How I Bounced Back from my First (Failed) Attempt at Learning JavaScript

How I Failed at My First Attempt at Learning JavaScript

Approximately two years ago, I made a serious attempt to learn JavaScript. I purchased a course on Udemy from an instructor I had taken another course from (something CSS related). Obviously, I thought he was a good teacher because he was... at least when it came to CSS.

But halfway through his JavaScript course, I was so confused and frustrated that I gave up. I didn't give up on programming completely, just JavaScript. I didn't think I could ever understand it. It made no sense to me.

His teaching style when teaching JavaScript was not helpful. He would code a block of JavaScript code and then explain what he coded. That's not useful to me, and I bet many others. Tell the students what you're doing, while you're doing it and why!

So in disappointment, I moved on to Python using Angela Yu's 100 Days of Code Course which I also purchased through Udemy. Her large boot camp-style course focuses purely on Python. She's a very good and organized teacher.

Python made a lot more sense to me when compared with JavaScript (or what I've seen of it up to this point). I made it through all the video sections and even completed some of the written solo projects! I couldn't believe I was doing it.

But why Python? Well, by this point in my journey I knew that even children are taught Python. I heard it was the easiest language to learn.

How I Bounced Back

Then, I heard about Scrimba. I made a free account to test it out and started the free JavaScript taught by Per Harald Borgen. I went through the entire course and it was a lot of fun and it actually made sense! Yes, JavaScript was making sense this time around.

I'm really enjoying the format of pausing the video, typing the code right there in the screen and saving your code as a note. You can even go back to the note by pressing the yellow dot or going to your Notes page.

JavaScript seems much easier this time around by the mere fact that I'm understanding the very basics. I mean, I'm not saying JavaScript is easy. It's not. But it's easier to learn it now that I've learn Python first and I found a platform that's doing a great job of teaching.

My Tips

If you've already started learning JavaScript and you're just not getting it (possibly considering giving up programming), my number one suggestion would be to drop JavaScript for the time being and move on to Python.

I believe that learning Python is far easier for most people and will get your brain in the right mode of thinking about coding and logic. I suggest Angela Yu's course on Udemy only because that's what I actually used, but there are so many resources out there, even free ones. So pick one and work through the course. (Scrimba also has a Free Python course as well.)

After you learned Python, try to learn JavaScript again from the beginning. I can't recommend Scrimba's Learn JavaScript for Free course enough.

Make sure to build your own projects and little scripts as you learn. Add your own features to class projects. This will really help concepts stick and is a great way to test your skills.

Don't give up. I've had times where I was about to close down VScode because I was stuck on something for 2+ hours but decided to give it a little more time... and was able to solve the issue in 5 minutes!

But more often than not, you just need to step away and go do something else or (the best solution) is to sleep on it. It's amazing how getting some sleep gives your brain time to solve coding problems. I've woken up many time with a smile on my face before I even realized why I was smiling: I had solved a coding problem I was stuck on the day before!

Good luck in your learning journey!