Hello and welcome from Chesterfield, UK.
I got into smoking clay pipes from C17/18 living history reenactment (English Civil War / British Redcoats etc) and later bought a few but I've had a quite a lot in the last 2 years as they keep breaking!
Welcome! "chasingembers" advice is excellent, I think, on tongue bite. If you can, learn how to smoke slowly now, at the beginning. Your mouth will remind you relentlessly until you do.
