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She has worked in publishing and for small indie presses in San Francisco and Portland, managed content for digital publications in Sydney and Berlin, designed copy for education start-ups in Boston and Silicon Valley, contributed freelance reporting to The Houston Chronicle and The Huffington Post, and edited research papers for Cambridge-published academics. Her areas of expertise are education, psychology, creativity, mental health, psychedelic science, fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.
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A guide","url":"/blog/most-popular-programming-languages","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltd1745360a1e6bfae/6476a89169d38a6de46a2726/istock-182029246.jpeg"},"post_content":"The answer starts to matter when, for example, foreign language credits are awarded for taking coding classes, or when parents prefer their children learn Python over French.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the most popular programming languages and explore the pros and cons of such a view. Hopefully you’ll be inspired to explore both skills, however different they really are, by the end.
A 2019 article in Nature proposed a framework for teaching programming in schools which treated coding like a foreign language. Called “Coding as Another Language” (CAL), the researchers’ framework is “grounded on the principle that learning to program involves learning how to use a new language (a symbolic system of representation) for communicative and expressive functions.” The research team explains: “Due to the critical foundational role of language and literacy in the early years, the teaching of computer science can be augmented by models of literacy instruction. CAL supports young children in transitioning through six different coding stages.” Case studies of young children using either the KIBO robot or the ScratchJr app are used to characterize each coding stage and to illustrate the instructional practices of CAL curriculum.
In fact, in 2016, the state of Florida in the U.S. considered awarding foreign language credits to students who had taken certain computer science classes.
But in an article for Slate Magazine, software engineer Valerie Woolard Srinivasan asserts that programming languages should not, in fact, be considered the same as a foreign language, and that teaching them in schools this way may be detrimental to learning.
“Computers and the code that powers them are literal, emotionless, strict, and free of nuance or ambiguity; human language is anything but,” she writes. “This is not to say that code cannot be artful, clever, and beautiful, but to think of learning code as a substitute for learning a second language completely misunderstands the point of learning both coding and foreign languages in the first place.”
Srinivasan argues that programming would be better suited as a part of math class than language class, so that students could spend less time on endless pages of homework and simply move on once they’d grasped the logic behind a concept: “What if students wrote programs to calculate derivatives or perform matrix multiplication? Or students could look at the plethora of online data sets and write scripts to analyze them when learning statistics.” Though it may sound intimidating on the surface, it’s actually one way to cut down on “pages upon pages of numbers, arithmetic, and ‘showing their work.’”
![\"Teen](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt264b743eda8b1389/6476a9a6fa576b83b6ee0f8d/istock-641755548.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
Now, down to nuts and bolts: what makes a programming language different from, and similar to, a natural language?
First things first, both are simply systems of symbols that create meaning. Both are also “infinitely generative,” meaning you can use the same limited set of symbols to create infinite outputs. And both offer means of communication, one between humans and the other between humans and computers. What makes programming languages different from natural languages is maybe more telling: they communicate commands and instructions, not the nuance of human experience; they are constructed, and don’t evolve naturally; and they can’t be translated into natural languages the way natural languages can be translated from one to another.
Linguistics journalist Thomas Moore Devlin argues that it depends on your definition of “language”: “There are clearly differences between programming languages and other languages, but the question is simply how much disparity you’re willing to allow. Is math a language? What about dance?”
Professional programmer Ana Harris agrees it’s about definitions: “The main function of languages, be it Python or Chinese, is communication. This is the most important similarity between them, and one of the main reasons we refer to both of them as languages.”
Although there aren’t too many scientific studies examining this question, we can speculate that learning programming may pose several benefits to multilinguals and vice versa. One of the benefits of learning a foreign language is enhanced working memory capacity, which can be useful for software developers during their daily tasks, when they need to keep track of multiple scopes and contexts.
In CSS, for example, context is especially important, so it’s essential to have good working memory capacity. Another benefit of multilingualism might be access to documentation written in languages other than English. Both skills also enhance visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, and linguistic-verbal abilities.
In a 2020 study on natural language aptitude and programming skills, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that among a population of students learning Python, the “computer whisperers” were “facile problem solvers with a high aptitude for natural languages.” Although math skills were a reliable predictor of programming aptitude, they were “far from the most significant predictor.”
Working memory was also confirmed to be an important factor, since programming goals, like language, “must be divided into manageable chunks, and the subgoals of these chunks must be held in working memory and used to guide comprehension and production processes.”
If you’re a multilingual looking to learn or teach coding, where should you begin? Which programming languages are most useful these days?
![\"There](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt1e01b8ed10a1c946/6476aba03f34da79217b61d4/istock-637909478.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
If you’re a teacher, the answer may surprise you: it doesn’t really matter. “What is important is not the language, but how to teach students how to solve a problem with code,” writes computer science teacher Sheena Vaidyanathan. “Understanding how to create an algorithm (step-by-step instructions) to tackle an assignment, and coming up with the best way to write this in code, is probably the hardest part.”
If you’re a student or professional, JavaScript or Python may be your best bet, as they’re in high demand for example among startups looking to hire developers. UC Berkeley’s online publication Berkeley Extension recently announced the following programming languages as the most in-demand of 2022:
If you’re a programmer looking to learn a foreign language, where should you begin?
