To just get the hang of OOP, you might be better off starting with Python or Ruby (or some other language with a REPL). Although you can do OOP style programmin

To just get the hang of OOP, you might be better off starting with Python or Ruby (or some other language with a REPL). Although you can do OOP style programming in C (and it's a fun exercise), there's a lot of low level stuff that's really interesting but not particularly relevant to the basic concepts of OOP. If the choice is between just Java and C++, I'd go with Java, but it probably depends on what your long term goals are. In any case, learning any language can't hurt, so I don't think there's any danger of making the wrong choice--unless you get so stuck that you're not making any progress. Just pick whatever "fits your brain" then branch out later.