He's 17 and doesn't speak perfect English. I don't think a book is the right thing for him as they might be too heavy for his knowledge and understanding of English. What do you guys recommend? I don't really know what to tell him.
ah well i suggest that your brother should study basic english because that is essential there are many sources on the web for php learning if he know english or find someone in your locality that can translate english to your language.
+1 to you MrNightMan php is more on what you understand when constructing a sentence.. anyways heres some reference for you http://www.w3schools.com
That's a huge load of crap. You don't need to know english to learn PHP It makes things easier, but it's not necessary
Since your brother doesn't speak English why don't you look for some books and stuff in your language? Learning a programming language doesn't depend on knowing a human language. Not knowing what the word 'include' means doesn't mean you can't know what happens when you use include()... Yeah, it's easier to learn when you know English, but it's not obligatory. What is your mother tongue? Maybe there are lots of members here that are from the same country and can help you with resources if you tell where you are from
i think for your brother w3schools.com will be good one and language do not matter for programming language
+1 to you also Kyosys the evolution of programming languages was lined to english.. thats why theres a if,else,etc.. its true there some point you have to understand english, BUT its not that necessary. or you will be using binaries if you like. ^^, joke
Well, im a programmer of html, vb and basic php. And to be honest. It can make things better and easier and its better, since English is an universal language, and it could help him in LOT OF THINGS. But if he is not interested you can easily go to a book store or buy a virtual book in your language. Thanks MudiW
even if he speak 'bad' english.. but understands what lecturer is talking about.. then its nothing to do with learning php..
A book or online documentation on php is necessary no matter what, and then just programming it, is the only way to learn...
That make no sense. A couple of my friends don't even know how to speak English but yet they still able to learn PHP. English is not a must when learning a programming language although it help a little bit. I don't know where do you live but I believe you can get a PHP book in your own language. Otherwise, ask your brother to attend a PHP short course in your area. With a guide from experience people, I'm sure your brother can learn PHP without thinking English is an issue. - Dynashox -
Most programming books are written in simple english if I'm not wrong. But either way, you can ask your bro to be like me and just learn PHP entirely from w3schools. The best way is to go practical and test them out, not just reading from books and not knowing what each statements actually do. I'm 2 weeks old in PHP knowledge.
I self-learned PHP, maybe he can do that. But actually to be honest, knowing English helped A LOT in self-learning PHP.
There are huge amount of web resources available for PHP tutorials, and in fact i learned PHP, XHTML and CSS this way. But English is a must these days, as basics are more dependent on it to start things from scratch and learn.
Let me through my 10 cents in the pot. 1. Tell him to review sites like the one @bartolay13 said, w3schools.com brand new design. Then travel over to http://www.tizag.com/phpT/ because they explain some nice tips for you to learn as well. Don't forget to tell him to check out the MySQL tutorial because it goes hand in hand with PHP. Location: http://www.tizag.com/mysqlTutorial/. Another site is pixel2life.com one of my favorite sites back when I started. http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/php_coding/ There is a bunch of sub categories for it as well and tutorials on things you might want to make in the long run. 2. Find a good helping community such as the one here at DP, or better yet http://phpfreaks.com/forums great community for getting help. Like you said he doesn't know english well, make sure he states that in his posts so people don't flame him and be more willing to help him. But yet english is a must in this world (No really..) 3. When you learn something from any tutorial, try repeating the tutorial over and over to where you can write it from memory. Note do the tutorial once a day and that will help. Don't ever force information into your brain all at once unless you really have to (client work). Learn to create: guest books, shout boxes, creating dynamic signatures, simple things like that then work on a project that you really want to create for yourself. This will help you learn different aspects on a certain thing. For example I learned PHP by creating my own forum. Each step I took to create the forum was just another part in learning something new for PHP.
Hi, I suggest w3schools.com which is one of the best site for learning .Even i have learned many things there tell him to refer.It will be helpful for him.
w3schools is good, but don't forget php.net. It is available in multiple languages. I also like phpfreaks and www.webdeveloper.com Another thing is to install open source software like Menalto gallery or OSCart/Zen-Cart and just hack away at it until you make it do what you want. English is my native language, and I am certain that it helps me understand what function names mean. He doesn't need to become fluent, or even learn good grammer, but a good English vocabulary sure wouldn't hurt! (It will also help when he posts questions in the forums.) See if anything by Kevin Yank (like: Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP and MySQL) has been translated into your language.
PHP Documents(Manual) isn't always good choice for beginners unless you work well with learning from manuals thats a different story.