A leading artificial intelligence professor has said that children should learn to write software. According to professor Michael Bronstein of Oxford University, this would make children more logical. ‘I think coding is an extension of language – it’s a way of disciplining your mind for formal, logical thinking.’ Indeed it is. But so is learning an actual human language a way of disciplining your mind, of making it more logical.
A better idea would be to resume teaching other human languages up to GCSE level. Not only do second languages improve powers of logic, they also teach you to deal with nuance and irrationality. Languages are full of idiosyncrasies and illogicalities – common irregular verbs being the most obvious. And unlike computer codes, real languages like French or Spanish do not become obsolete.
By translating foreign languages back into English, you discover so much about your own mother tongue
When it comes to learning a second language, the most evident benefit is in learning grammar and what words actually do.
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