Learn coding in English in Germany

# Version 1: the same program twice, with German keywords and with English ones
german = ('für zahl in bereich(1, 5):\n    größe = zahl * zahl\n'
          '    wenn größe > 5:\n        drucke(zahl, "->", größe)\n')
english = ('for zahl in range(1, 5):\n    größe = zahl * zahl\n'
           '    if größe > 5:\n        print(zahl, "->", größe)\n')

for name, source in (("German keywords", german), ("English keywords", english)):
    try:
        compile(source, name, "exec")
        print(name, "-> compiles")
    except SyntaxError as error:
        print(name, "->", error.msg, "on line", error.lineno)

exec(english)

The German version stops on its first line. Python reads für as an ordinary name, because ü is allowed in names, and then finds a second name, zahl, straight after it, which its grammar does not allow. The English version runs, and its German variable größe is perfectly legal. The message itself, invalid syntax, is English too: standard Python writes its error messages in English.

# Version 2: ask Python which words it read as keywords
import builtins, io, keyword, tokenize

words = [t.string for t in tokenize.generate_tokens(io.StringIO(english).readline)
         if t.type == tokenize.NAME]
print("Keywords:", [w for w in words if keyword.iskeyword(w)])
print("Built-in names:", sorted({w for w in words if hasattr(builtins, w)}))
print("Names the programmer chose:", sorted({w for w in words
      if not keyword.iskeyword(w) and not hasattr(builtins, w)}))
print("Python keywords in total:", len(keyword.kwlist))

The tokenize module splits the program into the pieces Python actually reads. Three of the words are keywords and can never change. Two are built-in names that every Python program shares. Only two belong to the programmer, and those two may be in any language. In our classes children usually start with English names as well, because a name like total or score is one more English word learned, but nothing in Python requires it.

1. Guess first. Before running Version 1, write down which version you think will fail and why.
2. Find the edge. Change only für back to for in the German version. Which line fails now?
3. Break a name. Try naming a variable class or if. What does Python say, and why can it not allow it?
4. Going further. List every keyword with print(keyword.kwlist) and write one sentence in English for each of the first ten.

PEP 3131, Supporting Non-ASCII Identifiers, status Final, Python 3.0, peps.python.org. The code, its output on Python 3.14.8 and the exercises are our own.

Sources: IQB pages on VERA and on the Abitur; NRW standardsicherung pages on ZP10 and the 2027 Abitur dates; bw-ki.de, Teilnahmebedingungen; agis-schools.org. All read on 2 November 2026. We are not connected with any of these bodies.

For a pupil at a German school, then, an hour of coding in English is not a detour. It is practice in a subject they will be examined in, attached to a skill they want. For a pupil at an international school, it is simply the language of their school day.

German time follows the Einheitenzeitgesetz: UTC+1 (MEZ) in winter, UTC+2 (MESZ) in summer, with this winter running from 25 October 2026 to 28 March 2027. India keeps UTC+5:30 and does not change its clocks, so the difference is four and a half hours now and three and a half in summer.

Those times are examples. You choose when your free first class takes place, in German time, and a one-to-one learner can agree regular times with the mentor.