What Programming Language Should I Learn First?

Erik Andersen
3 min readOct 23, 2022
Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash

Spend enough time on the internet and you’ll get hundreds of opinions based on which language is “easiest” to learn, “fastest” to run, or “best” for finding a job.

But none of that matters as a new programmer

The most important metric is which language YOU will be most successful with. And which language is that?

The language that is the answer to this question…

Why do you want to learn programming?

Just like with human languages, programming languages are primarily used inside certain domains. For example,

If you want to travel through Asia, don’t learn German
(Chinese may be a better bet)

If you want to visit South America, don’t learn French
(Spanish will get you further)

While there are some programming languages that are universally useful (like English), if you want to maximize your success inside a specific location, you’d do better to learn the language native to that area.

So, what area are you exploring?
ie. what are you hoping to accomplish with a programming language?

Because “I want to build a mobile app”

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Erik Andersen
Erik Andersen

Written by Erik Andersen

Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience. Also an independent coach, teacher, and public speaker. My opinions are my own