When Perl is not your first programming language, you could start with converting one of your own programs, that you write in another programming language, to Perl. Start with the less complex programs and proceed with the more complex ones after you have built some experience.

As always, it's easier to start with something in which you are experienced, than to start from scratch in a language that is mostly Japanese to you.

The transition to Perl is rather easy for programmers with experience in C, C++, Basic or one of the many scripting languages like PHP, Javascript, Ruby or Python. Certainly when you manage to take the first syntactical hurdle.