Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a field of Machine Learning that gives computers the ability to read, understand and derive meaning from human languages.
The old way to interpret speech or text was based on keywords, but these days it is more about understanding the meaning behind the words.
When you say "Alexa, what song is this?", the device playing the music in your home will lower the volume and reply in a human-like voice "This song is Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Would you like me to save it to your favourites?" Then it adapts its algorithm to play that song and others like it according to your preferences.
Your device listened to you speak, recognised and understood your voice, your words, your sentence, understood your intentions, executed an action and provided feedback in well-formed English.
This interaction was made possible by Natural Language Processing, allied by other various Machine Learning applications.
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What is Natural Language Processing?
Natural Language Processing is a branch of Machine Learning that deals with the interaction between computers and humans using natural, human, language.
It's not an easy task teaching machines to understand how we communicate, and there are many different techniques used in Natural Language Processing for understanding and interpreting human language. In general, NLP breaks language down into shorter pieces to try to understand relationships between the pieces and what they mean.
Such tasks include:

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What is Natural Language Processing Used For?
Wherever you see large amounts of speech or text, you'll see potential for using Natural Language Processing. NLP can help with lots of different tasks, such as:
Best Natural Language Processing Courses at Udemy - in Python and R #nlp #deeplearning #datascience #udemy #courses @chi2innovations
Where Can You Learn About Natural Language Processing?
Udemy is a great place to learn about lots of different aspects of statistics and Machine Learning, and there are lots of courses there on NLP.
You'll typically find that courses at Udemy usually offered for up to £/$/Euro 200 but they have very frequent sales (like every week!) where you can get them for around £/$/Euro 10.
Once you've enrolled for a particular course, you get lifetime access to it, even when the course is updated, so grab them while you can!
Best Natural Language Processing Courses in Python
Here are the best courses at Udemy for NLP in Python:
There are many more, but I've excluded those that don't have the highest ratings.
Have you taken any of these courses? Leave a review in the comments below so that others can learn from your experiences.
What about other courses not on this list? Have you good/bad experiences with them? Let me know!
Best Natural Language Processing Courses in R
Here are the best courses at Udemy for NLP in R:
As R is a more statistics language than Python, there are comparatively fewer courses available. That doesn't mean that they are any less valuable!
How did you get on with these courses? Leave a review in the comments below so that others can learn from your experiences.
What about other courses not on this list? Have you good/bad experiences with them? Let me know!
Summary
There are loads of Data Science courses at Udemy, not just the ones listed above. If none of these take your fancy, have a look around and I'm sure you'll find others that might just hit the spot. I also recommend taking a look at courses in Statistics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning too.
When you've done any of these courses, please return and leave some feedback and a review in the comments below. If you loved the course, great - come and tell us. If you hated it, that's great too - leave a comment saying what you didn't like about it.
If you discover any better courses out there, let me know - I'll update the lists above!