After learning to speak a whopping seven languages, Paridhi discovered a love for a whole new world of languages: coding!
In this special guest blog post, Paridhi Shah shares on her journey to becoming a polyglot, the benefits of being multilingual, and how it led to changing careers with Juno College’s Web Development Bootcamp.
One of the coolest things about growing up in India is the amount of languages that surround you. Aside from the two primary languages, English and Hindi, you can easily pick up three more by simply interacting with everyone around you on a daily basis. In this world, knowing multiple languages is very advantageous, and an amazing skill to add to your resume — there are also other benefits to being multilingual like better cognitive skills and improving your memory.
Introduction to Foreign Languages
As a teenager, I aced five languages: English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Kutchi. During high school, I was introduced to French and it was basically amour at first sight! I then spent two years immersing myself in French culture. I took courses with Alliance Francaise de Bombay, and attempted and cleared five levels of international DELF examinations. Every day was so much fun — watching movies, exploring French music, and of course some French food as well.
My first job in India utilized my knowledge in French. For three years, I got to work with magazines and various writers. I read, assessed, and analyzed the articles, while improving SEO and translating keywords from French to English. I then got promoted to a Team Leader position, which consisted of updating KPIs for my team, as well as assigning and reviewing their work.
Since I was comfortable and fluent with French, I was ready for a new challenge. After learning a European language, I decided I wanted to learn a non-Latin-based language. I heard somewhere that Mandarin was one of the most difficult languages to master, hence, I went ahead with it.
After learning the basics of spoken Mandarin, I attempted the international HSK 1 test, for which I must humbly state I aced, and placed 1st in Mumbai. I still watch some videos on YouTube or hop on Duolingo from time to time.
Advantages as a Multilingual Immigrant
After two years of struggling and doing a whole bunch of paperwork, I finally got my Permanent Residency to Canada in 2019. It took me less than three weeks to find a job as an immigrant, and one of the main pros was my knowledge of French. Being bilingual was such a huge advantage, recruiters would call and email with new opportunities every week.
The roles I worked were all bilingual, and I made sure I met new people and networked with them. A lot of people came from all different backgrounds, and that’s what made my job fun. Oftentimes it's hard to express yourself in one language, because it doesn't have the same meaning in the other. But on the other hand, this difficulty can be a great advantage, because it forces you to place yourself in other people's shoes. This really helped improve my communication skills with people from different cultures and accents.
From Foreign Languages to Coding Languages
I am not too sure how or when, but I found myself being equally excited, curious, and amused by programming. During the lockdowns of 2020, I came across this video called “learn Python basics in 6 hours.” Since I had nothing better to do, I spent a Saturday on it, and I still remember doing the small exercises, running basic functions, and getting excited over seeing the print in the terminal.
After that, I continued studying Python and added MySQL to the mix. Having subscribed to DataCamp, I was so excited to come home after work and do my daily learning and coding. I still remember spending one evening trying to understand the difference between UNION and INTERSECT! Or learning the magic of NumPy and Pandas, and being blown away by how powerful every library was.
After almost a year of this slow learning, I caught myself slacking off. I needed people to talk to, like-minded learners who I could collaborate with to create fun projects. I then came across Stanford’s Code in Place 2021 and immediately enrolled myself.
We spent six weeks exploring the intricacies of Python, analyzing data, and creating graphs. The reason that setup worked for me was the mentorship aspect. We would initially receive pre-recorded lessons, and then we would also have sessions with a Mentor (5:1 ratio).
After completing this course, I was a bit lost and not too sure what to do next. Although I loved Python and SQL, I was curious as to what else was out there, and if my skills were suited for something else. This is where Juno’s Web Development Bootcamp came in.
Changing Careers with Juno’s Web Development Bootcamp
My curiosity led me to explore coding, and it ended up my stepping stone into tech! When I realized that I could create websites that have a huge reach, I was motivated to make a full career change from my job as a Bilingual Customer Service Rep. I was drawn to how web development helps create something scalable, and gives me instant challenges and wins. IT also continues to keep me excited, as the learning journey never ends!
As someone who researches everything extensively, looking for the correct institute took me a lot of time. I had to read a lot of reviews, make sure my finances were in place before I left my job, and be sure of what I wanted to spend the next six months immersing myself in. All of these things led me to Juno College of Technology, and I couldn’t be happier.
Juno gave me the learning materials, community, and every resource I needed. I did the part-time web development course and the full-time Bootcamp, and over the next 6 months, I learned a ton of languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React.
We also collaborated with our cohort mates (shout-out to the best cohort — 42!) by doing paired and group projects. While working in these teams, I also got to pick up on other roles like project manager, which mostly consisted of using Trello while organizing regular stand-ups.
Now while job searching, I look back and see how everything panned out perfectly. I don’t think I would have wanted to do this any other way. Juno has been a blessing in disguise with their support, and I can’t wait to give back to the community or refer to future Juno Grads.
Currently, I’m keeping up by doing Leetcode SQL on a daily basis, and making small React projects while integrating TypeScript into it as well. Having the kind of foundation I do, new languages are less intimidating than before.
Closing Thoughts & Advice
I’m certain that people who are polyglot think differently. My brain is always running on all of those languages at the same time, and I see a glimpse of that in my coding as well. This is where having the knowledge of the front-end and a bit of the back-end truly helps. If I'm ever stuck, it's easier to understand what to look for, if I'm doing the wrong thing, or if I’m just using the wrong tool.
Exploring other websites and reading other developers’ code is also simpler, since as a polyglot, you’re always trying to understand other people’s way of speaking or framing sentences that would be easy for everyone to understand. This translated into my code and my efforts into constantly improving to make sure it's concise and readable at the same time. I look forward to learning more skills and using my current stack to develop something exciting!
For anyone looking to get into web development, or simply starting to code, I would say start working on small projects. I heard this all the time before I started my journey, but this is the ultimate thing that helped. When I was able to do solo, paired, and group projects at Juno, not only did I learn about so many skills I already had, but I also became better at reading other coders’ work. Starting small projects that excite you will help you improve!
I hope my story can inspire other career changers and fellow multilingual immigrants to make the jump into tech!
You can check out Paridhi Shah's LinkedIn here!
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