First, don't feel that you have nothing to give back - not everything is about programming ;p. Here's a bit of my personal experience. almost two years ago I t

First, don't feel that you have nothing to give back - not everything is about programming ;p. Here's a bit of my personal experience. almost two years ago I took my first formal programming courses. It started out with Algorithms (DFD, etc.) and Operating Systems. Then we moved on to C++. At first, I felt just like you: aside from the basic programming principles and logic I learned in Algorithms, all I knew was how to do stuff in C++. I took up Ruby (mainly due to Rails, but it helped me discover a wonderful language). The curriculum progressed: Java, Delphi, SQL, Visual Basic, .NET, PHP, HTML&CSS, (which I already knew), etc. You'd be surprised at how much these concepts come back and help out. Basically, what you learn in the first couple of classes is not "how to do stuff in language x", rather how to think and develop an effective algorithm, which can be applied to any programming language. Right now, you know how to do stuff in C++. When you learn another language, you'll just have to learn the syntax and some other quirks, and you'll pick it up quickly. For example, in my class we took up a good level of Pascal and Delphi in 2-3 months of class, which is not too shabby.