My programming II professor would always tell us to step away from the keyboard/monitor, and physically write out a source file x times to help learn a language

My programming II professor would always tell us to step away from the keyboard/monitor, and physically write out a source file x times to help learn a language. There is definitely something to this process that helps language syntax piece itself together in the brain. Probably because it's similar to the process we use to practice writing and reading our human languages.