>>1Well, overall easiest for rank beginners is probably a basic dialect (Visual Basic .NET?) because it's more like plain English. This matters more than I expected - I'm teaching a beginner C# now and a lot of stuff doesn't make sense to him because of the more concise syntax. However whenever you ask for help with VB people will call you names.
Python might be a better bet - it's not exactly a fast language when running, but it's easier than most and you can get more done faster. It's weird, though. The default behavior of a function will be fine and then there'll be all this strange shit tacked on. It's *useful* and intuitive strange shit, but still seems sort of ad-hoc. But that's an aesthetic criticism and consequently doesn't matter.