Hi, I'm Austin. Welcome to my series on Javascript. This series will teach you JavaScript in simple and relatable ways.

Many years ago, during my primary school days (in Delta State, Nigeria), I discovered that I wasn't as fast a learner as some of my peers but now I have realised that my challenge then was trying to think too deeply about everything. I like to understand the mystery behind the things I learn.

For instance, when the teacher says 0 * 2 = 0 Other students immediately understand and agree with him but I tend to take a deeper look at it. I will always ask why and how (mostly in my head). This characteristic trait proved to be a burden because even while the class proceeds, I may still be brooding on the proof of why 0 * 2 = 0 when the class session is already 10mins ahead or more (leaving me behind).

This reflected in my grades because what others agreed with within a few seconds, I try to get a deeper understanding of it without consideration for time. At some point, I thought I was dull and didn't fit in. This affected my grades seriously even up to the point of pursuing higher education.

Fast forward to the future - after school, when I started programming. I struggled with the same issue too; Instead of just going straight to YouTube to blindly learn about a concept and apply it, I tend to read documentation and manuals. Sometimes, I would even dare to read language specification documents etc. I spent longer years acquiring knowledge that I could have simply learnt and applied without knowing deeply what I was doing. It was hard for me to ignore that something was going on beyond the obvious because the majority of the course creators just spoke on the surface when I knew that there has to be something more to the (confusing) reality that I saw.

My discovery

Later in my journey, I discovered that sometimes, the best way to learn is to go from the non-complicated to the complicated i.e., from the known to the unknown. For instance, if you want to understand the invisible realm, you have to be in touch with the visible. If you want to understand how the keyboard works, you need to first know what a keyboard is and then use the keyboard (unless of course you are inventing something new - even in this case, it always starts from the known to the unknown).

You do not have to know how to make a car to drive a car. But if you are ever going to be a good maintainer of your car - and of course a better driver and possibly a tutor - you will need to understand more than just driving.

All this while, I had focused too much on the unknown that I missed the opportunity to engage with what is known.

When I realised this, my approach to learning changed. I started making efforts to use and explore what is known, then take gradual steps venturing into how it works behind the scene.

If you are like me, it means either now or at some point, you have felt some level of frustration learning or working with JavaScript and if you are reading this, you want to know how it works so you can write more efficient codes.

What you will learn in this Series

Language is an accepted means of communication within an environment. It usually consists of words which have to be used/structured in a certain conventional way to convey information verbally, by writing or speech.

JavaScript is a language used in different computer/software environments. It consists of words and also rules and conventions that guide the usage of words contained in its vocabulary (syntax).

For example; In JavaScript, if you want to say "Show me the value 5 in the console". You simply write console.log(5). The console is one of the places to show outputs in JavaScript.

In this course, I am going to teach you Basic JavaScript in the most natural way possible using everyday scenario to describe every concept that we will cover. Also, when necessary, we will take a deep dive into how it works. This approach will ensure that you have a good understanding of the principles of the language so that when it's time to dive deep into the hard parts, you will be more than prepared for it.

Like every other language, learning to speak it takes time and consistent practice. JavaScript is mostly communicated by writing hence, you need to resolve to be patient with yourself while learning it and also resolve to write (practice) it daily.

I have discovered that one big challenge for beginners is, not knowing what to learn, and what to skip when starting, I also faced this challenge too. This challenge will only end up prolonging your learning journey and in some cases, most people finally give up because they end up getting confused. That's why in this series, I will not complicate your minds trying to teach every single low-level concept of JavaScript.

What we will do is, take time to teach the language in a way that makes you understand it confidently, and then explain the concepts behind some of the most confusing parts of the language.

By the end of this course, you should be able to thoroughly understand the following concepts;

• Variables

• Data types

• Interaction: alert, prompt, confirm

• Type Conversions

• Basic operators, maths

• Comparisons

• Conditionals

• Logical operators

• Nullish coalescing operator '??'

• Loops: while and for

• The "switch" statement

• Functions (Function expressions and Arrow functions)

In another (subsequent) series, we will dive deep into some of these concepts.

Throughout this learning experience, we'll have action points. Make sure to engage with them and also feel free to ask questions via the comment section and I will be willing to respond.

In case you need a concept quickly explained to you live and you'd require a one-on-one session, we can also arrange to have that (for free).

Environment Setup

Like every other language, JavaScript needs a sphere of relevance - It has to be used as a means of interaction within an environment.

English language, for example, is primarily a means of verbal interaction between humans. In the same vein, JavaScript is a language which web browsers understand.

Although there are instances where JavaScript is used to communicate with other software, we will not get into that in this series.

To write and run JavaScript, you will need to check if your computer has everything in place to enable this language to be spoken.

At a basic level, all you need is a web browser and if you like, a text editor.

Before you proceed, please watch this video to learn how to set up your computer with everything required to write and run basic javascript.

If you have your computer set up to speak JavaScript, let's learn about a very fundamental concept in the next article called "variables".

NOTE*: As a beginner who is self-learning, one of the greatest challenges you will face is knowing what to learn and what to skip in the vast amount of resources available and topics discussed. I had to pass through this myself so I have resolved to make sure your journey and learning experience is as optimal as I can make it. In this series, I am going to filter out some information that you do not need to bother yourself about when dealing with specific topics so that you can focus on the foundations needed to build upon. Depending on the engagement and results I observe from this series, I will be able to write another one to tackle some of that aspects of the language. As you read, I am going to be pointing out some of the aspects of a particular topic that I have skipped. This is to let you know that doing so is a deliberate attempt to give you a smooth start.*

Summary

Learning how anything works behind the scenes is very possible, you just need to first engage actively with it i.e., make use of it and when it's time to dive deep, the underlying concepts will not feel too strange to grasp.

To use the JavaScript language, you need to set up an environment for it (learn about that using this link).

After this series, you will be able to confidently and rightly explain any basic JavaScript concept to anyone.

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Cheers 🥂