When it comes to developing code, if you have limited English knowledge then you might find yourself not only frustrated with the programming logic, but also the fact that you will have to pick up enough English to understand what is being typed. However, with Apple’s new easy-to-learn programming language Swift, a new project has translated the language into Mandarin Chinese, making it easier to pick up for people who speak this language with not much English.

There have been some programming code bases that are in languages other than English, but they have largely not been side-projects and have not gained much ground. Commonly, if you wish to code, then you must learn some English; however, this latest project shows that with Swift, this has changed.

The project is available on GitHub, and has skyrocketed to being one of the more visited repositories on the site. This is in part because of interest in iOS development that has propelled Swift’s popularity. As Apple dives into the Chinese market, there has been increasing interest in iOS development by Chinese users, so without official support for Chinese, this project fills the gap.

Unfortunately Apple has so far not offered any translations for Swift, so while the programming language is a hot topic and while this project makes it available to far more developers, we may not see other languages supported until similar projects take off. However, this may very well pave a path to such developments taking place.

If you are not a coder, and particularly a Chinese coder, then this news may not seem relevant; however, the popularity of this product reflects the popularity of iOS and Mac OS devices in China, and may give some insight into how Apple is faring as it makes inroads into the Chinese market.