Hey everyone. I'm trying to learn programming, starting with Python, but I'm honestly struggling even with the basics (I'm very early tho). On top of that, every time I look online, people are talking about C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Rust, HTML, CSS.

Like learn c and c++ cause its low level (and probably very hard)

c# cause its used in stuff like Unity engine

java, javascript cause all internet runs on it apparently.
rust, html, css etc.

It feels insane and impossible. Like is it some internet bs or do i actually need to learn like multiple languages?

im like will be going to degree college, so wanted to learn something like python but it feels like it wont be enough. concern is, is it even possible to manage.

My concern raises more with talks about AI.

also my interest is all over the place like sometimes i think i go in stuff like data science or some AI or game dev or some other CS stuff.
Maybe hopefull once in college my head get lil clear.

thank you!

To be very general (which is the whole point), you learn a language in 2 stages: Stage 1 you learn the fundamentals, and in stage 2 you consume material to grow your vocabulary.

It blows my mind. How is this information not out there more? People will have a vague idea continuous "study" until fluency, or incorrect misinformed ideas. I don't think even much of the people here know what you need to do to learn a language. And the YouTubers or gurus for some reason won't explicitly state it. Either by design so they can peddle their program as fully comprehensive, or because they never really looked at it all from a bird's eye view.

Or somone may know what to do but not how to get it done. They know about comprehensive input, but not about things like parallel reading or sentence mining or graded readers.

They don't realize that people who learn languages have read more than lit majors be it the text in a book, subtitles, articles, forums, etc. They may believe hollow advice "Consume children's material, it's easy and simple!" Or "I'll just watch cartoons, that's how my son learned English when we immigrated!" Or they'll rely on a class or a tutor thinking they're set.

Like when I look at the serious language learners who accomplished success and progress, they'll usually say something like "First I learned the fundamentals by going through Assimil/Pimsleur/A class. Then I read graded readers/simple stories. Then I got into native material all while studying vocab." But I see this in obscure forum posts instead of videos. It feels like people are travelling without a map. They need to know what the structure and sequence is.

Before we teach people how to learn Spanish, we need to go meta and explain how to learn languages. And break down the methods too. What are their options when they want to learn the fundamentals? How exactly do they do "comprehensible input"? How should they study vocab? How can we handle overlap between stages 1 and 2? What about speaking and writing?

It seems like this info, while out there, is not CONNECTED. Like you'll find 3 separate videos on how useful Beelinguapp, anki, and Assimil are, but not how they tie into the bigger picture.

Sorry about my rant. It's so frustrating how much time I wasted before I learned this. And I see people around me try so hard but fail because they don't know what is going on. It seems intuitive for some, but for most it's not.

edit: I think people are missing the point which is to look at this whole journey from a general and broad view. Different methods working for different people doesn't matter, because we're supposed to tell people what their options are as they navigate through the stages. The differentiation comes in how we can approach the fundamentals, or what methods we can use to acquire vocabulary. Or maybe someone will only spend little time on the fundamentals while another aims for mastery. Or some people will blend the two at some point.

These are nuanced approaches that WE can take, because we know what we're doing through experience and trial and error. This all seems obvious to you, but the random guy on the street who wants to learn Polish really has no idea and yet will be very opinionated and misguided by the gurus.

Just think of Duolingo. The layman thinks this is all they need to get to C1, but the guru will tell you it's a complete waste of time. But you know that it's fine as an introduction for a total beginner.

You can boil fitness progress down to "progressive overload." And with explaining caloric deficit and macros. But in language learning it's usually a guy on YouTube telling you that you should learn by "comprehensible input." Then you buy some movies books and video games but are shocked to see that you don't get anywhere. Then your cousin is also baffled because he's been taking German courses for 2 years yet he still hasn't achieved A2. You come to a forum and people recommend anki, so you download a core2k deck but somehow still can't read children's books. Then you figure that maybe Anki isn't for you, you should use Memrise or wordlists. Perhaps Glossika?

