The method names doesnt translated to the selected language.

[zeynepgk3]

go to the maze part, then complete a maze. you will see a success popup that explains the algorithm with javascript methods. but the method names are english, so the children who doesn't know english will not understand the code part at all.

[Ahmed-Khaled-JS]

It makes sense for the method names to be written in English.
Even though the children may not know English, using standard English naming for methods is important for introducing them to real-world programming conventions and ensuring code consistency.

[NeilFraser]

This is a really interesting issue. Both @zeynepgk3 and @Ahmed-Khaled-JS have valid points.

Translating JavaScript keywords is definitely a hard 'no'. Students absolutely need to learn 'while', 'if', 'var'. Otherwise they will get lost in later games. That said, for Maze there's a good argument for translating the three 'moveForward', 'turnRight', 'turnLeft' API calls to the native language.

Here's a screenshot of level 2 in Turkish:

And here's a screenshot of the much more complicated level 10 where English starts leaking in:

And for good measure, here's the same in Arabic with a mix of LTR code and RTL function names:

Arguably the 'notDone' and 'isPathLeft/Right/Forward' API calls should also be translated, but we don't have words for those.

This change has been deployed.

Please note however that this repo (google/blockly-games) is supposed to be dead; the project moved last year (NeilFraser/blockly-games).

[NeilFraser]

Note that because this repo is abandoned, I don't have permission to close the issue here. @cpcallen can you close this issue and maybe even get this repo redirected to the current one?

[NeilFraser]

See Issue #256 for a contrasting voice.

[JonasDeJaegher]

I find it very unfortunate that the three methods (forward, left, and right) are translated into the selected language.
Visual programming (using blocks) is more than sufficient for children who do not yet speak English.
As soon as they want to go further and understand the code, they need to be proficient in English. That is why it seems entirely logical to me to display the first three methods in English as well.
Otherwise, the JavaScript code from level 3 onwards will be very confusing for children. Some of it will be displayed in the selected language and the other methods in English.

I think the only good solution is to have everything in English, so that the code is uniform.

[NeilFraser]

Could it be that there are two different audiences?

1. The first group has a passing familiarity with English, and despite being far from fluent, they can understand the intent of what's going on. For this group a partial translation of code is unnecessary and potentially confusing.
2. The second group has no English knowledge and see the code as meaningless squiggles (as though we are looking at "คนส่วนใหญ่อ่านไม่ออกหรอก โชคดีนะ"). For this group some help is needed to associate the code with their blocks.

I wonder if there are ways to satisfy both groups using the same UI. Something along the lines of tooltips over the English function names that translate them to the local language? That specific idea is bad since tooltips aren't discoverable, but that might be in the right direction.

Thoughts?

[JonasDeJaegher]

I am fairly certain that there are at least two groups that use Blockly.

The first question I ask myself is this: if someone does not have a sufficient command of English to understand the syntax, would a partial translation be of any use to them? Translating it completely into the chosen language seems like a complete no-go to me. In every programming language, we talk about if & else, while ...

If we want to get young people excited about programming (and this can be done at a younger age), I think it is important to teach them the different structures through games. That way, they will enjoy it. The visual aspect of Blockly is particularly strong in this regard. Of course, we also want to take these young people a step further. We want them to make the transfer between the blocks and the code. Then they can continue on their path in programming. And I think they can only follow this path if they have a good command of English. If they search online for methods that have been translated into their native language, they will have little success.

What are your thoughts on this?

[zeynepgk3]

I am fairly certain that there are at least two groups that use Blockly.

The first question I ask myself is this: if someone does not have a sufficient command of English to understand the syntax, would a partial translation be of any use to them? Translating it completely into the chosen language seems like a complete no-go to me. In every programming language, we talk about if & else, while ...

If we want to get young people excited about programming (and this can be done at a younger age), I think it is important to teach them the different structures through games. That way, they will enjoy it. The visual aspect of Blockly is particularly strong in this regard. Of course, we also want to take these young people a step further. We want them to make the transfer between the blocks and the code. Then they can continue on their path in programming. And I think they can only follow this path if they have a good command of English. If they search online for methods that have been translated into their native language, they will have little success.

What are your thoughts on this?

I think it’s important to consider the needs of both groups here. Leaving everything in English might discourage younger children who have no prior exposure to the language, while fully translating the method names risks creating a disconnect when they progress further. A possible solution could be to keep the method names in English but provide a translation in parentheses or via a tooltip. This way, children are introduced to real-world programming conventions while still having local-language support to avoid confusion at the beginning. Instead of choosing one side, a dual-language approach would be more inclusive.

If you guys all agree on that, I will try to apply the solution, then we will see the outcome. @JonasDeJaegher @NeilFraser @Ahmed-Khaled-JS

@NeilFraser could you please share the new repo's link here?

[JonasDeJaegher]

The tooltip seems like a great solution to me. That way, the code is entirely in English. In addition, they also introduce comment tags in the syntax. This is also interesting information in terms of syntax for those who are fluent in the language. Children who are not yet sufficiently proficient in English will be able to understand the code better this way. I am curious to see the result.

[NeilFraser]

I'm not really a fan of the tooltips since it's not discoverable. Users need to know that they can hover the mouse over each line. But @JonasDeJaegher mentioned comment tags. Maybe that's a better approach. Consider this:

moveForward();  // ↑
turnLeft();     // ↺
moveForward();  // ↑
turnRight();    // ↻
moveForward();  // ↑

Note that Blockly Games uses syntax highlighting, unlike this Github comment.