I was 10 when I started learning English, and I was 16 before i wrote my first C64 Basic 'program', so my own experience doesn't count.
I did however teach a bit of Pascal programming to a boy aged 11, who hadn't learned any English at school, but perfectly understood which commands to use.

The point I'm trying to make here is that in my opinion it doesn't matter that the programminglanguage doesn't resemble your own language. In fact, I think it's even better if you start learning an 'English' programminglanguage rightaway, because that's what you eventually have to use anyway.

Jouke Visser, Perl 'Adept'