Just some curious questions :P

Hi, I am starting a one year course in Computing at my college this year, but I have some questions I felt were best answered by a community based around my true goals, to become a programmer.
In my college course we have only started but its already so intriguing to me, the fact that we can make our own well.. anything using the box of hardware most of us have in front of us!
My questions are to help me get ahead in my studies and to help me achieve my one goal, becoming a programmer. Aside from that I would like to develop a good game, not a triple A game but one that I can have a laugh with my friends about, but I want it to be fun and mostly WORK.
The questions I have are mainly, How do people learn coding languages and are able to write code like its English? How do I learn to do this? and Will I be able to achieve this in college or will I have to pay for some sort of courses?

Now before anyone may say something like "College will only hold you back, you should leave" the college I attend is the one of best in my region and they have already presented me with so much opportunity, from university to apprenticeships and more. That aside I am not looking for a quick and easy way to become a programmer, I have learnt that everything takes time and you will take the time if you really care about it, being 16 people view me as impatient or dumb and teachers in Secondary School (High school for Americans) paid little attention to me as I was never the smartest person, in fact I was quite stupid at Secondary to be frank.
This aside (again) I have to retake my Maths and English exams (GCSE's) and you can probably tell by grammar errors or spelling mistakes I am not too good at writing but getting a second chance in my exams inspired me to try so much harder and for one people believe in me that I will pass, if I can get a level 4 or above I can move on to better courses or even University if I get high enough grades.

I'm going on a bit now but I just want people to know I want to learn unlike so meany others I have encountered.

Thanks - Sez :P

Comments

[Fulton Browne]

Try starting your own project or helping with others, pick a platform and learn it well, I personally do stuff with Java and android you should probably also look at
node.js, React Native, and Rust. I would reccomend using visual studio code for all your editing needs

[SezBez445]

Thanks for the feedback but I was more curious on how people understand languages like it is English, but this will help me with my studies to try node.js or Rust so thanks for the suggestion

[Fulton Browne]

Its hard to understand a language like English I have been programming for 2 years and I still don't completely under stand it.
The only way to truly learn is by practicing in real world scenarios, go find an opensource project or start your own and code, every day at first you will google everything, but then one day you will be coding and realize I didn't look anything up! (that took me about 2 months or so)

happy coding and good luck!

[SezBez445]

That's gonna be really helpful, Thanks!

[Fulton Browne]

Your Welcome, If you need any advice in future shoot me a direct message here on dev.

[Austin S. Hemmelgarn]

How do people learn coding languages and are able to write code like its English? How do I learn to do this? and Will I be able to achieve this in college or will I have to pay for some sort of courses?

Mostly, it's pretty much the same as learning a natural language, you just have to practice and keep at it. Don't get too frustrated if you don't just get it right off the bat, it takes time for things like this to become second nature.

Some general tips though:

• Find a good editor. VSCode and Atom are probably the most popular right now, but there are many many others out there, and what matters isn't that your editor is popular, but that it works well for you. Make sure it has syntax highlighting for the languages you intend to use (this makes it easier to catch mistakes early, as well as reducing the amount of thinking needed to understand any arbitrary piece of code).
• Avoid using auto-completion until you have a solid handle on the language itself. Put simply, you run the risk of learning the auto-completion shortcuts instead of the actual code they produce, which will make your life more difficult down the road. The first CS course I took in college, half the class failed the first test because they wrote down the auto-completion shortcuts for the code they had to write instead of the code itself (despite the professor explicitly telling them not to do this right before the test).
• If your college offers entry-level courses on graph theory and set theory that you can get into without having to do lots of other math courses, take them if at all possible. Graph theory and set theory form the underpinnings of a very large number of programming concepts and will make learning to code much easier (also, I know quite a few people who found them to be among the easier math courses). Even if your college doesn't offer them, it's worth at least looking into the basics yourself, they're seriously that helpful.
• Diversify. Being a programmer is all well and good, but you're a lot more marketable if you have some other experience. You mentioned wanting to develop games, so graphic design is probably your best option here if your college offers it (it's a good choice in general though, being able to actually communicate meaningfully with designers will make your job as a developer much easier). Statistics is another good (but probably challenging, most people have trouble understanding statistics) option, as it will be really helpful if you want to go into game development.
• Look for opportunities to contribute to open-source projects. This will get you some real-world experience, as well as something to add to your resumé and may even get you some good contacts and/or scouted for a job.