Recently, the European Commission released a report showing the languages most commonly studied in Europe. According to the report, English was the most commonly studied foreign language in 2020 at the upper secondary general and vocational education level in the EU, with 96% and 79% of students learning it, respectively. In terms of general education, Spanish ranked second (27%), followed by French (22%), German (21%) and Italian (3%). In addition, Russian was the non-EU language most commonly learned in the EU (3%), especially in Estonia (67%) and Latvia (57%), followed by Lithuania (30%) and Bulgaria (24%). In vocational education, German came in second (18%), followed by French (17%), Spanish (7%) and Russian (2%). In this case, Russian was learned in Latvia (44%), Bulgaria (25%) and Cyprus (16%).
![\"Group](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt4b618aa3b71bdd8d/6476ab37c180015ab44338fd/istock-171301922.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
The World Economic Forum released a report on the most powerful foreign languages as follows:
The top six languages are official languages of the United Nations. Learning one or more of these languages can significantly increase your job prospects if you plan to move abroad some day and as well as being excellent languages to learn for international business.
As we’ve seen, programming languages and natural languages have important similarities and differences. The research suggests that they have enough in common to help enhance your learning. Learning a foreign language alongside a programming language is a great way to keep your working memory and problem solving skills sharp, and both skills will improve your job prospects and opportunities to make meaningful connections wherever you are in the world. If you’re unsure where to begin, you can use this article as a guide, and a boost of motivation, to help you tackle your “language learning” goals.
At the end of the day, language is about communication, whether you’re communicating to a human or a computer. As we all know, skilled communication is one of the most important tools you can have in your toolkit. You can only get better at communication by picking up a new language, whether it’s natural or artificial. Who knows–you may end up making a career (or a favorite hobby) out of both. The point is to dive in, see where it takes you, and trust that the energy you put into it will be useful in the end.
"}],"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"contain_image":false},{"call_to_action_text":"Heart in different languages","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"page_reference":[{"title":"How to say heart + 29 more body parts in 10 different languages","url":"/blog/heart-body-different-languages","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blta72d6d42c865f453/6385307e5834861044c23030/istock-1046150528.jpeg"},"post_content":"You may find yourself making a doctor’s appointment, doing yoga with a new language partner, playing a sport, or working through a tricky medical situation abroad and needing to draw from your anatomy vocab. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of words, covering the body from head to toe, in ten different languages.
\nUse this article as a guide or pocketbook the next time you need to flex your body-related vocab, no matter whether you want to say heart in different languages or another important anatomy word. At the end, we’ll include some bonus phrases that may help you navigate different situations in which you’ll need to talk about the body.
\n\n![\"Learn](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt32cc4601c2c865cf/63853146a32209106e8b6fcb/pexels-oliver-sjöström-1098365.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
Once you’ve mastered your anatomy terms, you may want to know a few phrases to help you navigate different situations, whether at home or abroad. Whether you’re trying to locate the closest gym or explaining symptoms to your doctor, you’ll need some knowledge of how to express what your body is feeling and what it needs. Make a mental note of the following common phrases and questions, which you may find helpful as you interact in your target language:
\n![\"Where](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltcf97a242489441db/638530fdea930410907de56e/pexels-towfiqu-barbhuiya-11478133.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
Remember, it’s the details that matter and no matter which language you’re looking to learn, the difference between\n beginner to intermediate, and intermediate to advanced is in the details.
\nIf you’re looking to go deep into body parts vocabulary, we’ve got entire anatomy articles for you to dive into – you\n can even print out our anatomy posters and stick them up on your fridge, office space, or mirror. Jump right into\n learning more here:
\nThis post highlights unique words from other languages that describe emotions or concepts lacking direct English equivalents, enriching the emotional vocabulary of readers.
\n\nEmotions and feelings, in particular, are difficult to describe since they contain so much nuance. That’s why we’ve compiled a handy list of words for emotions that you may have felt but which don’t have English equivalents. You’ll find terms from Japanese, Bulgarian, Finnish, Hindi, and more.
\nKeep reading to discover a collection of some of the most quintessential words for feelings and emotions that don’t exist in English.
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Roughly translatable as “cozy,” hygge is the feeling of enjoying a warm, comfortable atmosphere at home. It comes along with little acts of domestic joy, such as lighting candles, baking, and spending time with family. Danes focus on creating this atmosphere, especially around the holidays.
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A feeling of disorientation that comes from traveling in a country (or countries) that is not your home. The feeling can be good—inspiring positive new perspectives on oneself and the world—or not so good—triggering slight homesickness. It depends on the way the term is used.
\nExplore more unusual and classic words for feelings and emotions in French here.
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltec499628e937322a/6321181a04361d715f54f42a/istock-513103439_copy.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
Ever met someone and had the very memorable feeling that you knew you’d fall in love with them? Not exactly being in love and not exactly love at first sight, Koi No Yokan is something in between.
\nThe Japanese conveys a sense of the inevitable—there’s nothing you can do to stop it; it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not!
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An expression of encouragement or support, this word translates to “Add oil!” which means you are backing someone up and showing you’re on the same team.
\nAt a sporting event or before a school exam, you might hear someone say, “You’ll do fine. Add oil!” The person who says it means to wish someone good luck but also show they are offering support.
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt4901bf395098ebeb/632118bca982bd60a88d4436/pexels-aidan-roof-3041175.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
Literally translated as “door closing panic,” this phrase refers to the feeling that one’s window of opportunity is closing as one gets older.
