I first started programming when I was 16, back in 2002. I'm glad that I had started out with C/C++ right away. It's a picky language, but if you can code in C, you'll find most other languages to be much easier and simplistic. If you want high level of control, efficiency and speed, then C is probably the best language to use.
Updated: 12-28-2010
Original: 8-18-2002