It is viewed by some as the language of the 21st century, and computer coding is slowly working its way into classrooms nationwide.
But as students in parts of the United States are given the chance to swap foreign-language classes for coding, Hannah Sinclair looks at whether it could happen in Australia's education system.
At an after-school program in Sydney's north, 20 students dump their bags at the door and race towards a line of identical laptops.
They are enrolled in the Sydney Programming School's beginners class.
The session runs once a week and has more than doubled in popularity since launching in April last year.
The program's founder, Grigory Punanov, says children love to code.
"We introduce them to new technology, we show them how to think creatively. We show them that they can actually build their own projects, their own software projects, their own computer games. And they look at computer games from a different perspective now."
Mr Punanov's son Gleb is in Year 10 and studies computers at his high school.
He helps with the classes some afternoons and says learning how to write computer programs, apps and games -- or code -- is like learning another language.
"It also has its own grammar,which is called syntax, its own rules -- which you need to follow. If you don't follow those rules, the computer will not understand you. Just like a person speaking another language will not understand you if you're speaking incorrectly. So, I think it's just as hard and just as important."
That kind of thinking recently led the Florida senate in the United States to pass a bill letting high-school students replace their foreign-language requirements with computer-coding courses.
The bill will take effect during the 2018-2019 school year.
The senator spearheading the proposal, Jeremy Ring, says coding is a basic skill, as much as reading and writing.
Jesse Clark is a robotics researcher at the University of Technology Sydney and works as the head teacher at the Sydney Programming School.
Mr Clark says the Florida proposal has merit.
"They say software is eating the world. Every programming language opens your mind as much as another human language. Even if you only learn one or two programming languages, it opens up so much of the world to you."
Digital literacy is already being taught in some primary and high-school classrooms around Australia and is being included in the national curriculum.
Coding is credited with teaching students how to solve problems and improving their cognitive development.
An emeritus professor at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Leon Sterling, is an expert in digital innovation and communication technologies.
Professor Sterling says coding should be a part of the school curriculum but should not necessarily replace languages.
"Increasingly, we're dealing with computers all the time. If people want to innovate, then having a chance to work and understand how computers operate, I think, will give them advantages."
Last year, the federal Department of Education cited research suggesting only 12 per cent of Year 12 students nationally chose to study a second language.
It marks a huge drop from 40 per cent in the 1960s.
The Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association says, while there are obvious benefits to coding, traditional subjects should not be replaced.
Association president Kylie Farmer says there is something unique about learning a foreign language in an increasingly globalised society.
"It's like asking me to choose between English or maths. Both are essentials. (When you learn a language, you learn) the ability to understand another person by getting a sense of their language, their culture, who they are and how we can connect."
The increasing popularity of coding among students at the Sydney Programming School is evident.
(First:) "It's really fun, because you learn to make games." (Second:) "You can make your own apps." (Third:) "The main thing is to help kids learn how to make these things and to develop their brains to be better at making this stuff."
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