Juan Fuentes

This is a very interesting subject you're bringing up. My native language is spanish. At the university we had Programming classes, basically C+. As with every programming language I ended up learning, you learn commands, phrases and tags that you can include in a program so the computer performs the task you want. All of these have their roots in english. The "if" command, for example, is present in more than one programming language. I think learning a programming language is very similar to learning any foreign language. Because even if you speak english, the commands and the way you use them might not necessary resemble the words you would use in english. Take HTML, for example. The element <a> by itself wouldn't mean anything to anyone that doesn't know a bit of html. Then you see something like "<a href=..." and it will confuse you even more, even though "href" is short for "hypertext reference". In the end, I think that it doesn't matter which language the commands derive from. You still have to go through some learning in order to understand what every command does and how to use it, even if they are in your native language. A curious case happens with commands in certain software, such as Microsoft Excel. While not a programming language, the spanish version of Excel translates all the mathematical functions into spanish, be it complete words or abbreviations. So "if" becomes "si". Why is it not the same with programming languages? I have absolutely no idea.

Well, I'll give you my story. My native language is spanish. Yet I've always had trouble "rolling the R's". When I was young, my parents thought it was just a kid's way of talking, and that I would grow up and it would go away. Well, it never did. So I spend my youth, adolescence and part of my adulthood being constantly asked "what did you say?" After I graduated from college and started working, being forced to talk to a lot of people, I got a bit more self-concious of my speech impediment. So, I started practicing. Mainly, putting the tip of my tongue on the gums behind my front teeth and trying to make a sound like a motor running (sort of), then trying to incorporate that sound into the words that needed it. It took me years, but since I was forced to practice often (I live in a Spanish-speaking country), I ended up mastering it somewhere in my late 20's. As you can see, my story might not be very encouraging, but what I'm trying to say is that it can be done. You just need A LOT of practice. Curiously enough, I find the english and the french "R" to be a lot easier. Maybe I was born in the wrong country.

My native language is spanish, and I learned english by a bit of self-teaching and mostly practice. I find that it is easy to learn a language when you see yourself forced to speak it. I tried learning french using books and courses, but in the end, practice is key. For example, the rules of any language can be hard to learn by memory. But when you find yourself needing to speak the language over and over, you will start learning by trial and error as well. That's why communication courses are very helpful. I do believe that once you find the learning process that suits you best, you can learn any language easily. If you've already learned a new language, you probably know that process already, so another new language should be easier.