Mmm, Python does sound like a plausible place to start. The thing I really like about Python for this purpose, actually, is the interactive command prompt, which permits you to have a huge number of round trips in your interaction with the machine compared to any edit/compile/link/test cycle. You can test and refine a statement at a time on the command line, and then transfer it into your program once you're sure of it, in a way that no serious programming environment has permitted me to do half so conveniently since BBC or Spectrum BASIC. I use this feature a huge amount myself – when I can only half-remember how some language feature works it's almost always quicker to test a hypothesis or two at the Python prompt than to go looking for the manual – but I can't help thinking that for someone in the process of actually learning, a lot of hands-on interaction with the machine is vital, and the more round trips you can squeeze into that process the better.