How learning Chinese made me a better Python instructor

How learning Chinese made
me a better Python instructor
Reuven M. Lerner • PyCon US 2022 Edu summit
[email protected] • @reuvenmlerner

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Reuven M. Lerner • @reuvenmlerner • https://lerner.co.il
Learning Chinese, Teaching Python
• Corporate • Video • Hybrid

• Weekly Python Exercise

• Books:

• Python Workout

• Pandas Workout

• Come see my booth in the expo hall for swag + discounts!
I teach Python!
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• I love helping others with their careers

• I love helping people to get those “a-ha” insights

• And I also love thinking about teaching, and how I can do it
better

• Which leads me to my main topic…
I love teaching
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• Friends: Wow, you’ll have the best time. Just learn some Chinese
before you go.

• Me: 😂😂😂😂

• Same friends: No, it’s really not that hard.

• Me: 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

• Same friends: You know, they don’t speak English in China.

• Me: I see. I’ll give it a whirl.
I was invited to teach in China
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• First trip (2012): I learned some words

• Second trip (2013): I listened to some podcasts

• I then went all in:

• Chinese lessons with live teacher, 5x each week

• Simple books (Mandarin Companion)

• Waze in Chinese

• In all, I went to China about 30 times

• Each time, I got a little better

• Each time, I got a little bolder

• Final trip: End of 2019
My Chinese journey
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What does this

have to do with teaching Python?
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Learning a programming language
is like learning a language.
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For many people, learning Python

is as laughable, terrifying, and

ridiculous as I thought it would be to
learn Chinese.
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Also:

From learning a foreign language,

I’ve learned a lot about teaching Python.
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• By de
f
inition, a foreign language is a second language

• You have a basis for comparison

• What are nouns, verbs, and adjectives?

• Imagine trying to learn a foreign language without a
f
irst one

• That’s what newcomers to Python have!

• Data structures? Editor? Variables? Strings? Functions?

• Experienced non-Python developers don’t have this problem

• Help them to climb two ladders at the same time

• Conceptual — the new ideas

• Syntax — how they express these ideas in Python

• Expect them to have both kinds of confusion, and be ready for both
The two ladders
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• My Chinese is far from fluent.

• It’s good enough for basic communication

• “Your Chinese is so good!”

• I often have to ask them to speak slowly or repeat
themselves

• Fluency isn’t a yes-no thing in language.

• And it isn’t in programming, either.
Fluency isn’t binary
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• And that’s OK!

• Just keep learning and improving

• I stress this with my Python students, especially the newbies

• You can get things done with Python, even if you’re new

• You’ll never stop learning and improving your Python skills

• I’ve been using Python for about 30 years, and I learn new
things about it every single day, often from students’ questions
You’ll never be 100%
f
luent
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• Can I express myself reasonably in Chinese?

• Yes, if it’s about my family or my work

• Not if it’s about hash functions or object-oriented
programming!

• Can I express myself reasonably in Python?

• Yes, if I’m using the standard library

• Yes, if I’m writing Web apps or working with databases

• No, if it involves a GUI or devops

• You can be fluent in one domain and be clueless in another

• Given Python’s size and scope, this is to be expected!
Fluency by domain
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• Obvious to native speakers of Chinese, but not foreigners:

• A change in tone can radically change what you’re saying?!?

• Chinese (mostly) doesn’t have singular and plural?!?

• Chinese doesn’t conjugate verbs?!?

• Chinese uses “measure words” before nouns?!?

• Obvious to experienced Python developers, but not newcomers:
• Variables don’t have quotes around them, but strings do

• You need to have a colon at the end of of a line before a block

• The name of an iteration variable doesn’t affect what you get
in each iteration of a “for” loop
It's not obvious to beginners
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Never, ever say,

“That’s obvious.”

It’s not obvious to newcomers.
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Also, don’t say:

“We learned this before”

or

“As you remember”

Because they might not.
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• I have a pretty good memory

• But I forget Chinese words and characters all the time.

• What’s the pronunciation?

• Which tone do we use?

• What’s the meaning?

• What’s the grammar?

• As a teacher, don’t say, “How can you forget that? We learned
that.”

• The student isn’t trying to forget!
About remembering
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• You cannot give people enough examples!

• How is it used?

• Why do you need it, rather than use other techniques?

• Show the most common use cases and paradigms

• Show context, to help anchor the idea

• How often is this construct really used?

• (And if it’s uncommon, then why are you teaching it?)

• Compare the new thing with previous things you’ve taught

• Describing something without an example is basically useless
Lots of examples
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• It’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking we understand

• Ask students to produce and create, not useless questions:

• “Did you understand?”

• “Any questions?”

• “Use this in a sentence.”

• Every word I learn, my Chinese teacher asks me to use it in two
separate sentences. This is a fantastic teaching technique.
Almost no substitute does this, which is a shame.
Nodding isn't understanding
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• I “interviewed” 20 Chinese teachers

• I chose the one who was OK with me asking tons of questions

• Other teachers weren’t bad, just not what I wanted.

• Your style of teaching won’t work for everyone.

• That doesn’t mean you’re a bad instructor

• It doesn’t mean they’re bad students

• That said: Constantly pay attention to what mistakes your
students are making, or what confusion they have.

• Change your teaching, to avoid those mistakes!
Different teachers for different students
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• You can’t practice enough. (Have I mentioned my books?)

• The value of practice is over the long term, not the short term

• When I don’t practice Chinese for a few weeks, I feel rusty.

• Some ideas:

• Different kinds of exercises, on different topics

• People should both read and write code
Lots of exercises
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• I’m pretty good at chatting with Chinese teachers

• But in China?

• They speak quickly

• They have strong accents

• We’re talking about things I’m not used to

• Similarly, the real world of programming has lots of challenges
that a course doesn’t prepare you for

• Teach your students how to teach themselves

• Programmers are always learning more

• They’ll encounter code that is … heavily accented
The real world isn't like class!
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• What’s it like to learn as an adult?

• The author tries it, and gains a lot

• Chess

• Singing

• Sur
f
ing

• He’s not great, but he is ful
f
illed

• I’ve had the same thing with Chinese

• People can have the same thing with
Python
“Beginners,” by Tom Vanderbilt
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• Python instructors can and should adopt techniques from
language instruction, which has many parallels

• Give context and examples

• Have the students produce things, not just tell you if they
don’t understand (because they won’t)

• Don’t use phrases that put the blame on your students for not
knowing or understanding

• Remember that they’re climbing two ladders, which isn’t easy!
Conclusion
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• E-mail me: [email protected]

• Follow me on Twitter: @reuvenmlerner

• My videos: https://YouTube.com/reuvenlerner

• 微信 (WeChat): ReuvenLerner

• Check out PythonForNonProgrammers.com

• Free, weekly newsletters:

• About Python: BetterDevelopersWeekly.com

• About training: TrainerWeekly.com
谢谢！
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How learning Chinese made me a better Python instructor

How learning Chinese made me a better Python instructor

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