I'm also a self-taught engineer and, when I was starting, the best way I found to learn how to code was to first figure out what I wanted to build. For instance

I'm also a self-taught engineer and, when I was starting, the best way I found to learn how to code was to first figure out what I wanted to build. For instance, at the time I new HTML, but not much about server side programming or databases. I decided I wanted to build a dynamic website with user registration, login and posts on a wall. Then, I split that "project" up in small pieces and tried to figure out how to do each one of them. When I knew what I wanted and the pieces I had to build it was easier to search for resources to read. I believe this way it becomes easier to associate what you learn from the programming language with what they are used for.