In this lesson, we explored programming languages, which are formal languages designed to communicate instructions to computers. There are two main categories: low-level languages, which are closely related to computer hardware, and high-level languages, which are more user-friendly and resemble human languages. Low-level languages include machine language, which is directly understood by computers, and assembly language, which is easier to read than machine code. In contrast, high-level languages like C++, Fortran, Java, and Python use English and mathematical symbols, making them easier for programmers to work with and learn.