   foreign programmer in an American\English team
  no no, not to worry, this isn''t some sort of racist thread, the foreign programmer to which i''m referring is in fact, me! (didn''t see that one coming, did you?)here''s the deal, I''m a kid (15 years old) with ambitions to become a programmer (I already got the casual clothing, lack of social life and long hair down, just the programming needs some work  ), but (if you would divert your eyes to the top of my post), there aren''t that many game companies in Belgium at this time, so I will most likely be forced to move to America, where the real gold is (FORCED is a strong word, I don''t hate America mind you  ), anyway, my English isn''t all that great and there will be the hassle of getting a green card and stuff, so I  was wondering, if there are any professional game programmers among you, how good do you think my odds are? Do game programmers tend to go for the local boys, or do I stand an equal chance? how fast do foreign team members pick up the language? is there good communication with everyone? Will my dutch accent be noticable? do I even HAVE an accent? any answer to these questions (except the last one  ) and some information where possible will be greatly appreciated!Pieter-Paul Catteeuw 
  Unfortunately, I can''t really advise you on the green card stuff as I am not an American but your English is fine. Although there are a few grammatical mistakes in your message, your ability to write English is far better than many people i''ve met who are actually English. ;  I would assume mmost companies will simply hire who they feel has the best skillset to do the job at hand.  America has a nice cultural diversity, and I don''t think you having an accent or being a tad behind in the language will be a problem.  I understood your post just fine.  So any shortcomings you have in the language department I feel you will pick up quickly.  But basically, I feel it will all just come down to how good of a programmer you are.  Study hard, stay in school, and you''ll be just fine.  Or hell, Start your own company in Belgium.  You''re not the only (Belgite, Belgiumian, Belgican, I don''t know what the right word is hahaha) in Belgium are you?  Find others and get a project going. ;quote:Original post by Stonicus  I would assume mmost companies will simply hire who they feel has the best skillset to do the job at hand.  America has a nice cultural diversity, and I don''t think you having an accent or being a tad behind in the language will be a problem.  I understood your post just fine.  So any shortcomings you have in the language department I feel you will pick up quickly.  But basically, I feel it will all just come down to how good of a programmer you are.  Study hard, stay in school, and you''ll be just fine.  Or hell, Start your own company in Belgium.  You''re not the only (Belgite, Belgiumian, Belgican, I don''t know what the right word is hahaha) in Belgium are you?  Find others and get a project going.   belgian, the word is belgian anyway, thanks for the information and your idea isn''t bad, I''ll definitly consider it!;  I don''t know about game programming but in CS there are usually a lot of people from India, China and other places who probably speak worse English than you do. If I''m talking to someone with a thick accent it might be difficult at first but you tend to get used to it, just like the other person is getting used to talking English...so it''s a two-way street. 