Many schools teach a second language as early as elementary school. Business travelers snap up copies of the latest course that promises to teach Japanese, Portuguese or Arabic in 30 days or less.

There are countless mobile apps, including the surprisingly useful Google translate, that can provide you with enough words and phrases to get fed and on the right train when abroad.

The fact is, however, there’s another kind of language that just might be far more important to learn. That language comes with names like Python, PHP, MySql, Java and C+. The new business bilingual is programming.

This TEDx Talk in the video above from 12-yr old app developer Thomas Suarez points to a new generation that’s taking an interest in coding what they interact with online, but make no mistake, this skill, or at least a working knowledge of some aspect of coding will become a foundational element of success from this point forward.

Programming apps and websites is no longer the turf of those geeks in IT, it’s a skill that better show up on your resume and in your problem solving toolkit in the next brainstorming session. It’s a skill that business owners need to understand in order to possess the necessary insight to move their business forward.

There are countless books, courses, and services popping up every day to rush in and fill the massive demand for even the most basic understand of the web’s most important languages.

While you will still likely hire experts to do things like build apps and create online databases, it’s time to make 2012 the year you become fluent in the new language of business.

Below are a few resources that I would recommend to help you get started.

Javascript