Learning a programming language is a bit like learning a natural language (like Portuguese or Russian). The more you know about the basic principles of natural languages, the more natural languages you have mastered, and the better you really use them, the easier it will become to learn a new natural language.

Many Belgians and Dutch speak English proficiently, and often also French and German, maybe even some Italian of Spanish. For those that master Spanish, French and Italian, it should be rather easy to learn Portuguese, which is a member of the same language group.