I have a little trouble understanding this. First off I've never learned a foreign language. Second, I learned programming early.

For me, programming was never a really difficult problem. I suppose this is because I learned to use DOS and BASIC at an early age. I some basic (pun not intended) programming before I learned algebra. I learned html and javascript when I was 12 and didn't really get the point. Nobody had told me that html was generated.

I didn't use any of my programming skills until I went to college and starting playing around with linux. It wasn't difficult for me to pick back up.

I suppose fluency with programming could be similar to fluency with language. If you start early, it's a lot easier.