\nThat window could be for having a successful career, finding a partner, having a baby, or accomplishing something one wants to do before it’s too late.
\nDiscover more classic and rarer words for emotions in German here.
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This word means you’ve been moved or touched, or had your heart warmed, by someone. Specifically, it’s a story that has stirred your heart or moved you to tears.
\nIt could be a story you hear from a friend, watch in a film, or read in a book. The emphasis on the story is what makes this term unique.
\nExplore some more profound words for feelings and emotions in Italian here.
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt61019dca03d1e60d/6321192a6a7f7364973bd36f/pexels-alex-green-5700200.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
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Similar to “God willing,” this word translates to “if God wills it.” You might think of this as more of an expression than a feeling, but it conveys a feeling of being uncertain while hoping for the best.
\nYou might say it to a friend this way: “I’ll be going home for the holidays—Inshallah” with two fingers crossed for good luck.
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Pronunciation: boon-wee-gi
\nThis is the atmosphere or mood of a situation. You could also translate it to “ambiance.” By combining it with different terms, you might say something like 갑분띠: 갑자기 분위기 띠용 or 갑분싸: 갑자기 분위기 싸해졌다 which both mean the atmosphere is suddenly ruined (turned cold).
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A heart-breaking feeling—usually by being hurt by someone—that leaves long-lasting traces, visible in gestures and facial expressions.
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This word translates to “life tiredness” and means basically what it sounds like. It’s the feeling of being tired or weary of life. It could be used when one is depressed, but also to justify some adventurous, out-of-character behavior that one wouldn’t otherwise partake in: blame the life-tiredness!
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltebc62fa50ca895d2/632119fb1ad88e716559d87f/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3767411.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
Meraki means doing something with passion, devotion, and creativity—in other words, putting your soul or self into something. It may be an artistic task, but it doesn’t have to be. The word is related to the Turkish “Merak,” or labor of love.
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Forelsket is being in love, but specifically the ecstatic, all-consuming feeling at the beginning of a relationship when you can barely think of anything else. Thank the Norwegians for recognizing the nuance here, since this isn’t a feeling that lasts forever!
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltb70409ac0e7c9f7c/63211a7f2975ce72ea2fb4a9/pexels-helena-lopes-2055232.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
This one’s especially hard to translate though we all know someone who fits the description. Used as a noun, jijivisha is the intense desire to live (or continue living) in the highest sense of being.
\nYou might hear a Hindi speaker using it to describe someone who lives their life to the fullest.
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A state of well-being. It means to be content, to flourish, to be grateful, and live well. Considered by some to be a more useful word than “happiness,” Plato and Aristotle used it to mean something closer to “fulfillment” and to recognize that this state of well-being can accommodate moments of suffering and pain while remaining joyous.
\n\n
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The art of doing things calmly, without the need to rush. You can enjoy life and have a carefree attitude. It also conveys resistance to placing value on overworking and a refusal to get caught up in the rat race.
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt1870b47cf0ff74d5/63211af76a7f7364973bd373/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3776872.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
Literally translated as “world-weariness” or “world pain,” this term is now used to describe the melancholic feeling of being overwhelmed at the state of the world while being a part of it.
\n“Weltschmerz is the sense both that one is personally inadequate and that one’s personal inadequacy reflects the inadequacy of the world generally,” says Joachim Whaley, a professor of German history and thought at the University of Cambridge.
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This term means deep sorrow, or “soul tumbling,” for example caused by someone’s death. It can also simply be a state of seemingly endless grief or emotional turmoil.
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A state of agony or humiliation caused by a sudden glimpse of one’s own misery. A very specific emotion, it is also connected to a feeling of seeking revenge over whoever or whatever has caused one harm in order to even the score.
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A state of jitters or nervous anticipation accompanying the time leading up to a journey. It captures the emotional mix of looking forward to the trip while also being a little anxious. We’ve all experienced it—but the Swedes actually have a word for it.
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltff7b80adaeb1f862/63211b610faea1497015dfc4/istock-813914912_copy.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
El duende is an emotional response to art. Any time you’ve seen an artistic performance and gotten chills—that’s el duende. It often encapsulates a response to both pain and pleasure, suffering and joy, reflected by the human condition.
\nDiscover how to say more common and unique emotions in Spanish here.
\n\n
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The spiritual feeling that comes from being alone in the woods. It’s specifically a pleasant solitude, not loneliness, and a feeling of heightened connection to nature.
\nThe Germans love their forests and landscapes, and this word is a handy way to express that appreciation.
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From the Boro language of India, this word refers to the bittersweet feeling of loving for the last time, or realizing your love won’t last.
\nMaybe your love just isn’t meant to be forever or it’s time to move on. In that case, onsra is your emotion. Boro is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
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Showing courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity, sticking to your guns even when things get tough, relying on grit and determination to get through a task or period of time—these are characteristics that describe sisu. Finns themselves like to call sisu their national character.
\n![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltc0f4d23eb878c414/63211d6527a8dd5d8cd3ae51/pexels-fauxels-3184436.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
\n
Acceptance of impermanence, transience, and imperfection. It’s a sensitivity to the ephemeral nature of life and objects, seeing beauty in this fact.
