I think maybe you forget a time when programming was hard for you. She's comparing learning Chinese as someone that knows English to learning programing as som

I think maybe you forget a time when programming was hard for you. She's comparing learning Chinese as someone that knows English to learning programing as someone that is non-technical. Both require people to learn fundamentals before they can go on to do "the fun stuff" (for Chinese, ordering food and for Programming, your own twitter client). This is because what you're learning is so alien to what you know, both as an english speaker and as a non-technical person. A lot of people stop learning at this point, at the fundamentals. She's saying don't stop there--power through it. There's light on the other side.