theoretically rewrite all functions and variables to be in another language. Today, my friend forwarded me evidence that someone has gone much further.

Chinese Python is a complete translation of Python into Chinese. Not only is all the documentation, and all the program feedback and error codes in Chinese, but you can write your entire program in Chinese - all the variables and function names can be in Chinese, and all the built-in functions are named in Chinese. Thus, instead of “if a=2″ you write “如果阿=2″, where 如果 is the Chinese word for “if”, and 阿 is the arbitrary name of your variable.

Here is a longer example for you to compare: (from Chinese Wikipedia).

Chinese Python:

#!/usr/bin/env zhpy
# 檔名: while.py
數字 = 23
運行 = 真
當 運行:
    猜測 = 整數(輸入('輸入一個數字: '))

    如果 猜測 == 數字:
        印出 '恭喜, 你猜對了.'
        運行 = 假 # 這會讓循環語句結束
    假使 猜測 < 數字:
        印出 '錯了, 數字再大一點.'
    否則:
        印出 '錯了, 數字再小一點.'
否則:
    印出 '循環語句結束'
印出 '結束'

English Python:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# File name: while.twpy
number = 23
running = True
while running:
    guess = int(raw_input('Enter an integer : '))

    if guess == number:
        print 'Congratulations, you guessed it.'
        running = False # this causes the while loop to stop
    elif guess < number:
        print 'No, it is higher than that.'
    else:
        print 'No, it is lower than that.'
else:
    print 'The while loop is over'
print 'Done'

I think this is a great project. Certainly, programming is no longer the “walled garden” or closed loop it was when I was toying around in QBasic. Today, programmers use lot’s of different libraries, plug-in to APIs etc, and it would be almost impossible to translate all of these to Chinese, and sad to have to block yourself from anything not translated. However, to teach kids the basic principles behind programming, this would probably be extremely helpful. Jim Cummins, who researches bilingual education, has argued that immigrants who receive most of their primary education in their own languages, and only a bit of training in English, actually do much better in school, and speak better English, than those who are “immersed” in English from day one.

This is because most of the process in primary school centers around learning advanced concepts and ways of thinking. If this is done in the mother tongue, the student learns much better, and is easily able to transfer this to English. I wonder if something similar would be the case here, that a student that has already learnt the logic behind programming, and learnt how to think like a programmer, would not have any problem picking up the few commands “PRINT” and “GOTO” in English. After all, what they teach you in comp sci classes is not to memorize as many class names and variables as possible (I usually have to look those up anyway), but algorithms and ways of thinking. That should be transferable.

(It would be a great research project to see if this is the case. A) If kids in China who are exposed to Chinese Python pick up programming concepts more quickly, and B) If kids who have been trained in Chinese Python are able to at a certain stage switch to English Python and catch up with a cohort that was trained in English Python from the get-go).

Stian Håklev November 21, 2008 Toronto, Canada

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Chinese Python: Translating a programming language