Learning to Read, Part Two

In my last post, I focused mainly on the kind of reading I do for my English classes: close readings of literary texts. However, that's not the only kind of reading I've had to do in college.

Sometimes, we're required to read in another language, one that is unfamiliar to us. In that case, we need to be particularly attentive to detail. I've learned a lot about this from my roommate, Allison, who is a Classics major. She takes several Latin translation classes each semester, and through her, I've learned a lot about what it means to read in another language. For example, there are over 42 distinct words for kill in Latin. Latin is full of elaborate grammatical constructs and metaphors, some of which we don't understand because we're not reading from the context of ancient Roman culture, Allison says. Even so, it astounds me not only that these texts have survived for so long, but also that we can understand them at all. All these stories and thoughts would be lost to us without people like Allison who have dedicated themselves to reading and understanding a language different from their own.

I have delved into learning a new language of my own this semester: the computer programming language Java. Unlike natural languages, such as English, German, and Japanese, programming languages are formal. This means that the computer relies on a strict syntactical code for reading and interpreting the programs I've written. Computers take things very literally, which means I have to be extremely careful with my syntax, which is like the grammar and punctuation of programming languages.

A human being can understand this message, even though it's not grammatically correct:

i luv 2 eat ice cream its gr8

If, however, I were to type something with similar syntactical errors into a computer program, I'd be inundated with error messages. I'd have to enter something more formal:

I love to eat ice cream. It's great.

See what I mean? Programming can be frustrating at times, but the more I practice, the more I learn how to write the way a computer thinks. It's not so different from the close reading I do for my English classes. In both cases, reading is an interpretive act. It broadens my point of view and helps me think of new ways to solve problems. Not to mention you can do some pretty awesome things with computer programs: for my class, I made a point-and-click adventure game and wrote two programs that encrypt messages using a secret code. I'm excited to see what other adventures are in store.