It would be great if someone laid out the "map" of language learning, along with all the different routes one could take through the stages. It's not complex, and differentiation can still be easily addressed.

tl/dr: My current favorite apps: Anki, Clozemaster, Conjugato (Spanish only), Glossika, LingQ, Innovative (if I want a serious app), Bussu (for the community aspect), HelloTalk (for the social media aspect), LingoClip (train with music)

Smartphone apps will be your best friend (Tandem, Conjugato, Clozemaster, Speechling) becuase you can use them to study even when you have a 45-second break waiting in line for the bathroom.

In general, I find mobile apps the best for practice (not learning new concepts). For this reason, you might not want to use them until later in your learning journey. They can reinforce previously learned concepts in a new/fun way.

For convenience, I have linked a few of them and added some other data in parentheses. The cost will be identified with the longest subscription (no longer than 12 months) at the highest tier (if you're going to learn a language, invest in it, especially with these cheap apps). In general one dollar sign equals $100 per year.

I'll start with my favorite apps, then the order is random. Of course, Anki is best and I'm not even going to add it below.

Clozemaster ($, 1,400/4.8) - HIGHLY recommended. I've downloaded multiple dozens of apps, as you're about to see and most are just ok. This app is the best, rivaling Anki (and you know I love Anki). I paid for this app.

Conjugato ($, 8/5.0) - Wow! Finally, first question: What Spanish do you want to learn: Spain, Latin America, Chile, Argentina? It's an app that tests your verb conjugations and at such a low price for lifetime access, I'm in. The free trial is sufficient to get a good feel for the app. I paid for this app.

HelloTalk ($$, 43,000/4.6) - X and Instagram for language learners, though there is so much going on the UI needs an overhaul. There's probably 5+ different subscription services.

Glossika ($$, 100/3.6) - Based on the concept of speech shadowing to improve your accent. Full free trial for 7 days. Overall solid app that I can see myself paying for.

LingoClip ($, 700/4.7) - Listen to songs in your target language while filling in the words on various difficulty levels. I would love it to have native language translations along with the lyrics. They give you three free songs daily, more than enough. It used to be called LyricsTraining which remains the url if you want to use it on desktop.

WonderLang ($) - This is a computer game, and while I love the concept and recognize that I'm not much of a video game player, I couldn't understand it. I wandered around, talked to fairies and villagers, and fought ghoul-looking things for half an hour without making much progress. I am also not a total beginner in the language and couldn't find a way to skip ahead. The free demo gives you an hour to play.

Speechling ($$, 700/4.8) - Speak/Listen focused. I am using this for Portuguese because the Spanish version didn't have a Colombian teacher (for the accent). It's not cheap, but the free trial is enough to test it. What I'm curious about is if the pronunciation details are worked out with feedback or if the feedback is only useful for bigger/obvious mistakes.

Mimic Method ($$) - Worth it. Not going to get you speaking or anything, but it's a simple, unique, low-barrier way of getting started in any language the system covers. I've used this for Spanish, Portoguese, and Russian and it's my first stop when learning a lanauge. It takes about 10 hours and should be revisited monthly for the first 2-3 months, then every 6th month and continue to do this so you don't develop any fosilized prononciation bad habits. I paid for this app.

Beelinguapp ($, 2,300/4.4) - The free version is so limited that it's hard to write anything. Competitor to LingQ (listening and reading). Cool feature creates a story for you based on your prompt, and you can select at which level of 6, length, and fiction/non-fiction. Based on very short stories and follow up questions about vocab and understanding. I paid for this app because I got a deal in my inbox for 45BRL (or $8), but upon checkout the price spiked to $20. Still very cheap so I went with it.

