English Speaker? Java Speaker!
I am not an English speaker. So how come I speak only English to my daughter, and how am I planning to use that skill in order to teach myself Java?
Congratulations, you have accomplished your English training!
Did you ever get that kind of award for your English training? I guess not. Learning how to speak correctly is a life mission.
My name is Dafna Ehrman and I am not an English speaker. Let’s say- I am not a native speaker. I was born in Israel and have spoken only Hebrew for most of my life. And yet, I speak English to my daughter, since before she was born. And let me tell you- I even have a pretty good accent. I am married to an American, but I know a lot of couples like us that speak no English in their own house.
Java Programmer
Next month I’m starting a new job. I will develop code in a language that I have no work experience with. How am I planning to do it?
I realized that language is language, no matter what it is being used for. If I managed to learn a whole new language like English by myself, I will take advantage of my experience and use it for my current challenge. So how did I come to speak English? Especially after graduating school with such poor English that I couldn’t even watch American movies?
My Four Rules
Instead of learning syntax
Watch speakers! One of my first steps toward speaking English was watching Netflix shows in English with English subtitles. At first I had to pause the show again and again to ask my partner what was going on. But over time I got better and better. Today if I watch a show on speed x1 and not x1.5 I am probably very tired.
My Java learning plan includes watching videos like this one and that one, showing programmers writing complicated and useful pieces of code. Even if I won’t understand at first, it will speed up my learning curve for sure.
Instead of Writing it Yourself
Read books! The truth is that even though I got a lot of recommendations to read English, I can only remember one book that I really managed to read. It was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which I got before there was Hebrew edition. I loved the fact that it was written as a play, giving the name of each speaker at the beginning of the line. So what books do you know that are written in Java? None, actually. But, books can be articles about how to solve problems with Java. Stackoverflow and similar. As long as you read pieces of code between the lines, you are good to go.
Instead of Speaking at a High Level
Speak to your 1 year old! I used to talk to my daughter with no one around (at the beginning I was embarassed to speak English in front of people). I would tell her what food I was giving her, and tell her that I will come in a second to give her a bottle. Not a huge vocabulary. But that is how I practiced and got used to the fact that I can speak English. For Java, I will take the simplest tasks I can think about- for me it will be easy leetcode puzzles, considering I have done tons of them in the last months. Coding a familiar piece of code is much more achievable for me.
Instead of Learning New Words
Listen to natural conversations around you. I used to have native speakers around me for four years, when I learned in Migdal Oz where American school graduate girls come every year for a year in Israel. When I started dating my partner, I also had his family’s conversations around me. The extreme peak was when we went for a month to New York to live with his relatives because of a family event. So what natural conversations can we find in Java? Meet-ups, developers’ communities, FB groups and anything that gathers Java developers around it, is a good place to start. That is exactly where we should make the big jump into the cold water. The most important thing is being able to stop the conversation from time to time, and ask about new words that we just heard for the first time (which I did A LOT).
Please let me know if you have more tips about learning new languages, all kinds!
