I've given up PHP for Scala recently, and it doesn't seem too difficult yet. Do yourself a favor, pick up a copy of "Programming In Scala" by the languages author, and read it starting from page one, even if you think you're an expert programming.

I can't learn a new language quickly, so to learn I'm blogging about my experiences at http://leftnode.com and trying to write as many small programs as possible, moving into larger ones when I'm ready.

I'm trying to ignore many of the larger projects and in-depth Scala projects for the time being so I don't overwhelm myself and give up on learning the language.