>Natural language is easier because I can learn in a minute to say "Hello world" in a language like German.

If that's all you can say in German, it's like _copying_ a "Hello world" program from someone else. That takes two seconds.

I was taking amichail's comparison - writing small programs in python vs learning a new natural language - and making it even more extreme to highlight its unfairness. Apparently nobody gets sarcasm anymore :)

If a student already knows English, then it's better to learn to write small programs in a high-level language than it is to learn another natural language.

I did get it. And I wasn't serious either.

It only takes a minute to learn to say "Hello World" in Python also.

I'm not talking about writing bug-free code for million-line projects. Rather, I'm taking about writing simple small programs. That's easy.

You compared writing small programs in python with taking years to learn a natural language. I pointed out that the two are not equivalent undertakings. It's not a fair comparison.

Natural languages are not 'easier' or 'harder' than programming languages, they're just different kinds of skills. There's lots of evidence for this: some people have aptitude for one, some for the other.

There are at least two very difficult things about natural languages: messy illogical syntax and enormous vocabulary.

For a simple language such as python, you can learn most of the syntax very quickly. Vocabulary (e.g., libraries) takes a bit longer but still requires much less memorization. And you can always create things from scratch.

But you still haven't addressed the main objection here: that you're comparing two different undertakings. You've compared writing a small app in a high level language with learning a natural language. You could have just as easily said it isn't as hard as proving fermat's last theorem, or writing a novel, or composing a symphony. Thsse things also have a few elements in common with writing a short script in a high level language. But these comparisons don't mean a thing.

If a student already knows English, then it's better to learn to write small programs in a high-level language than it is to learn another natural language.