As the devices that facilitate our everyday lives improve, the need for computer programmers rises. Due to the increasing demand of this skill, many schools are considering including coding languages as part of their foreign language credit options, and I don’t think this is a good idea.
Coding languages are instructions to a computer, with syntax, form, and strict rules and, while important, they lack the complexity of an oral language. Coding is very mathematical, emotionless, and entirely literal.
Oral languages, on the other hand, have flaws, variations, and include human emotion in their expression. They often have rules that contradict themselves. Learning them requires important critical-thinking abilities, and often reveals the deep histories and cultures associated with them.
It is important that students have the opportunity to experience these cultural differences and, while coding is a great skill and incredibly important in this day and age, it should not be able to completely replace the oral foreign language requirement in schools.
