Modern Fortran is easy to learn if you have Matlab muscles; there's a few additional concepts to learn because it's a "static" language, but much much easier than, say, Rust.
Heh, I recall the most recent Stack Overflow Developer Survey list MATLAB as one of the most hated languages: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#technology-most-loved-...
Loved: 19.16%
Dreaded: 80.84%
That's not to say that it doesn't have a place or anything, it was just interesting to behold such a clear trend.
Also: Matlab OO is hellishly slow, like having to go on a 5-hour plane trip and mistaking the Ambien you planned to take for a Ritalin.