I like learning the keyboard shortcuts too (there are many in the Menus) and it was the Option key ⌥ that had me confused for the longest time.
For a built in way to see which symbol is which key on your keyboard, use the Keyboard Viewer. Enable that in the International preferences, under the Input Menu tab. Once enabled, you should have a flag in your Menu Bar where you can select "Show Keyboard Viewer".
Keyboard viewer is great to see which key is which on your keyboard (even Dvorak) and for finding out how to type many non standard symbols (like option 8 is the bullet symbol; and shift option 8 is the degree symbol). While viewing the Keyboard Viewer, type keys on keyboard to see what key does what and what you get with modifier keys. Option for example, is for accents over letters.
Some of the common modifier keys are below:
⇧ shift
⌃ control
⌥ option
⌘ command (also the Apple key)
⌫ delete left (backspace on a PC)
⎋ escape
For a more complete list of Keyboard symbols, please see:
macOSXhints
For more on keyboard shortcuts that you can use, see:
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
Ivan
