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Should this count as a language? | ||
Tags: Programming | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5035 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 38 21 February 2014 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I live next to a state that is considering computer programming to fulfill a foreign language requirement. I'll try to
post the link that accompanied the email: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stacie-nevadomski-berdan/compu ter-science-is-not-a_b_4823691.html While computer programming is certainly "all Greek to me," what are others' thoughts on this? Do you all consider this a legitimate option to 2 years of foreign language instruction? Granted, many have low opinions of second language study in high school, but this is addressed in other threads. What do you think? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5024 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 2 of 38 21 February 2014 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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If we're talking about the Platonic question of is computer language just another type of language, then the answer is no. There are obvious and non-arbitrary differences between computer languages and what we would traditionally call languages.
As to the separate question of the wisdom of the program, it's probably a good idea since most high school language classes, whatever their quality, aren't very effective, and few will ever achieve fluency. Moreover, English being the closest thing to a lingua franca in the world, it's doubly pointless to try and make Americans learn foreign languages. Finally, computer programming is almost surely a more useful skill in the United States economy than any foreign language. I'd of course prefer a (real) language course--but I try to keep my preferences to myself. I generally support giving people, or at least their families, more freedom to govern their own educations, not less. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4503 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 3 of 38 21 February 2014 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||
It's worthwhile making it compulsory in the modern age, but not replacing a foreign language - both should be compulsory along with English and mathematics. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5052 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 4 of 38 21 February 2014 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
I couldn't have said this better myself. As an amateur programmer and a language enthusiast, I will say that programming is nothing like learning a foreign language. However, I will also say that the average person will benefit far more from the type of critical, logical, algorithmic thinking required for programming than they would from knowing some French conjugation tables. Edited by MixedUpCody on 21 February 2014 at 8:44pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4122 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 5 of 38 21 February 2014 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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I work as a programmer. Although they have a few things in common, programming languages and
"human" languages are almost completely different things: you can't talk with another person in C++, and you can't build a computer application with Spanish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cristianoo Triglot Senior Member Brazil https://projetopoligRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3917 days ago 175 posts - 289 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, FrenchB2, English Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 38 21 February 2014 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, it's a language, but should'nt be counted as a foreign language as it is far easier
to learn. The vocabulary is very small and grammar rules are very well structured and with no "exceptions" or oddities. So count it as foreign language is some sort of laziness to me 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nandemonai Diglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3969 days ago 101 posts - 116 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 38 22 February 2014 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree with this. I would love to have had this possibility. In high school I have wasted a lot of time in badly taught foreign language classes, which could've been used for more interesting subjects. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4418 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 8 of 38 24 February 2014 at 11:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Funnily enough, I've met a lot of professional computer programmers, who are obviously "fluent" in a progamming language, who tell me that they "can't do foreign languages"
3 persons have voted this message useful |
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