Im taking courses, but im still not sure on what the best language to learn is...

Question

I'm someone who's kinda new to programming. I did quite a lot of python, some JavaScript, and a bit of everything else... but what should I stick to? should I just focus on one language, or learn a bit of all? what's the best and most useful overall language?

Answer 1

The best language, as according to me, is none. Learning languages, though necessary, is not the key to becoming a good software /web developer. Let me explain you through an example. I know how to speak English and Hindi (Indian Language), if i learn to speak french, german and other dozen of languages it doesn't mean i am great language expert. I will be known as an language expert only when i have in-depth knowledge of the grammar and culture of the language.

Similarly, it is not useful to focus on which programming language should you learn. It is important to understand how programs and particularly computers work. How programming concepts such as OOP can be applied in software development? How can you create real life software projects for any client? You should focus on these questions instead of trying to figure out which language to learn.

Pick any programming language and start doing some stuff on it. Go on to learn its advanced concepts and create even bigger, better and more serious stuff in that. It doesn't matter what language or technology that is. Just go ahead that make that "serious stuff".

But for your answer, as you know python and javascript create some real life applications in those languages. Then learn C++/C# and create that same application in those. This way you will learn hownto create an application using different languages and this helps in understanding which language is better in what conditions (like python is slower than c++, but has better use in data science than c++).

Answer 2

I'd recommend learning one well, just to learn how to program. After that you can branch off into other languages. A caveat would be if you are learning to build web pages in which case you should study html, JavaScript, and CSS. You will also need something for the back end such as PHP, or stick with JavaScript for the back end by using something like node.js.
Personally I prefer C#, but if you've tried several just go with the one you thought was the easiest to understand unless you have a specific purpose for learning in which case you should look at what is commonly used, for example Java for Android or Swift for iOS.