As I've read here in a previous thread that I can't find right now :-) also John Carmack learned perl from the scratch and didn't omitt the "Hello World" example.
There's always a reason to learn more and more but there are always examples of people we look to as they are "Code Gurus", and it's a better feeling that they had to learn it this way as well (at least for me it is). So learning in their way seems to have some advantage.
Simply spoken: ask for "baby" perl, this will do it's job, it will suffice, it will serve success, and it will improve by the time as the feeling for the new language arises.
my 1 1/2 cents :-)

Have a nice day
All decision is left to your taste