> and I'm not sure how to even start explaining what's happening when I punch in commands. Though perhaps not trivial, it seems easier than, say, explaining wh

> and I'm not sure how to even start explaining what's happening when I punch in commands. Though perhaps not trivial, it seems easier than, say, explaining what you're doing when you fix/manipulate things on a car engine. The terminal uses a form of language to give commands, and the result is the execution of the command and/or some sort of printed output. `ls -lah` could be explained as 'a fast way of inputting' the equivalent of "Alexa, tell me in detail what files are in this directory". (Yes, you would have to explain something basic about files and directories, but that still seems reasonable.)