On Language

One of the odder, the more quintessentially me aspects of my life as a web developer, as a computer programmer in general, is that I find very little difference in learning a computer language and learning a human language. This is a difficult topic to describe, and sort of a difficult topic to live through because I haven’t found anyone else who looks at it quite the same way (if you’re out there give a shout!), but it goes to the heart of how I think about programming and learning new computer languages. I don’t find them intimidating by and large; they’re another pile of things for me to learn, but I understand how they work.

To me, computer languages and human languages work in fundamentally the same way. There are sets of specific parts arranged to convey meaning and intent, shaping and acting upon the context in which they exist. All human languages have roughly the same core parts, and computer languages also have a mutually intelligible kind of logic. Both types of language share vocabulary, the parts themselves, and syntax, the order in which you put the parts to finish off the meaning you want to convey. Some languages have less rigid syntax, some have more. Some languages have a smaller vocabulary and some bigger, but as a general statement once you understand the purposes of the parts you’re arranging, learning the syntax and vocabulary becomes much easier.

For, again, a very broad generalization made over literally thousands of languages both human and computer, if you want to accomplish something in a computer language you’ll use a binary structure. By inference, computer languages will have an if-then-else structure. If X is true, do Y. If X is false, do Z. It looks different in BASIC, in JavaScript, in Java, in Python, in Ruby, but the function of the structure is the same and when you understand how an if-then-else block works and can apply that logic to your program goals, it becomes easier to simply write lines of code. Human languages are more complex than if-then-else, but they still contain the same parts: nouns, verbs, adjectives. And they still have one of a very limited set of syntaxes, primarily Subject-Verb-Object (English, Russian, Mandarin) and Subject-Object-Verb (Japanese, Hindi); although more types than those exist those make up the overwhelming majority of language syntaxes.

For a more concrete example: the first computer language I learned was BASIC. BASIC’s if-then-else structure looks like this:

JavaScript’s if-then-else statements on the other hand look like:

Largely, the same idea and almost identical words. I don’t quite want to say “if you’ve seen one if-then-else statement you’ve seen ’em all” because obviously there’s questions of using brackets or curly braces or parentheses, and how you address the condition to be read true or false, and so on. But knowing that if-then logic exists is a fundamental concept of computer science that, if you’re down to taking it for granted, can help you conceptualize a program before you start writing a single line of code.

I could and have gone on for an hour on the subject of linguistic similarities, especially in otherwise seemingly disparate languages. My go-to is usually the one about Russian and Irish being similar in certain ways, and how I blame the Vikings. But for a less verbose example, I was raised speaking English and Spanish both. In high school, rather than continue on an advanced Spanish literature program, I opted to learn French instead. Because I already spoke another language, and a Latinate one at that (sharing the same Latin roots as Spanish), I was already comfortable with the concept of gendered nouns, a more verbose possessive noun system, even some of the vocabulary sharing root words with Spanish. Nobody is ever prepared for French counting systems, but you get the idea. My existing skill with languages built a strong foundation to learn more languages, and has continued to do so. Similarly, my existing foundation with computer code and programming languages helps me learn new languages.

As a final note, I want to say this is also useful for more than just being a giant nerd. Having recently completed a boot camp and frozen on numerous technical challenges and live coding exercises, I got even more nervous at the thought of doing one of these for a job interview. And then I thought back to my Japanese class where, invariably, unlike the class studies and the homework, I couldn’t just breeze through. I froze, forgetting all my vocabulary except the words for “for example” and “okay.” This always happened, unless I’d spent several hours rehearsing and rehearsing my phrases and grammar on my own or in conversation with other students, to the point where  it felt more instinctive than reaching back for a memory of a lesson. As exhausting as the prospect is, knowing this gives me confidence that I will eventually be able to pass technical challenges and live-coding exercises– if I do the prep work ahead of time. I can do this. I have ample proof that I can. I just have to put in the work.