When traveling, we often notice the changes in pronunciation, inflection, use of idioms and colloquialisms, as well as body language and other non-verbal communication. This is very evident in natural or spoken/written language, but does it exist in math or artificial languages like those in computer programming? Is there a way to tell who wrote a computer program just based on the syntax and patterns and ideas in the code? Are there colloquialisms? What is the non-verbal equivalent within C++ or Python? What is the body language equivalent in math?
In practice, these variations exist not just from region to region, but person to person. They are built into the experience of living in an area and learning language as we grow.
The experience in school tends to be so much different. I loved languages in middle/high school. However, in 6 years of French, 3 of Spanish, and 1 semester of Russian (Cyrillic alphabet blew my mind), I don’t remember spending any time on this. Reflecting back, >90% of the time in these classes, we were hearing one natural English speaker who was fluent in another language teach us that other language. But it was mostly vocabulary and phrases of limited practicality.
Whether we are learning a language for practicality and utility, or for empathy, how do we draw on these nuances without living in an area?