\nIt is considered a Japanese aesthetic and inspires many disciplines, from the arts to media and technology.
\n\n
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Leave it to the Russians to create some of the most profound emotion words. Toska means great spiritual anguish without a particular cause, and the writer Vladimir Nabokov made sure to emphasize that no English word could capture its subtleties.
\n“In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness,” he wrote. “At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
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Once you’ve found the right word in another language, you can throw it into your English here and there. Or maybe you’re inspired by the expressiveness of that language and find yourself wanting to take a language course.
\nIt’s no secret that English has an exquisite range of beautiful and unique words. Nonetheless, many languages offer richer emotion vocabulary than you’ll find in English, and if you take the time to keep learning, you may find interesting stories about these words that make you fall in love with an entire culture. You never know where you’ll end up once you fall down the language-learning rabbit hole.
"}],"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"contain_image":false},{"call_to_action_text":"Books to learn languages","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"page_reference":[{"title":"40 powerful books to help you learn new languages & cultures","url":"/blog/best-books-learn-languages-cultures","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt7ec391c360904c11/635a1f00ec6d3178dbbbefc9/pexels-cottonbro-4861333.jpg"},"post_content":"Many of us already listen to podcasts or watch films in a foreign language. There’s no reason why we can’t branch out from textbooks and start reading literature that captivates and moves us as we pursue our studies.
\nSo, in between grammar rules and vocab lessons, try bringing your learning alive with a short story, novel, poem, or comic book in your target language. Alternatively, enjoy reading the novel in your native language, and you can still immerse yourself in rich cultures, prose, and world-building.
\nAs always, we have some hand-picked top book recommendations to learn different languages and culture to provide you with a little inspiration.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt352d75dff3075701/635b241ddc15735d5cd05fd0/Books_to_learn_Spanish_1.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
First published in 1962, this short novel set in Mexico City follows a young historian hired to edit the memoirs of an older woman’s deceased husband.
\nThe first young adult novel by Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende, set in the Amazon rainforest.
\nMexican-American author Sandra Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago.
\nThis book is the famous Colombian writer’s own favorite novella, which he claimed to be better than both One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt29a70c7bdf8d8cc3/635b243aceefe870a18c190b/Books_to_learn_French_2.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
Considered the number-one book for French beginners, this novella follows a small boy from a tiny planet throughout the universe, charting his journey as he gains wisdom about love, loss, sadness, and friendship.
\nBest for intermediate to advanced learners, this famous novel was first published in 1942 and deals with themes of absurdist and existential philosophy.
\nThis is a series of French children’s books, perfect for beginners looking for a light, fun read. Think Calvin and Hobbes, but French.
\nTackle the classic science fiction adventure novel, first published in 1872, once your French is more advanced.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blta551446964ef556b/635b245ae079731084befe8c/Books_to_learn_German_3.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
The recipient of a German Children’s Book Award, Tschick is about the unconventional friendship between a 14-year-old middle-class boy and a Russian late repatriate youngster.
\nThis classic novella is deep in spirituality and philosophy but written in a light language, easily understood by beginner-to-intermediate learners.
\nOriginally published in German in 1880, this children’s novel has been translated internationally and remains a classic to this day.
\nThis book is about growing up in northern Germany in the 1980s and has become a classic in its own right, with a film adaptation made in 2009.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltf3102d82a97e19c9/635b24aacf87d95f7d46f17b/Books_to_learn_Portuguese.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
This is a young adult novel by one of Brazil’s most popular authors, who has published over 60 titles. Veríssimo is also a cartoonist, translator, television writer, playwright, and novelist.
\nRequired reading for students in Portugal, this book is a realist novel about two friends exploring politics and society in 19th-century Portugal during the decline of the monarchy.
\nA portrait of the millennial generation and how a group of friends navigates the digital age with everything and nothing at their fingertips.
\nThe international bestseller in its original language. This is the story of a young Andalusian shepherd who decides to embark on a journey to the pyramids of Egypt after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt369970ab08b6461f/635b24ccb429061074c7800b/Books_to_learn_Mandarin_5.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
A book comprised of a series of 23 prose poems written between 1924 and 1926 by the famous historical Chinese writer. Xun had originally traveled to Japan to study medicine but returned to China to write books, believing he would be better positioned to help save his country as a writer.
\nA 2004 Chinese semi-autobiographical novel about the experiences of a young student from Beijing who finds himself sent to the countryside of Inner Mongolia in 1967, at the height of China’s Cultural Revolution.
\nA story about an old ferryman and his granddaughter Cuicui, this poetic Chinese romance was written by Nobel-Prize-candidate Shén Cóngwén.
\n1988: I Want to Talk with the World is about a young man and a pregnant prostitute who end up traveling together after an encounter with the police.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt235eae9d47f63d5c/635b24f1330ba0566cd68925/Books_to_learn_Japanese_6.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
A series of stories written in response to Japan's 1995 Kobe earthquake, with each story affected peripherally by the disaster.
\nIn the title story of this collection, the narrator is invited out on a picnic by a bear who has just moved into their apartment complex.
\nWritten in simple language, Kitchen follows a young woman after the death of her grandmother as she tries to find happiness and direction again.
