Programming is a very peculiar thing. Peculiar, because if you understand general concepts and ideas in programming, then learning various languages wouldn't be

Programming is a very peculiar thing. Peculiar, because if you understand general concepts and ideas in programming, then learning various languages wouldn't be a problem at all (generally speaking, there are some exceptions). That course you've picked is fine for basics of programming and even though a lot of people like to hate Java, it's a fine language and it'd be easy to start with it. As czardoz recommended, if you'd want to learn python, then learning python the hard way is also great book. I personally prefer that way of learning.