But does this specific anecdote generalize to, for example, learning a language and then trying to learn linear algebra? I feel that was the point the GP was me

But does this specific anecdote generalize to, for example, learning a language and then trying to learn linear algebra? I feel that was the point the GP was meaning to bring up. Languages are fundamentally similar to one another in many ways, so I would imagine there is less you can transfer to learning something where the framework of language-learning no longer applies.