\nA story about 36-year-old Keiko, a Tokyo woman who has never had a boyfriend and has been working in the same supermarket for eighteen years.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt966acc9d2641ca17/635b250f9a123e5dbdbc9bbd/Books_to_learn_Turkish.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
In this anthology of collected stories, Orhan Veli reinterprets classic Turkish folk tales.
\nA collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners of Turkish.
\nSome of Turkey’s most epic stories, compiled by the famous poet Nazim Hikmet.
\nThe stories that led to the creation of 101 Turkish idioms used in everyday life.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt5c64f9fdf9488966/635b252f0735b210dd76bd38/Books_to_learn_Russian.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
From the famous Russian author comes a classic tale for intermediate students.
\nIn the classic poem by Alexander Pushkin, we encounter a man, a woman, a magical golden fish, and the foibles of human greed.
\nThese easy stories for beginners are written as twenty letters from a Russian boy named Nikita to his pen pal in America.
\nIn this book, the reader will find four stories about the famous Russian character Baba Yaga based on popular Russian fairy tales.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt8d8e9f019979080d/635b255a330ba0566cd68929/Books_to_learn_Dutch.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
This book is written by a famous Dutch children’s author about a cat that turns into a human woman.
\nThe autobiographical tale of the Dutch author, written in 2005, has sold more than 700,000 copies worldwide.
\nThis classic novel tells the tale of two families that meet each other over dinner one evening in an exclusive restaurant in Amsterdam, discussing how to handle the crimes committed by their teenage sons.
\nOriginally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. It’s the story of a 150-kilometer bicycle race and a love story devoted to the art of road racing.
\n\n![\"Books](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt52afc02aeb3fef66/635b257191426d70a0a6269e/Books_to_learn_Korean.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
This book tells the story of Yunjae, a young boy with a brain condition called alexithymia, which makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear, anger, and empathy.
\nA young adult novel about a girl’s struggle to fit in at her school. It’s an ode to self-love and a protest against relationship fatigue.
\nSet in modern-day Seoul, this book follows Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and homemaker whose decision to become a vegetarian after a nightmare about human cruelty leads to unexpected challenges in her personal and family life.
\nThis bestseller, which sold over a million copies worldwide within ten months of its release in 2008, is the story of a mother who sacrificed everything for her family.
\n\nHopefully, you’ll enjoy perusing some of our top books to learn new languages, whatever your target language may be. Even if you start one book and find it too difficult, you can always pick it back up later and choose an easier book, to begin with; or, if you find it too easy, you can breeze through it and choose a more challenging book to follow it.
\nMeet yourself at your current proficiency level and remember to keep it enjoyable. This isn’t required reading—it’s a fun way to learn grammar, vocabulary, and the history and culture of the society portrayed in the book.
\nNext time you start to nod off while reading your textbook, crack open a novel and bring your learning to life with some of these powerful books from different cultures.
\nYou may even know your own learning style or remember a teacher or caregiver telling you which one fits you best. But what evidence is there for this theory, and does it apply to specific areas of learning, such as foreign language learning? The short answer is: proceed with caution.
\n\n\n\nLearning styles theory was first developed in the 1970s and has many variations. The version you’re probably most familiar with is Neil Fleming’s VARK model, which stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic. Fleming was an instructor from New Zealand who worked in faculty development for many years.
\nHe created VARK after serving as a senior inspector at high schools around the country, observing what did and didn’t work in classrooms. VARK became internationally known and was implemented in schools across the globe for several decades. According to the theory, students who process information best in one modality should also learn in that modality: for instance, an auditory learner should learn vocabulary through acoustic training, while a visual learner should use flashcards or images that reflect a word’s semantics. A reading/writing learner would benefit from pouring over textbooks and taking notes, while a kinesthetic learner would benefit from building models of concepts or otherwise interacting with physical objects they can touch. Students are either born with a specific learning style, passed down genetically, or they develop the style in youth.
\nA 2009 study showed that 82% of trainee teachers in the United Kingdom supported the learning styles theory, and in 2016 that number was 96% among preservice teachers in Turkey. Unfortunately, as we’ll see below, the theory has been debunked as something of a myth.
\n\n\n\nDespite its popularity over the past few decades, the learning styles theory has been criticized by the scientific community, and the general consensus is that it is not founded on solid evidence. Several thorough reviews of the research literature in the mid-2000s found no evidence that matching instructional methods to the declared learning style of individual students improved their learning.
\n“The identification of supposed student learning style does not appear to influence the way in which students choose to study and does not correlate with their stated preferences for different teaching methods,” write educational psychologists Philip Newton and Atharva Salvi at the Swansea University Medical School.
\nOther researchers and educators have even suggested that the theory could be harmful to student learning, as it tends to pigeonhole students into categories and limit educational possibilities. “For example, a student who is categorized as an ‘auditory learner’ may conclude that there is no point in pursuing studies, or a career, in visual subjects such as art, or written subjects such as journalism and so be demotivated during those classes,” Newton and Salvi explain.
\nThey might also expect to be especially successful in areas that match their learning style, such as a musical career in the case of an auditory learner, and then be discouraged when their dreams don’t pan out. Teachers may waste time creating several versions of learning materials catered to students with different learning styles, only to find that those students’ grades do not improve as expected.
