It wasn't until after I started learning foreign languages that I really began to understand English.

Years of having adjectives, adverbs, and all that beat into my head by English teachers didn't really make the knowledge stick in my head as much as learning Spanish.

So it is with Perl. Follow my meditation:

C is to Perl as Latin is to English

Bash is to Perl as German is to English

Perl modules are to Perl as the academic disciplines are to English. (That is, no one has to invent science or history over again every generation . . . we record the method in spoken language, and someone else is able to use it and extend it)

I don't think there's a real world parallel for CPAN, though (more's the pity). You could say colleges and universities, but, realistically, that's a lot more like the M$ foundation classes (you have to jump through hoops to get them).

If there's anyone else on my wavelength out there (and that's probably unlikely, I've just finished playing with two different bands today for a total of four hours), let me know what parallels you can see.