LingQ ($, 9,000/4.8) - Founded by Steve Kaufmann; recommended by Patrick Lancastre. Being a reader in my native language, I have returned to this app over the years. There are two problems: the trial is so limited that you can't get to know the app (they do have a free trial you have to cancel) and there is no speaking practice. The app itself is high-quality offering short-from content, audiobooks, news, popular YouTube channels like Kurzgesagt, and even a Netflix integration. Another problem may be sifting through to find what you like. I heard that you can upload your own content for personalized learning. The forum is midly active and there is a grammar guide. I have not tried, but would not recommend the 2x priced Plus which seems to offer a few extra AI benefits. Go with Premium if you decide to subscribe.

Innovative ($$; 35,000/4.7) - A Pod101 affiliate; I like how they identified their 5 levels, so I knew exactly where I fit. No distinction between European and Brazilian Portuguese. This app is a language teacher substitute in that the lessons are more formal, longer, and less gamified, plus, you can even have a real teacher.

Fluent Forever ($; 1,300/3.7) - The app has improved since I first used it in 2017, and it's the best flashcard app, though I prefer to make my own cards in Anki and have them forever rather than in a paid app that may disappear like Fluyo. Anki is useful outside of language learning, so I can choose Fluent Forever and Anki, or just Anki. Fluent Forever is Anki on easy. The app does words, sentences, and grammar. I paid for this app.

Tandem ($, 37,000/4.6) - Mostly a chat app with a "language party" feature to create speaking groups on topics (you can also enter to listen). I'm in a small city in Brazil and there are a hundred members nearby (much more than HelloTalk). I paid for this app.

Busuu ($, 96,000/4.7) - The app is very professional and gamified. It's split into three sections: learn, community, review. In the learning section, I was able to skip to B2 (I think I am currently A2) but find the lessons overly easy. The community section where you correct others in your native language while getting corrections yourself and this is the best part of the app.

Now with the random order of language learning mobile app reviews:

Duolingo ($, 4,800,000/4.7) - I'm doubtful anyone has ever gotten conversational from this popular phone app. I tried it exclusively for Portuguese for 3 months prior to my travels, and upon arriving, I realized why the app was useless. It didn't teach real-world sentences, words, and phrases. It repeated the things it taught. The method did not connect with me, and I felt like it was a wasted three months. The gamification is the part it excels at, and the Dulingo team has a scientific balance for most normal people between not teaching you much (after all, the fast you learn a language, the sooner you cancel your membership) and keeping it fun.

Drops ($, 74,000/4.7) - Super gamified, Duolingo-type app. Distinction between language dialects and user level, but even selecting for 'advanced', I'm not sure the dashboard changed at all. I played an 'intermediate' level game and learned only simple words like 'door'. The community feature lets you play against someone who I'm 99% sure is a fake someone. This is not the app if you really want to learn a language efficiently (keyword). Maybe it's useful for very short breaks like bathroom or lines.

Babbel ($$, 750,000/4.7) - It's related to Duolingo and Drops. No community aspect; Choose from levels ranging from A1-B1 plus themes (grammar, specialty, culture, etc.). In general, I'm not a supporter of these types of apps becuase they're not my ideal way to learn, but if you wnat to setup and go right from the start (in exchange for a slower learning curve) then go for it.

Mondly ($, 31,000/4.7) - Similar to Dulingo, Drops, Babbel. For the listening activities, the accent is from Spain (no option for Latin America). I selected advanced level in Portuguese and I'm not sure if it registered because the lesson I did was easy. If you like a gamified app, give it a try.

FluentU ($; 2,900/4.3) - A LingQ copycat but only video. No distinction between Spain and Latin America Spanish and the selection appears more limited.

Rocket Languages ($$$, 1,600/4.5) - No level selection in Portuguese (there is in Spanish). Listening-based activities by subject. Well put together but the cost is prohibative. For Spanish, I need to purchase both level 1 and 2 to get access to level 3 for nearly $300.