![\"Does](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt05a5cef96492cfff/631971ae10bada5f14a3415d/istock-1039051744.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
Educational researcher Daniel Willingham thinks we may just be thinking about learning styles the wrong way. In his opinion, the approach to learning should depend on the task at hand, not the student. In other words, students may not have inherent learning styles, but rather the topic or task at hand may be best suited to a visual, auditory, writing/reading, or kinesthetic approach. He calls these task-dependent learning styles.
\n“The type of mental processing people use often has a substantial effect on task success,” he writes. “Reflective thinking is much better than intuitive thinking for probability problems. Imagery is much better than verbalizing for sentence memory.”
\nA few recent studies support his point. For example, when people were asked to navigate virtual cities, those who self-identified as verbal learners showed better recall for landmarks, but those who self-identified as visual learners were able to use their sense of direction more precisely. In the second part of the study, however, researchers asked participants to switch, “acting like” a verbal or visual learner. What happened was the participants performed best according to which approach best suited the task.
\n“Thinking verbally helped with landmarks,” Willingham explains, “and thinking visually helped with direction.” So performance didn’t depend, in the end, how participants defined themselves. It depended on how they approached the task.
\n\n\nIs there any hope for learning styles when it comes to foreign language learning? Neuroscientist Manuela Macedonia, who is associated with Johannes Kepler University in Austria and the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, studies learning styles and vocabulary acquisition in foreign language learners by looking at the brain. In her opinion, the human brain just isn’t designed to learn vocabulary through a single modality.
\n“The natural way for the brain to learn words is by collecting multiple sensory and sensorimotor experiences,” she writes. “Evidence-based literature in the domain of vocabulary acquisition demonstrates that the inclusion of multiple modalities leads to best results.”
![\"The](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt95d5e903fc255501/631973c23f24842ec19c8ba9/istock-509915635.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
Take the German word Himbeere (raspberry), for example. If learners hear this word and read it, the auditory part of their brain will analyze and store the sounds. Another part of the brain, the left fusiform gyrus, will process the letter sequence and memorize it. If learners hold a real raspberry in their hands, many sensory inputs will reach their brains. Smelling will activate the piriform cortex, tasting will activate the anterior insula, exploring the texture of the berry will create patterns of the texture in somatosensory regions, and grasping and holding the fruit will map patterns onto the motor cortex. At this point, writing the word Himbeere and/or drawing the fruit will engage visual and motor regions. “Hence, the concept of the raspberry and its German label Himbeere will be represented in the brain with large experience dependent sensorimotor networks,” Macedonia explains.
\nDespite the fact that foreign language education has focused in recent years on learning styles, she says, the evidence from cognitive science just isn’t there.
\n“Having a particular learning style would imply that one region of the brain or network(s) selectively processes the information, i.e., more or better than another, and therefore is in a way ‘dominant’ over other regions. However, there is no scientific evidence that the brain does this.”
\nIn fact, the opposite seems to be true, which may be of note to educators: the more networks and regions of the brain are recruited by learning a word, the better chance that word is remembered. This is because the networks create a safety net of sorts—if one modality (e.g., the sound of the word) fades from memory, another (e.g. the visual image) can be recruited in its stead. It appears that when it comes to foreign language learning, VARK is best applied as a multi-modal style rather than an individual style. We seem to benefit from using all modes—visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic—not just one. Many studies support this idea, showing that we retain vocabulary better when it’s paired with images and gestures as opposed to simply reading on a page or simply paired with images. The more modalities, the better.
\nEven as children learning our first language, we not only learn acoustically or visually but rather collect multiple sensorimotor experiences related to words. “Hence, it stands to reason that in L2 lessons, ‘learning style specific’ input, i.e., only acoustic or only visual, can by no means facilitate learning,” Macedonia says. “Instead, it is possible that learning according to one's presumed learning style hinders learning.”
\nAnother issue with learning styles is that they are typically determined by self-reports: “In self-reports, subjects might lack introspection, and yes or no answers on personal experiences may not mirror reality.”
\nIt’s best to avoid these kinds of biases in learning, as they limit what we believe we can achieve.
\nLearning styles theory is appealing because it is simple, Macedonia says, but we need to be heedful of pseudoscience: “We do have knowledge on learning processes, and this knowledge should flow into foreign language learning practice,” she says. “A basic education in cognitive neuroscience would prevent L2 teachers from becoming a soft target for pseudoscientific theories.”
\n\n\n\n\nJust like the right-brain-left-brain myth, learning styles theory misleads educators and students into thinking in black-or-white terms when the reality is much more complex. According to cognitive science, if you want to ace your next language course, the best way to do it is to become a master of all styles: auditory, visual, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.
\nHear, see, read/write, and touch what you’re learning about to make more sensory connections, thereby improving learning and memory. Your brain will thank you for it.
"}],"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"contain_image":false},{"call_to_action_text":"Language and identity","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"page_reference":[{"title":"How does knowing more than one language impact your identity?","url":"/blog/language-cultural-identity","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltdffba8a0b3157422/62f5dfc50f15291330337520/istock-517132214.jpeg"},"post_content":"How does knowing more than one language affect the way you engage with the world? Believe it or not, scientists have studied this phenomenon and provided some interesting insights, which we’ll share below. We also asked a sample of language learners around the world to contribute their reflections on the topic of language and identity.
