Move over Spanish, French and Chinese.
A new set of languages, with names like Python, Ruby and Java, are on the rise.
In an age when technology plays an increasing role in everyone's lives, there's a growing movement nationally and in the Twin Cities to teach kids how to talk to computers.
Yet the lessons, for the most part, aren't coming in school classrooms but through tablet apps, website tutorials and weekend workshops. Tech companies, in particular, are clamoring for more kids to learn computer coding, even opening their offices to teach the youngsters who may one day apply for jobs.
"Coding is the new language. Coding is the new literacy," said Jocelyn Leavitt, CEO and co-founder of Hopscotch, an iPad app that aims to teach code to kids.
Nonprofit Code.org says that over the next 10 years there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer science, but just 400,000 qualified graduates. Yet it's a skill, proponents say, that will even benefit kids who don't grow up to be computer programmers.
"It's kind of like looking under the hood of your car," said Rebecca Schatz, founder of Code Savvy, a new Twin Cities nonprofit focused on helping kids learn computer programming. "It doesn't mean you want to be a mechanic. It means you're not moving in a world of magic and mystery."
Jaiden Julson, 11, was trying to unlock that digital world at a recent session of CoderDojo Twin Cities.