You have hit upon my biggest gripe with mathematicians, their love of 'notation', or more precisely their love of writing in symbology that makes mathematics seem more arcane than it actually is.
When ever I've run up against "impenetrable" math I often ask "So how would you use this?" and connecting it to the real world helped tremendously.
When ever I've run up against "impenetrable" math I often ask "So how would you use this?" and connecting it to the real world helped tremendously.