I once read a review for a piece of software that began by stating that there was not any "intuitive" way to interact with pixels on a screen, that any interaction with a computer could only feel natural or logical once you understood the methodology that the software's creators were using. I can't recall what that review was of, (I'll update this if I do) but I think that this is along the same lines as what merlyn was saying. Once you figure out the method behind the "line noise with punctuation" madness, then perl does feel natural. If you come to perl and can't stop asking questions like "how do I define a variable as a floating point integer?" you're approaching things from another valid, albeit inapplicable to perl, logical framework. Once you start asking the right questions you're already well on your way to mastering the language.

Update: The review I mentioned was for Konqueror and may be found here.

And no, I don't own 27 pairs of sweatpants.