To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as reading language

Re:To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as re... by godelski on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @12:45AM (#25439500)

I'm curious what's your first language. I'm learning Mandarin and find that it feels much closer to a computer language than English or Latin based. Though I don't think I'd say learning Mandarin (or any language) is anywhere near what it's been like learning computer languages. I find mathematical language different from both as well. They do feel like 3 different parts of my brain. Though math I'm highly visual (not this way in programming or English, but visual in Mandarin).

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Re:To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as re... by nmfisher on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @08:04AM (#25442004)

That could be because Mandarin grammar is actually relatively simple, the difficulty is in “naturally” expanding your vocabulary (since characters take an order of magnitude longer to learn).

It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of it feels like brute forcing syntax and keywords - there’s no way of reasoning through it, you just have to knuckle down and learn it.

It’s also part of the driving force behind my app (link in bio) - it can take a long time (i.e. years) to get comfortable carrying on a conversation, so I want to help people practise in a less intimidating environment.

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Re:To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as re... by motakraxxer on Wednesday December 16, 2020 @01:30AM (#25439718)

My first language is Marathi which is an Indo-Aryan language. My other languages are

West Germanic: English

Indo-Aryan: Hindi, Bengali

Dravidian: Kannada

And currently, I'm learning German.

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