I think newbie should first learn multiple different languages. Say, C, a Lisp-dialect, one statically typed functional language like Haskell or ML, a scripting

I think newbie should first learn multiple different languages. Say, C, a Lisp-dialect, one statically typed functional language like Haskell or ML, a scripting language like, a current mainstream language like Java or C#, a shell language, a pure object-oriented language like SmallTalk, a logic programming language, etc. I think it also helps that the language is well established, so that you don't run into implementation bugs, and there is good body of books, documentation and example programs available, so that would mostly leave newer languages out for a newbie.