I had just learned some basic HTML and didn't know a thing about Unix except how to spell it. I did the same type of screaming when I saw the 'weird' characters and regular expression.

I got a copy of Learning Perl and Programming Perl and proceeded to try to understand the code I inherited. Because I was somewhat inexperienced it took me a couple of months before I really started to like Perl. Now, I can honestly say after 4 yers of using Perl, it's the best language I have worked with. It gets better all the time and I learn more every day.

I admit I have some bad programming habits but Perl allows me to still program while I try to overcome my habits one at a time...

Perl also helped me to learn Unix. I am grateful for everything Perl gave me

There may be a learning curve for Perl but IMHO the benefits make it more than worthwhile.

Cheers and go for it!