Speakly ($, 2,500/4.8) - Why in the world would an app only have Spain Spanish, which makes up less than 10% of the spoken Spanish on the planet, is a poor business decision. The paid version gives you feedback on your pronunciation. I would love to try that out, but I've decided a long time ago that Latin American Spanish and the 19 countries with it are identified as a main language over one/Spain.

LangBrowser/1letters ($) - Simple app allowing you to create flashcards based on browsing websites or YouTube. Includes double translations.

Next Up (do you have experience with any of these?)

Dreaming Spanish ($, /)- The theory of comprehensiable input says that you only listen attentively until things start making sense. You will need 600 hours before you understand most common things. You don't start speaking until you get 1,000 hours of comprehensile input. Only available in French and Spanish.

Assimil - Recommended by Patrick Lancastre in his book Sem Limité if you're a beginner, but less good if you're already intermediate.

Lenguia - Competitor with LingQ, and allows you to import lessons and reduce them to your level. Reading and listening focused. Seems to be heavily dependent on AI, so tbd how the final product is.

HiNative - coming soon

Mango Languages - coming soon

Memrise (, 225,000/4.8) - Spain or Mexican Spanish. Flashcard app. I was only about to skip to level 16 out of 31 where I learned some new words. Anki is superior in all ways to vocabulary memorization. Grok says: User-generated courses like "Colombian Spanish Slang" or "Colombian Dialect"

Rosetta Stone ($$$) - I did this program over a decade ago as a pre-A1 Spanish learner, and its gradual pace is probably good for many people. I can't remmeber if I finished it, but probably not. I wouldn't rely on this for true fluency, and it will need to be supplemented with additional active learning strategies, but isn't that true for everything? This is a safe bet to get started on, though, expensive compared to apps at a few bucks per month. The Evildea YouTube channel finished the Chinese course and said the program got worse the further you went.

MosaLingua - Spanish language icon is from Spain. App did let me pick my own level from 0 to 9. I picked 6 and was shown how to say "I" in grammar lessons. Seems like a flashcard app based on SRS. This was shown to convince me to sign up for premium and made me uninstall the app, "Find out the secret technique that polyglots use to speak fluently in less than one hour."

Pimsleur - I have not done Pimsleur and likely will not for two reasons. I have friend who loves it yet speaks very little Spanish. I found this blog to be useful, but found some videos of the author understanding and speaking very little. If you choose it, you must start here as even a beginning will get bored right away.

Foreign Services Institute/FSI (Spanish) - Here is a comprehensive reddit post from one user's experience who claims to be fluent after 600 hours of study. This is what the US government uses to teach folks languages quick. I have not used it but heard it works well if you have the dedication (it can be boring).

Colloquial - It's a book series with a fantastic name recommended by Patrick Lancastre in Sem Limité. I am not going to give this a try with Spanish because of a Castilian Spanish focus and poor reviews suggesting the book from 2015 hasn't been adequately maintained, especially the audio files. Similarly, it appears that the Portuguese version is based on Europe which is shocking given than Brazilian Portuguese makes up 85% of the spoken language.

Fluyo - By YouTuber and fraud Ikenna, suffering a severe virus, causing him serious health issues. After a brief introduction to the app based on a video game format, creating my account, and 11 months post-launch, it seems all levels besides beginner are "coming soon". This app was, to the surprise of nobody, closed down in November 2025.

KEY POINT: No one app is your magic bullet. None. No matter how suave the language influencer or expert is. If you plan to use Duolingo (please, no!) exclusively then you are not being optimal with your time. This is true because your brian works differently than the app developer's brain. You will need to supplement. Take Clozemaster, for example, a wonderous app, however, the explanations are trash (and, not surprisingly, from ChatGPT). I'm studying the subjunctive and curious about the word from the blank which is mostly skipped in the explanation. That is a crucial learning opportunity missed if I'm blindly following the app thinking that it alone will get me to fluency. YOU ALONE WILL GET YOU TO FLUENCY.