\n\n![\"Language](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blte9b094cb45f9bca8/62f5e41a412cd777d80547d8/thailand_952077758.jpeg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
In a new series of studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, researchers found that changes in self-perception did indeed accompany multilingualism, at least for a population of bilingual Hispanic women, but the effect was greatest for “bicultural” women (women who participated in both Latino and Anglo culture).
\nThe authors of the study discovered that being bicultural as well as bilingual led to something called “frame-shifting,” which they defined as changes in self-perception or identity. The women who reported being bicultural experienced frame-shifting more quickly and more easily than the women who reported only being bilingual (monocultural bilinguals). “Language can be a cue that activates different culture-specific frames,” the authors write.
\nFor example, these bicultural women considered themselves more assertive when they spoke Spanish versus English. They also saw others differently depending on which language was used. One of the studies involved showing women ads featuring other women in different scenarios. They viewed the ads first in one language (Spanish or English), and then six months later in the other language. After the second viewing, their perceptions had shifted. “One respondent, for example, saw an ad’s main character as a risk-taking, independent woman in the Spanish version of the ad, but as a hopeless, lonely, confused woman in the English version,” the researchers explained.
\n\nIn an older study, from 2006, Nairan Ramirez-Esparza, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Connecticut, gave Mexican-Americans two versions of the “Big Five” personality test: one in English and one in Spanish. The “Big Five” measures the following common human traits:
\n\nWhat she found is that participants scored higher in extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness when they took the test in English. Ramirez-Esparza and her colleagues relate this finding to the fact that more individualistic cultures (such as the U.S.) value these traits to begin with. When asked to describe their own personalities, in a follow-up study, participants focused on their relationships, hobbies, and families when writing in Spanish; in English, they focused on their individual achievements, schooling, and daily activities. “Language cannot be separated from the cultural values of that language,” Ramirez-Esparza told Quartz. “You see yourself through the cultural values of the language you are speaking.”
\n![\"Language](\"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltb8e46932b0b7212b/62f5e44519ee366ebba5b552/istock-517676300.jpg?auto=webp&format=pjpg&quality=80&\")
These studies raise an interesting question: do these “personality” changes reflect different feelings about oneself on some stable internal level, or do they only exist in the context of a social exchange?
\n“When someone says their personality changes,” writes Bonny Norton, a professor of language and literacy education at British Columbia University, “what they’re saying is: ‘When I talk to other people, my personality changes.”
\nBe that as it may, other researchers have found that internalized grammar does affect one’s perception and behavior, if not personality, regardless of whether one is engaged in communication exchange.
\n\nAt Lancaster University in the UK, psycholinguist Panos Athanasopoulos studied German and English bilinguals to see if speakers’ mindsets shifted when communicating in either language. They focused on how German and English speakers treat events.
\n“Here, we show that fluent German-English bilinguals categorize motion events according to the grammatical constraints of the language in which they operate,” he writes. This is because each language situates actions differently in time. As an example, consider the difference between these two sentences in English: “I was sailing to Bermuda and I saw Elvis” vs. “I sailed to Bermuda and I saw Elvis.” German, he explains, doesn’t have this difference, leading to differences in expression: “German speakers tend to specify the beginnings, middles, and ends of events, but English speakers often leave out the endpoints and focus in on the action.”
\nPerhaps because of this nuance, Athanasopoulos found that when speaking German, as opposed to English, his study participants preferred to match events on the basis of motion completion.
\nThese may be subtle differences, but they also show it doesn’t take much to influence behavior.
\n\n\n\nFor the second part of this article, we asked bilinguals in different corners of the world to share their thoughts on how speaking multiple languages affects their identity, self-expression, mental focus, and other features of daily life. Here’s what they told us.
\n\n“For myself, for years, I let a quote from Vladimir Nabokov get the better of me, believing him when he writes, ‘German is a lifelong hobby and work-in-progress.’ Remember, he spoke three languages fluently as a child. I spoke French and English as a child. But learning German wasn’t easy due to my mindset coming into the language. At eleven, after a year in Germany, my parents divorced while my father was stationed in Germany for three years. Thus, it was a psychological matter for me to grasp control of the language. It was an obvious zone of vulnerability for me, which made me have to ask: do I want to stay in this zone or do I want to feel complete, whole, competent again?
\nWith French, I feel a nostalgic switch to the lyrical and romantic and adventurist, while with German there exists this determination for structure, ‘angst consciousness/Aufmerksamkeit,’ and what I can reference as scholarly-substancing, possibly a result of me returning to university at fifty to attain one of my degrees in German Studies (Germanistik).”
\n\n“Speaking another language makes me feel different because I feel invested in understanding another culture, and I also notice cognitive differences in myself since I became bilingual. I did not grow up in a bilingual household and learning Spanish, after English, as my second language has been a conscious long-term endeavor. Beyond the ability to simply communicate in Spanish (I speak, read, and write at an intermediate level), I feel I have access to another world that monolingual English speakers in the U.S. and beyond have a limited understanding of.
\nSecondly, cognitively, I now think and understand basic grammatical structures in two languages which has led me to be a sharper problem solver in daily life and generally be ablet to communicate in my first language more quickly and effectively. Overall, I feel sharper mentally and that I have more empathy than when I only spoke one language.”
\n\n“On one side, there is a language which ties me to my roots, to the place I grew up in. Even with that same language, there’s different ways of speaking it which reflect different parts of my identity. Like the accent from central Mexico and the accent from north Mexico and the different slangs that might pop up in those places. And then speaking another language… I do feel close to California because of the way I listened to this language all my life, but it’s such an international language that it doesn’t really help me understand what it means to me.
