I can agree on bash syntax being crazy, but certainly not on awk. Awk is very simple, a man page is all you need if you need to find something. Otherwise what's so complex with awk?
If you don't like learning from a man page (understandable), I can recommend a quick read of the Awk book by A, K, and W. It's very short and has fun examples.
I feel there was a missed chance to make it “by A, W and K”