Is PERL a good "first language"?

[Restless in Texas]

I'm a network engineer with a decent understanding of logic flows, etc., but I've not ever really done any programming at all. (Well, maybe a little BASIC, but not many folks are running Commodore 64's anymore these days...)So my question is this...Is PERL a good language to start with? Are there other suggestions anyone might have, like Java, VB, etc.? I mean, I don't necessarily expect any to be "easy," but I expect some are easier than others. And if you have an opinion, any explanations or justification for your position would be great, too. Thanks!

[Ray <3]

In grade 9 and 10 in ontario you're now required to take HTML (if you dont already know it) and Java. I started grade 10 with quickBasic but i dont remember it now, as well as VBasic, and then went right into Java. Its still my favorie language so that might be a good one to work on...SQL is also very popular now but doesnt really have the same applications.