Welcome to the fourth post of our Humans of DreamProIT blog series!
In today’s series, we introduce Andrii Kovalov, our Python Engineer. Andrii is not only passionate about coding but also about teaching himself various skills. So, we decided to explore Andrii’s journey as an autodidact – a self-taught person – and learn about his self-teaching approach to mastering English and Python.
It started with a New Year’s resolution. Andrii, who wasn’t previously involved in programming but always had an interest in computers, set a personal goal to learn a programming language, hoping it would become his future career.
“I started by choosing a language. After some research and consideration, my preference landed on Python due to its semantics that resembles plain English.”
Once he made this choice, Andrii started right away. To learn Python, he used books, videos, online video courses, articles, and other available sources he could find. However, simply learning about a new skill is not enough. Andrii needed to practice and apply his knowledge to reinforce what he had learned. To do this, he worked on pet projects that allowed him to put his newly gained knowledge to the test.
“Everything you do should leave a trace. Small projects like this are good for practice and a nice way of learning. They can also serve as a portfolio at the start.”
Eventually, his hard work was rewarded and Andrii secured his first internship and received an offer as a Python developer. This marked the beginning of the career he was aiming for. His ability to self-teach helped him to achieve his goals. That’s why Andrii believes that teaching yourself a new skill is possible if you have a compelling reason to do so.
“You can teach yourself almost any skill out there, provided you have a reason. It’s that goal that keeps you reading weighty, dull books until 3 AM. To maintain motivation, you need to have a meaningful “what for”.”
Python wasn’t the first impressive skill Andrii taught himself. He’s a TV series enthusiast and a devoted movie lover. This passion for TV series and movies became his primary reason and motivation for learning English.
“I started learning English to watch movies and series in the original without the need to wait for dubbing. I made a willful decision to switch to English when watching, relying on subtitles.”
Learning a new language has to be a highly individualized process if you want it to be effective. That’s why Andrii didn’t want to rely on traditional language-learning practices and decided to develop his own strategies based on his interests, goals, and personal preferences. He researched alternative approaches and gathered information on how to effectively learn the language without tutors or language courses. It helped him to create his own personalized learning strategy and approach learning with a positive mindset.
“The main concept of the technique I’ve chosen was the idea that English is easy. You can speak English using simple sentences and basic words to convey the message. So, there is no necessity to master a sophisticated vocabulary and advanced grammar structures before attempting to speak English. Overall, this approach changed my view on English as something hard to acquire and made speaking it much less intimidating.”
Andrii’s optimistic and determined attitude made the learning process less daunting and more accessible. This learning journey was also cost-free, as he relied solely on online resources. This approach demonstrates that a desire combined with a wealth of free online resources can help you achieve proficiency in almost any field, including foreign languages.
Here are a few practical tips that Andrii used, which will be useful for those who prefer the flexibility of online learning or simply want to find extra ways to improve their language skills.
“If you want to join a speaking club to practice, make sure to be surrounded by more advanced speakers than yourself. Also, if you lack practice partners, you can try speaking out loud on your own or watching a movie and commenting aloud as a form of practice. Even though work wasn’t my primary motivation at the time, these practices improved my English to a level where it became sufficient and useful for my line of work in the future.”
The self-taught path, however, had its fair share of challenges. Andrii explains that when you decide to acquire a skill independently, it can feel like standing in the ocean of knowledge with nothing more than a small cup in your hand.
“You scoop water from this ocean, but it evaporates over time, leaving behind the salt in your cup. These tiny grains of salt are the knowledge that remains with you.”
At these points, it is essential not to lose motivation and keep your goals in mind. Andrii recommends gathering knowledge in our way, even though we may not be able to retain all of it in our minds over time.
“I used to believe it was possible to know everything, but time and experience have proven me otherwise. Sometimes, you can just forget things, and this is OK. When learning, there is lots of information, and you can “drown” in it. I dealt with it by focusing on what was immediately relevant and by associating new knowledge with specific topics or projects.”
Andrii’s dedication to continuous learning and work is admirable. Obviously, it requires keeping a balance in managing inner resources to maintain energy and motivation. He makes sure to allocate time for work and learning but also prioritizes downtime. To relax and restore, he prefers passive rest, good sleep, and, sometimes, simply doing nothing, recognizing the importance of allowing his mind and body to recharge.
“Each of us has our own resources. My motivation comes from the desire to keep growing and to do that, I have to work and keep moving forward. When you have a goal in the background, you naturally try to focus your resources on it and cut out what you don’t need.”
While Andrii creates a list of series recommendations for me to enjoy during my leisure time, I would like to finish this story with Andrii’s words that struck me the most during the interview:
“Every person is unique and progresses at their own pace. Avoid comparing yourself to the success stories of other people, instead, focus on comparing yourself to who you were yesterday and try to be better than your previous self.”