[Admins]

I would say going C++ is the best, especially if you want to be platform-independent and fast and use many external libraries, although it is good to look into different directions. Often the language is not the most important, they are often quite the same. What is more important is if the language is doing what you want: in some cases php and javascript or even ruby are wonderful (for websites), sometimes Flash script, sometimes Java, often C/C++. Even Visual Basic or C# can be good solutions although it is limiting you a little bit to Microsoft-stuff.

What is more important is an understanding of concepts - organization of code, reusability, documentation, etc. You also need to learn to find documentation and code examples, ways to do things easier instead of spending too much time on solving some little detail.