Just like spoken languages, the more languages you learn the easier it is to learn new languages and the better you become at using the languages you know already. Perl is something of a grab bag inspired by a range of other programming languages and by the way we use spoken languages. That allows many of the techniques that are used in other languages to be used without much effort in Perl so, aside from being a great language in its own right, Perl is great for prototyping and exploring ideas or techniques.