The ALT’s Totally SFW Guide to Coding Self-Study
Desk-warming. 💤
The word which strikes fear into the hearts of even the most proactive ALTs.
You’ve asked your teachers to attend more lessons, created the most extra powerpoint presentations — maybe you’ve even attempted to fill your free time by alphabetizing the ESS film collection (not speaking from personal experience… of course.)
If you’ve offered your help to all of your teachers and there is nothing more that you can do to help out at work, it’s important to use that time wisely rather than wasting hours on Reddit. In these moments, your best option is to turn to some kind of skill-building.
For those of us who don’t plan to stay in Japan forever, we start to see diminishing returns for time spent studying the language. Sure, I’d enjoy spending time studying Japanese, but I’m currently more worried about whether or not I’ll be able to make money when I return home.
If you’re in this position, as I was a year ago, you may find yourself looking to study a topic more relevant to your post-JET career. In my case, I decided to change from a career in education to a career in the tech industry, specifically UX Design, which is quite a daunting task without formal education.
Sure, I’d enjoy spending time studying Japanese, but I’m currently more worried about whether or not I’ll be able to make money when I return home.
I, personally, have experience self-studying front-end website development to build websites, so a lot of this advice is geared towards that. However, I believe many of my suggestions are general enough to be useful for learning any programming language or just breaking into technology in general.
To make this SFW (safe-for-work) list, all of the websites below had to be completely text-based (no videos or audio) so feel free to read and utilize them at work without feeling too awkward! I also accounted for whether or not the websites are blocked by the not-so-heiwa HeiwaNet and found that most were okay, except for a couple that are inaccessible simply due to the school’s terribly outdated browser. So if you’re being forced back a decade with your school’s Internet Explorer, I apologize in advance.
Without further ado, let’s get to the good stuff!
- W3 Schools (free — HEIWANET safe ✅)
HTML // CSS // Javascript // Python // C++ // PHP // SQL // etc.
W3 Schools is a great resource to have on hand when studying many different areas of programming. Not only do they provide a lot of straightforward information on how to accomplish various programming tasks, but they also give you the ability to interact with their code to try it out. This website saved me so many times when I had an idea for a feature that I just wasn’t sure how to execute! - Interneting is Hard (free — HEIWANET safe ✅)
HTML // CSS
This is a complete web development-centric resource, however, it was one of my favorite discoveries when I was starting. This website is expertly designed and easy to follow, so I highly suggest using it if you’re looking to begin studying website development or need a refresher course on HTML and CSS. - Codepen.io (free or paid — HEIWANET no ⚠️ if using an older browser)
Build, test, and discover front-end code that inspires you
Codepen is a great resource for front-end developers who want to try out or show off code and also want to learn about the interesting things that other developers have created! I learned how to do a lot of cool things with CSS through this website, so I suggest taking advantage of it and learning from the public contributions others have made as well as trying out your ideas. - Codecademy (free or paid — HEIWANET no ⚠️ if using an older browser)
HTML // CSS // Javascript // Python // C++ // C# // Java // etc.
Codecademy is a great educational website to use to learn to program while at work due to its text-based lessons. There are both free and paid options for use, and I took advantage of the paid account for about a year to unlock bonus projects and lessons. I always suggest this for anyone interested in learning to code, regardless of whether you aim to study at work or home. - Github (free — HEIWANET safe ✅)
This isn’t necessarily a place to learn how to write code. But, it’s an important resource for anyone interested in coding, as it is one of the top places for developers to share code, collaborate with others, and host projects of a variety of types. You can also access your projects from multiple computers if you use Github to backup all of your files. I built and launched my website using Github, which saved me a lot of money on hosting and gave me a free place to showcase my skills! - Clean Up Your Mess (free — HEIWANET safe ✅)
Guide to visual design, very short read but incredibly valuable
This website is not exactly about coding, but it’s an incredibly valuable guide to visual design that I think every person interested in technology and development could benefit from. It helped change the way I view not only print design but also design in general and has improved the user experience of my websites. Furthermore, it has a list of recommended books to read at the bottom that I found helpful as I began pursuing UX design. Which brings us to the last suggestion… - Books (free or paid — HEIWANET safe ✅)
There are so many quality books out there to help you get started with various careers involving programming and technology, so this is a suggestion that really can’t be understated. I’ve found a lot of PDFs for books that relate to front-end development, design and computer science in general and found them to be great resources to always have available.
I have a Kindle at work and I read during lunch or when I go to my visit school, so it’s a great option if you can’t get any physical books here! To help you out, I found a list of recommendations for books on several different topics to get you started.
Becoming an ALT in Japan may seem daunting to those who don’t plan to teach for their entire lives, as we have to essentially press pause on beginning our careers to take part in it. However, there are so many great ways to take advantage of the free time that you have at your disposal now and turn it into something beneficial for your future.
If you have any suggestions to add to this, definitely pass them on to me as I’m always looking for new things to learn!