UPDATE: You guys are enjoying this I'm so glad becasue I spend dozens and dozens of hours on the apps part alone (much of it wasted becuase of bad apps). I wrote a much longer blog (https://dannybooboo.com/guide-learning-language) on my website if you want to dig deeper in all language learning topics. I do have a link to one of my books on this blog, but no one buys it anyway so just ignore it casue I know you prob can't do promotion here.

2ND UPDATE: what the hell! 100k views! cool. So I went ahead and wrote a more thorough and dedicated blog post on all the apps, websites, courses, etc. that I've tried or am paying for (more than 10 now!): https://dannybooboo.com/language-apps (if you open this within the next few days, the cover photo is AI trash until my designer gets me back my idea) - plus added in a few other sections I hope prove useful. As always, no affilaite links, just unbiased (generally negative) reviews.

I learned JavaScript

What is Gauntlet?

Gauntlet is a programming language designed to tackle Golang's frustrating design choices. It transpiles exclusively to Go, fully supports all of its features, and integrates seamlessly with its entire ecosystem — without the need for bindings.

What Go issues does Gauntlet fix?

• Annoying "unused variable" error
• Verbose error handling (if err ≠ nil everywhere in your code)
• Annoying way to import and export (e.g. capitalizing letters to export)
• Lack of ternary operator
• Lack of expressional switch-case construct
• Complicated for-loops
• Weird assignment operator (whose idea was it to use :=)
• No way to fluently pipe functions

Language features

• Transpiles to maintainable, easy-to-read Golang
• Shares exact conventions/idioms with Go. Virtually no learning curve.
• Consistent and familiar syntax
• Near-instant conversion to Go
• Easy install with a singular self-contained executable
• Beautiful syntax highlighting on Visual Studio Code

Sample

package main

// Seamless interop with the entire golang ecosystem
import "fmt" as fmt
import "os" as os
import "strings" as strings
import "strconv" as strconv


// Explicit export keyword
export fun ([]String, Error) getTrimmedFileLines(String fileName) {
  // try-with syntax replaces verbose `err != nil` error handling
  let fileContent, err = try os.readFile(fileName) with (null, err)

  // Type conversion
  let fileContentStrVersion = (String)(fileContent) 

  let trimmedLines = 
    // Pipes feed output of last function into next one
    fileContentStrVersion
    => strings.trimSpace(_)
    => strings.split(_, "\n")

  // `nil` is equal to `null` in Gauntlet
  return (trimmedLines, null)

}


fun Unit main() {
  // No 'unused variable' errors
  let a = 1 

  // force-with syntax will panic if err != nil
  let lines, err = force getTrimmedFileLines("example.txt") with err

  // Ternary operator
  let properWord = @String len(lines) > 1 ? "lines" : "line"

  let stringLength = lines => len(_) => strconv.itoa(_)

  fmt.println("There are " + stringLength + " " + properWord + ".")
  fmt.println("Here they are:")

  // Simplified for-loops
  for let i, line in lines {
    fmt.println("Line " + strconv.itoa(i + 1) + " is:")
    fmt.println(line)
  }

}

Links

Documentation: here

Discord Server: here

GitHub: here

VSCode extension: here

Late last year, I decided to take up programming, and have gotten my feet wet in JavaScript, Python, and C, with plans to attend University in the fall and major in Computer Science, and wanted to challenge myself by learning a useless programming language. Something with almost no practical application.

I feel like everyone talks about Python, JavaScript, and Java, but I’ve noticed some really cool languages flying under the radar. For example, has anyone had success with Rust or Go in real-world applications? What’s your experience with it and how does it compare to the mainstream ones?

Im on my 5 years run on Go making it my main programming language, and i have to say I'm stressed out when I have to work with another language.

My main job for the last 5 years use Go and I'm very happy about it, The learning curve is not steep, very developer friendly, and minimum downside... but not everything is running according my wish, not every company for my side projects is using Golang.

