Re: Does Knowing Perl Help or Hinder Learning another Language

I am far from being expert in perl, but I'll try to compare learning computer languages and human languages:

When learning your second language, you are comparing it a lot with your first one, and sometimes you can get confused. When learning the third language, it is easier, because you can see patterns. And you can see also that it is rather easy to start reading in language and understand text written by others, but creating your own correct sentences is much harder, and need practice. Even with mistakes, is important to try to express yourself.

I read somewhere that learning (human) language is easier for children, because children are not afraid to make mistakes. We are taught in school to avoid mistakes, so we are waiting to express thinking in new language until we will master it, and it slows learning.

My only hope is that computer languages are much simpler than human languages, because mastering just one human language takes years!

silimonk

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Re (tilly) 2: Does Knowing Perl Help or Hinder Learning another Language
by tilly (Archbishop) on Aug 25, 2001 at 18:21 UTC

The first is that if you kind of know another language, the fastest way to become more fluent is to get drunk or angry. Doing that drops your normal barriers to looking foolish and you are willing to try. And it probably works. (Of course too much drink or too much anger causes even experienced speakers to become incoherent in time...)

The second is an interesting theory about why children are so good at learning languages, but adults find it much harder. The reason is that parents and children both desperately want to communicate. If mothers could meet their children half-way, they would. But that would result in a private shared culture and language, and the children would never learn to talk properly. So while both sides desperately want to make communication work, it is important that the kids are the ones who have to come all of the way and learn to talk like grown-ups do. And so the parents inability to learn is necessary for language and culture to get transmitted to the next generation.

I don't know if the theory is right or not, but it sure sounds plausible to every parent I have mentioned it to...

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