\nI’m not sure if I use it for this or that or being able to read or communicate or whatever. It’s for sure a part of who I am because of coming from the border, and the two languages that were coming together at that border. With German, it’s difficult to listen to myself now in a third language because even my tone of voice seems to be odd to me. So sometimes I feel insecure about expressing myself because I don’t know how comfortable I feel with the person I portray and express out into the world. But sometimes it just works without even thinking, so all of these things just disappear, I guess.”
\n\n“I feel different when I speak a foreign language. Although I have lived abroad and speak English fluently, I find it difficult to communicate my feelings. As a result, I feel restricted ‘being myself’ when I speak a language other than German. Obviously, this feeling is even stronger when communicating in Spanish, which I only partially speak and understand.”
\n\n\n\nWhen it comes to feeling different depending on the language we’re speaking, the research—both scientific studies and personal anecdotes—suggests that aspects of our personality do change, especially in terms of what we express about ourselves to others, how we interpret and describe people and events, and how we decide to move through the world.
\nWhile you may not come across a full-blown Jekyll-and-Hyde scenario, it’s clear that language places a filter on human expression, and serves as an important lens for experiencing and understanding culture.
"}],"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"contain_image":false},{"title":"What is comparative literature, and why should you study it?","call_to_action_text":"What is comparative literature","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/what-is-comparative-literature","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt40a3c884f20bde3b/62981736c040564c45853613/pexels-antoni-shkraba-5292265.jpg","title":"pexels-antoni-shkraba-5292265.jpg"},"contain_image":false},{"title":"How to cultivate and teach diversity in classrooms","call_to_action_text":"Teaching diversity","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/diversity-in-classrooms","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt11f16ed4b80ed783/615f9195b727970cec46a7e0/Teaching_diversity_in_classrooms.jpg","title":"Teaching_diversity_in_classrooms.jpg"},"contain_image":false},{"title":"How long does it take to learn a language? What the research says","call_to_action_text":"How long does it take to learn a language","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-new-language","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt8838b87956935863/604af6ea7b7aea45bd9f7e5a/iStock-699498944_1800_x_1200.jpeg","title":"iStock-699498944_1800_x_1200.jpeg"},"contain_image":false},{"title":"6 of the best vocab memorization techniques endorsed by science","call_to_action_text":"Memorization techniques","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/vocabulary-memorization-techniques-tricks","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt592a1e2e18f04a76/613824b3f825e542a1554ba1/Young_girl_rubiks_cibe_memorization_techniques.jpg","title":"Young_girl_rubiks_cibe_memorization_techniques.jpg"},"contain_image":false},{"title":"The pros and cons of 5 unique language learning methods","call_to_action_text":"Language learning methods","basic_card":false,"align_center":false,"exclude_internal_ref_image":false,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/best-language-learning-methods","image":{"url":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/bltd48116b4af7bbc39/6113dc32461c9f13b0a14c11/iStock-1199454086.jpeg","title":"iStock-1199454086.jpeg"},"contain_image":false}],"hidden":false}},{"reusable_blocks":{"reusable_blocks_entry":[{"modular_blocks":[{"cards":{"large_cards":false,"row":false,"flat":false,"title":"More articles","join_block_below":false,"cta_as_link":false,"cards":[{"title":"All","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog","contain_image":false},{"title":"English","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/english","contain_image":false},{"title":"French","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/french","contain_image":false},{"title":"German","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/german","contain_image":false},{"title":"Italian","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/italian","contain_image":false},{"title":"Japanese","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/japanese","contain_image":false},{"title":"Mandarin","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/mandarin","contain_image":false},{"title":"Portuguese","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/portuguese","contain_image":false},{"title":"Spanish","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/spanish","contain_image":false},{"title":"Business","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/business","contain_image":false},{"title":"Culture","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/culture","contain_image":false},{"title":"Education","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/education","contain_image":false},{"title":"News","basic_card":true,"align_center":true,"button_link_external":"https://www.berlitz.com/blog/news","contain_image":false}],"hidden":false}}]}]}}],"alertsDismissible":[],"alertsNonDismissible":[],"popups":[],"breadcrumbs":[{"label":"All","url":"/blog"}],"customTitle":"Meet Saga Briggs","featuredImage":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt38553c620d60e21b/62183ac423d8fd714a7a53d9/pexels-pixabay-267569.jpg","featuredImageAlt":null,"floatingActionButtonEnabled":false,"formMap":{},"homeUrl":"/en-us","isHome":false,"locale":"en-us","isRtlLocale":false,"floatingCtaButton":{"floatingActionButtonText":null,"floatingActionButtonHref":null},"pageBannerCta":{"isExternal":false,"isAnchor":false,"disableCtaButton":false},"enableCustomStickyCtaButton":false,"pageSeo":{"description":"","imageUrl":"https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltacc1a01c4d280f24/blt38553c620d60e21b/62183ac423d8fd714a7a53d9/pexels-pixabay-267569.jpg","noFollow":false,"noIndex":false,"pathName":"/blog/author/saga-briggs","title":"","canonical":""},"subtitle":"","template":"BaseLayout","title":"Meet our authors - 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