Erlang faces a similar uphill battle when it comes to syntax - there are three different punctuation marks used as terminators depending on context, and you have to keep in your head the rules for all 3. As someone who has written quite a bit of Erlang, but infrequently, it's always a battle.

And I think a big part of the reason that Elixir has done so well (Elixir pretty much starting out as Erlang-but-with-Ruby-syntax)