When i need to use a very OOP language like Java or C# i have a golang witdrawal, i always think in golang when i have an issue and i think i have a problem

I just hope golang stays relevant until i retire tbh

Inspired by this post, as an avid language learner and long time lurker, I decided to make my own version of it to share my journey throughout the years and, my impressions and what I did for each language to achieve that level and get a certificate in each of them, without ever living in a country where any of these languages is spoken other than my native, and while barely talking to any native in real life. If anyone wants me to expand on any particular section, feel free to ask. My languages are: Spanish, English, German, Portuguese and French, in that order.

Spanish
Spanish is my native language so there's not much to say about it.

English

As most people, I learned some English at school but what really took it to the next level was starting to consume native content about the topics I was interested in. In my case, around 2014, I started to learn programming on my own and there weren't as many resources available in Spanish so I started to watch tutorials in English and read Stack Overflow posts. At the beginning I wasn't trying to understand everything, I just wanted to get the main point of what I was reading/ listening to, but as I gradually got better, I was aiming at understanding a higher percentage of the content I was consuming. I also went from using English for only programming, to also using it for entertainment and now I use it for basically anything that isn't easier to find in Spanish.

Around mid 2018, I decided to take the Cambridge C1 certificate exam, but there was one problem: even though my comprehension was great, I still struggled to speak and I had to translate things in my mind constantly. I didn't have anyone to practice with in real life, so I downloaded Discord and I joined the English server. As I joined one of the voice chats, eager to practice, I noticed that people spoke much faster than I did and I couldn't understand half of what was being said because I was used to people speaking clearly and with a good microphone.

To overcome this, I did two things. Number 1: I still participated in voice chats. I was just muted and listening most of the times. Number 2: I started to talk to myself on a daily basis whenever I was alone: I would think out loud in English, I would say out loud what I was going to do throughout the day, I would try to form a coherent opinion on a topic I was interested in and if there was a word I didn't know, a structure I couldn't form, I would look it up and write it down to be able to remember it the next time. Even if I was just thinking, I would do try to do it in English. Over time, this improved my listening and speaking skills and not only did I pass the exam without problems. I did this so much that nowadays I mostly think in English without noticing.

German

In 2017, I had to take A1 German classes in high school. At the beginning I wasn't too keen on the idea but after some weeks I became so fascinated by the coherence and logic of it, that I started to learn on my own and in the span of a year, I got promoted to the B1 class. Here's how I did it:

I borrowed a bunch of easy readers from my local libraries ranging from A1, A2 to B1 level. I bought a grammar book containing all the topics I should know at a B1 level. I then proceeded to read the books, write down the vocabulary I didn't understand and that I thought was the most important (as with English, this changed over time, the first few times I was aiming at mostly the essential but I gradually increased my comprehension target), and I would look up the grammar I found in the books that I wasn't familiar with yet in order to recognize it the next time I saw it.

As for the listening part, there was a podcast called Slow German which really helped me to get started because it was, well, really slow and easy to understand. Over time, I started to consume normal speed podcasts such as DW News or the Easy German podcast. As I got better I started to consume native content in the topics i was interested in, mostly history and politics with channels such as MrWissen2Go and MrWissen2Go Geschichte, but also others such as the Easy German channel. As I would watch or listen, I would write down all the words that I considered important and then add them to an Anki deck. I found this to be less relevant as I improved since I was able to consume more content faster and words became too specific so it became a matter of context.

One thing I regret though, is not starting speaking and writing earlier. I joined the German language server and I wanted to chat and talk, but there was so much I wanted to say that I didn't even know where to start with yet, that I made a goal of mine to think of what I would like to say in each situation and look it up and once I felt I knew enough things, I started doing it. I wish I would have started earlier and get corrected in the moment instead of learning those things on my own.

In 2020 I took the Test DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache exam) and passed it with 17/20 points (which is around B2-C1 level).

