Object Orientated code might be a bit complex to start off with, but is good to learn. Instead of learning a language where the language pretty much forces you to use OOP techniques, choose a language that supports other programming styles. Python does this well.
It's very easy to learn (Helluva lot easier to learn then VB) and really is quite powerful.
Whilst it's an interpreted language, and that used to mean slow as hell, speed isn't much of an issue with Python. However, when you do really need to get the best preformance possible, you can always find 5% of your code that;s taking 80% of the time (The bottleneck) and reimplement that as a c module. That way you pretty much the the ease of use, readability and Rapid design time of Python, and the quickness of C. Hell, you could probably write some ASM and chuck it in with Python if you really wanted too.
Anyway, don't go for Batch whatever you do.