Don't see a problem. When I started playing the game I simply read all the hint/tutorial messages that pop up every time I stumbled upon something new, including materia - they are short and good explanations and can be accessed any time under "System" section I think.

And you can always google search for info if you want to know how materia works. Typing "ff xiv materia guide" in google brings up this: http://www.ffxivinfo.com/materia/guide.php