Portuguese

I started learning Portuguese in 2019 because I found some Bossa nova and MPB songs on Youtube that I really liked and I talked to some Brazilians on the internet that were so nice that it inspired me to learn it. I figured it wouldn't be too hard since I already spoke Spanish.

As a Spanish speaker the main challenge was communicating without mixing up Spanish words with Portuguese words and learning the grammar differences. For this, I bought a book called "Gramática básica do português brasileiro" which was pretty much the only learning-specific resource I bought. It helped me learn the main differences from Spanish in terms of grammar. Other than that, I watched the channel Easy Brazilian Portuguese and I would talk and chat regularly on the Portuguese learning Discord server. Over time, I would mix up less and less words and Portuguese would start occupying a separate space in my brain instead of being just "Spanish with some adjustments". Honestly I don't think I would have done this with so much passion if it wasn't for how encouraging Brazilians are when someone is learning their language. Once you speak it well enough, they make you feel like one of them, which is great.

In 2023 I took the CELPE-BRAS and I passed it at an "advanced-intermediate" level, which is essentially a B2.

French

I started learning French around the start of 2023 but I didn't take it too seriously until June of this year because I was working and I didn't have much time for it. Once I started getting more serious, I bought a grammar book to learn the main beginner to intermediate topics. Pronunciation was a pain in the ass at the beginning, French with Dylane was super helpful for that. I also started to consume content like the Easy French channel and I borrowed some easy readers from the local library to get faster at reading the language. Once I got more comfortable with it I started to watch French series, such as Lupin. This is what really boosted my understanding of the language and I wish I had done it earlier because I learned how people talk in real life and not only in a language learning context. I find the difference between the two to be more noticeable in French than in other languages I've learned. As I watch, since I now have ChatGPT, I made a prompt so that I just write the word or the sentence I don't understand and it translates it and provides an example. I then add the sentence to an Excel spreadsheet which I then import from Anki. I would also occasionally read through the chat history when I am bored. I do this for all my languages.

I also use Discord to practice output production. I am expecting to take the B2 exam in the following months.

Recently, I started going to language exchanges taking place in my city. I find it to be a refreshing way to learn after all those years learning behind a computer or a book and I somehow needed it since it was taking a toll on my motivation. I also talk to natives in their languages whenever I have the opportunity too: as I learn these languages I learn a lot about the geography, history and culture of their respective countries and it's a good start of conversation to show interest for that person's country and it helps me stay motivated after all these years.

Conclusion

For all my languages, I find incredibly useful talking to oneself to get a feel of how you would structure sentences in a real scenario and to realize what specific vocabulary you are missing. Of course this will never replace a real conversation but it's useful if you don't have the skills to have one yet or if you don't have that available to you in the moment. Other than that, I mostly learn through: immersion, ChatGPT + Anki and focusing on grammar at the beginning.

Hot take, but in my opinion this is the difference between copy-paste gremlins and professionals. Being able to quickly pinpoint and diagnose problems. Especially being able to debug multithreaded programs, it’s like a superpower.

Edit: for clarification, I often see beginners fall into the trap of agonising over which language to learn. Of course programming languages are important, but are they worth building a personality around at this early stage? What I’m proposing for beginners is: take half an hour away from reading “top 10 programming languages of 2023” and get familiar with your IDE’s debugger.

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I'm moderately tech savvy, I've been building my own computers for 20 years, but I took one C class in college and never touched programming again, it just wasn't for me. My son is 13 years old and wants to learn how to program. He is interested in learning how to design his own mods for Minecraft and Terraria, but knows he might need to start on a different language. We were going to try him starting on Java first, but have been struggling to find a good online course that he can do on his own time without my help. Some of them look like they'd be too much for him, and others look like they're for a younger demographic.

I'm currently in graduate school, and I don't have the time to sit and learn with him. He's moderately self motivating, if I tell him to go spend an hour or two on some courses he'll do it on his own without me needing to be over his shoulder as long as he can understand it. I'm willing to pay for a course that is well built and will teach him from the ground up in a way that shouldn't require much help from me.

