Getting into programming is a very interesting experience. This is because writing computer programs require you to alter the way you would normally think. Programming is all about breaking down a problem into smaller pieces and sticking to the rules. The former helps you solve the task you have at hand and the latter will give you a smoothly functioning piece of code.

C is a good programming language to begin with. Not only will it teach you many of the fundamentals in programming, it is also a very powerful language which is very much in use today. C programming will help you understand Variables, Looping, Control Structure and Program Structure among other things. These are the fundamental concepts that exist in all programming languages. Once you have experience in understanding these, you will be able to use that knowledge to easily come to grips with another programming language.

C will also help you learn complex concepts like Object Oriented Programming, Inheritance and Function Overloading. But those can be left out until you are confident with the elementary concepts of the language.

One of the important things you will learn is to architect your solutions using C. This means that you will, in due course, learn how a problem can be broken down into several parts, and how those parts can be broken down further and so on until you have mapped out exactly what components need to be developed in order for the total problem to be solved. This is commonly called thinking like a programmer.