Enhancing English Proficiency through Coding and Agile Thinking

Professional programmers are consistently dedicated in thinking how to improve their codes and what potential issues have during the development of systems.

It implies that we have limited time to learn another language and must simultaneously learn English and technology in serveral ways.

We should have diverse strategies to achieve our proficiency goals in non-native languages. I have gained some experiences through my previous pratices that I'd like to share with you, as follows:

  1. Communicating with foreign programmers and travellers in English for open-source projects.(Speaking)
    • Three years ago, I met a man, Trevor living in St. Kitts, the country where I volunteered for one year. He wanted to start his e-commerce business to sell recycled items on the island. When I heard about it, I decided to help him and began to explore open-source e-commerce frameworks. We chose one of them, Medusa as our initial project discussed via Discord. 
Our conversation on Discord
  • Six years ago, on Couchsurfing, I encountered a director from Serbia in Europe and I assisted him in organizing auditions in Taiwan. Even at that time, my English was not good enough, but it was truly helpful for me to learn how to communicate with foreigners on meaningful projects. Nowadays, I continue to host many surfers at my place and introduce Taiwan to them using English.
  1. Reading the latest technical articles written in English from abroad. (Reading)
    • There are many latest technical articles in Medium and DEV Community. I often read them which are very beneficial for the improvement in both English and technology.
  2. Writing technical articles in English as a language practice. (Writing)
    • It is something I have already accomplished in Dev.to and here .
  3. Organizing a study group to share the latest AI technology discussed in TEDTalks in English. (Listening, Speaking)
    • I have been participating in an online study group with several individuals for over four years. We share summaries of the TEDTalks we have watched.
  4. Delivering applications to international companies using English. (Reading, Writing)
    • Prepare your English CV, working experiences, portfolio, and blogs for Job banks such as LinkedIn, Turing, Upward, Arc, meet.jobs, etc.
    • Search for jobs and read their job descriptions. Afterwards, send offer letter to companies in English.
  5. Applying to international technical conferences to perform presentations in English. (Reading, Writing, Speaking)
    • It is the most challenging part, and you may encounter failure many times.



      • Don't feel frustrated. There are many technical events and conferences where you can apply. Simply write down a rough topic and description for which you have something to share.
    Developer conferences 2024 / 2025
    dev.events
    A list of conferences scheduled for 2024
        • Ultimately, it will succeed.
      Implementing a Virtual-Physical Environment Manipulation System based on ROS using Python and Three.js | Conf42

      The final point: don't forget to use ChatGPT for assistance, but ensure not to simply copy and paste.

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