I did otherwise when interested in the APL/J/K world: the ASCII use of J scared me and I decided to learn some APL first and then, go through J's ASCIIness (I'm still early in the APL part, though.) I find APLs symbols nice and terse, for some of the basic things it's like learning a good editor's shortcuts (be it emacs or vi[m].) You no longer think about how to do X, but what you want to achieve and your hands do it. Of course, I guess with J it's exactly the same once you know enough of it, I just took the other route.

IMHO learning about a new language (without becoming proficient with it) is always good as it makes you think about the one(s) you're proficient with.

> learning about a new language (without becoming proficient with it)

Mostly true, but there are languages which are completely useless without becoming proficient with them. In my experience Forth and J are such languages: you can "learn about" them, but you won't really understand them without using them for some time. So I suspect APL, K, Q and Eli here are similar; the question is what will I gain from becoming proficient with one of them or alternatively is it worth becoming proficient in one of them if I'm already proficient with another.