When you're learning to programme,
is it useful to learn more than one programming language
at the same time, or in fact is that a good idea?
Let's talk about that in today's video.
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Welcome back, my name is Tim Buchalka
with another programming tip of the day.
We're talking about when you're actually learning
how to programme, is it a good idea to learn
more than one programming language at a time?
In other words, should you focus on a single
programming language, learn that
before moving on to the next one?
Well the answer is it depends.
Now firstly, I've got a video talking about goal-setting
which I've done recently,
so click up here to check that out,
and that talks about the fact that
it can be counterproductive if you work on
a lot of things at once.
So I think for example, if you are starting out
learning to programme and you pick
five programming languages as an arbitrary number,
try to do that all at the same time,
you'd find it would be fairly slow going
because you've got five things you're learning
at the one time, plus you'll probably find that
you'll be getting confused
because you'll be switching syntaxes.
For example, you might be learning Java
and you're getting used to the keywords used in that course,
and then you're using Python perhaps learning that,
and it's different keywords,
different things you need to type to get things working.
So if you're starting out and you haven't programmed before,
that could be really counterproductive to actually do,
so what I would recommend is perhaps
stick to the first programming language
and at least get the basics under your belt,
the basics of things like variables,
if-then loops, and decisions in other words,
printing out things, all those basic things
that you need to learn as a programmer.
Maybe then start looking at other things,
other programming languages,
but even then I would still question
whether there's any value in you learning two things at once
or whether it be better to learn one thing thoroughly.
Now where there are exceptions though
would be in something like perhaps Android.
I've got a couple of Android courses,
one that teaches Android app development with Java,
and another one that teaches it with Kotlin.
Now what can be a good idea to do there
is because they're using specific languages,
you could take the Android course say for Java
and you could be learning Java concurrently.
Now in fact, both of those courses have got
a tutorial built in, one for Java and one for Kotlin,
so there is a section to get you started,
but it could certainly be valuable for you
to actually perhaps invest in both the Android course
and the Java course, the Android Java class
and the same for the Kotlin course.
Obviously the Android Kotlin course
and the Kotlin programming course I've actually got as well,
and you can do those concurrently.
So what you might want to do is you might do a section
on Android app development then swing over
and do say a section on the Kotlin programming course
if you want to sort of further your skills
because obviously in that particular scenario,
learning Android app development would be
a very useful skill to have,
what needs you to have good skill
in the appropriate programming languages,
whether it's Java or Kotlin.
So that would be really important,
and if you're learning another framework
like for example Apple app development,
you know, iPhone and iPads,
that uses the Swift programming language
so that you can do the same thing there.
You could pick a Swift programming language course
and an iOS course and do that same.
So in those circumstances, I would say that
yes that would be useful to do, but look,
if you're starting out as a programmer,
my general advice is don't put more pressure on yourself
by learning multiple things because it's probably
not gonna be productive, and in fact,
will be counterproductive, it will hinder you.
Just in closing, I will say that myself as a course
instructor and someone who's been a programmer
for over 35 years, when I'm actually sitting down
writing, creating say some content for my Java course,
and I swing over and do the same say for a Kotlin course,
I sometimes get the syntax wrong.
So I'm a programmer who's been programming
for 35 years and swinging from one programming language
to another one, I still make mistakes
until I get back into the gist of whichever
programming language that I'm using.
So if I'm getting caught up like that,
chances are that if you're a beginner starting out,
you're probably going to be getting into
a lot more difficulty.
So in general, my advice would be quite simple.
Learn one programming at least to a certain level
of familiarity before moving on to another
programming language or another framework.
All righty, so I hope that helped.
If you've got any questions, feel free to leave a comment
and I'll get back to you.
If you're ready to look at the next tip,
click on up here and you can check that out.
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