Here are some errors you would get if you tried to run that code

Global symbol "@person" requires explicit package name at foo.pl line 
+18.
Global symbol "@person" requires explicit package name at foo.pl line 
+19.
Global symbol "%sentences" requires explicit package name at foo.pl li
+ne 22.
Execution of foo.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
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Here is your code fixed up

use strict;
use warnings;

my %people;
my @sentences = ("here i am","i am me");
$people{me}[0] = 0; 
$people{me}[1] = "1985";
$people{me}[2] = \@sentences;

@sentences = ("there she is");
$people{friend}[0] = 1;
$people{friend}[1] = "1984";
$people{friend}[2] = \@sentences;

foreach my $person ( values %people) 
{
  my $rowId = $$person[0];
  my $dob = $$person[1];   
  my @says =  @{$person[2]}; 
  addDOBToDatabase($rowId, $dob);
  foreach my $sentence ( @says ) 
  {
    addSentenceToDatabase($rowId, $sentence);
  }  
}
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Tutorials: Getting Started with Perl: Data Types and Variables