I lived in Russia for two years. When I first moved there (I was 19) I went through the painful experience of being immersed in a foreign language. For a couple of months I couldn't express myself clearly, if at all. I couldn't put more than a couple of words together. I only understood about half of what people were saying to me. I couldn't even ask the bus driver to stop so I could get off at my stop.<p>After that short period, though, I became very comfortable communicating in Russian. I realized that there's probably no way to learn a language without going through that painful period. I think the same is true of programming languages. You're going to have to stumble through a couple thousand lines of horribly written code before you become fluent. You might as well start writing those now and get it over with.<p>I just started in a new roller hockey league this week. I still can't skate backwards well. I know that if I want to learn I'm going to have to fall on my butt a bunch of times. As long as I stay cautious and don't allow myself to fall, I'll probably never learn.