Learning Languages?

We've started our foray into the Java language in our Computer Sciences class this week, and I can't help but see it as a parallel to any other language class I've taken. You take clauses, the structure of which varies language by language. In Spanish, subject pronouns are not necessary if the meaning of the verb is clear enough; in French, you always need to put a subject pronoun before a verb; in Java, you always have to give your variable or scanner a name before playing with it. It's amazing how quickly that you can start to express yourself in complex ways. Given just the small amount of code we've learned, I can already write a program that gives you an acceptable age of woman to date back in the folk country. As we build our vocabulary and programming techniques, it's akin to adding vocabulary and verb tenses in a foreign language; as time goes on, your depth of expression increases until you can express yourself just as well in that language as your mother tongue. It's an exciting feeling to be able to reach out and touch that chord of emotion (well, since emotion doesn't exist in computers, that degree of functionality that you can dictate in English) in multiple ways.