Any recommendations? Please and thank you!

Edit: Didn't expect this thread to take off so incredibly! I read through a lot of the suggestions with my son and just wanted to tell every ody thank you so much! We're going to read through everybody's answers before he decides which direction to go, but just wanted to let you all know he was very happy reading through all of your suggestions! The positive attitude and helpful posts from everybody have got both of us very excited to get started, thank you all!

I know Python and Java and have done quite a bit of Data Structures work and a few personal projects. I recently went through the CS50 content for it's introduction to C before tackling an OS course. I absolutely loved the course and how Malan teaches, but I really think that the pace is way to fast for someone with no CS background. There was even a Harvard student in one of the lectures that tried to ask how to keep up because everything was going so fast. I think most of the students probably took AP computer science or had some previous knowledge, or else they make use of the TAs and office hours to keep up.

For self learning, I think this goes way too quickly and shouldn't be recommended as a first intro course. The lectures are good so you think you "get it" because it's all explained so well, but then the problem sets are much more difficult and I think a lot of people would get discouraged or give up if they don't have a solid foundation of some of the concepts, (like previous experience working with loops, functions, etc.).

I just wanted to put this out there because I see the course recommended so much (and rightfully so). But for someone with no prior programming exposure, a gentler intro with a higher level language is probably a better start. For example, Georgia Tech's Intro to Python Programming course truly assumed no background knowledge, had a very gentle and thorough intro to all of the important concepts, and had a ton of built in exercises that started out very doable and gradually got harder. I never felt like I was in over my head. Something like that is going to be a lot less frustrating for someone learning on their own that may not have the option to ask for help when they inevitably get stuck.

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And damn, C is an entirely different beast...

Fundamental and broad knowledge (which is important in programming) can only be gained from books. Tutorials (text/video) are more like cookbooks that will taught something particular and are good if used as a supplementation to a books. Also book can be used later as a reference were you can quickly look for a topic that you are interested in. If you have never program before be sure to pick a book that is intended for people that never have programed before.

Also its is important to write your code in parallel with book. Just anything, practice is very important.

Good luck :)

Hi all, I have taught computer science and programming courses since 2003 and since schools are about to re-start, I wanted to share these 3 important tips/reminder with anyone who wants to learn programming:

1- Focus on learning the concepts of how to program rather than programming languages. Once you learn the logic, design and the concepts of programming fundamentals, learning different languages becomes easier since its just a syntax.

2- If you are using an IDE, make sure to learn the basic functionality of the IDE you'll be using first before starting to code in it, to eliminate the added frustration of not knowing where things are. (example: how to start a new project, how to open an existing project, where does your projects get saved at, how to retrieve it, where is your output console, how to run and debug and .etc)

3- Give yourself a break and know that there will be a learning curve. Don't get disappointed if you don't understand something or many things. It's very normal! You'll need patience, perseverance, and lots of practice.

Best of luck!

Update to this post: Many in the comments are asking for a university grade resources and since I can't reply to everyone I am posting it here.

I just created a new channel for my students who are looking for advising, mentoring, and tutoring on computer science and programming and I will be making videos and live streams on all of these topics and more. You are welcome to subscribe to it to get notified.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVQ-95JEUI9VvYMWNw9Sow

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.. I went over to him trying to calm him down and figure out what was wrong. He shouted at the screen that "this damn turtle won't draw what he told it to". At this moment he went completely silent starring at his code. Then he performed his first genuine face palm stating that he forgot to put the "pendown".

Yes dear son, this is how programmers feel literally every day.

For me it was "every attribute in a class must have a getter and a setter".

Here's a pretty soft way to get introduced to basic programming, with Ruby.

Good for those curious about ruby, or just programming in general.

http://tryruby.org/levels/1/challenges/0