Just learning

[Basic]

hey, I'm just starting out with Java right now.

I was wondering what is the easiest/best way for a beginner to go.
I was thinking Android app development, but I'm not sure.

Also, what is another good USEFUL language to learn?
C++, C#, anything like that??

 

[x42]

Everyone prefer to learn different way, I favor books.
If you are just starting of (I'll presume you are new to programming in general) start with Head First Java-O'Reilly Media.
Great and fun to read book that will get you started with basics.
Next go thru these videos: Course | Programming Methodology - YouTube - Check video descriptions for everything you will need to follow them.
Upon finishing the videos I urge you to read Effective Java by Joshua Bloch followed by Java Concurrency in Practice and if you got time Java Generics and Collections (O'Reilly).

For your next question, I don't think there is any point to learn C# or similar language if you already know Java (tho it would be a very easy thing to do thanks to how similar these two languages are). I'd say learn C next.
It will give you great understanding of how computers actually work and will therefore allow you to think on entirely new level. Also if you decide to learn C++ later you can easily do so since they are very much alike. After all C++ is an enhancement to the C language.
You will probably end up learn C++ sooner or later but seriously, start with C. It is closer to the machine (you'll learn more) but at the same time MUCH easier to learn than most other languages (C is a tiny language).
If you choose to learn C, here are some books I highly recommend (for a beginner):
C How to Program, 6/e followed by The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, very old book but still adequate (in fact best book on C till date). Polish your C with C Programming: A Modern Approach
If you later decide to learn C++, take a look at these books:
Book Reviews - C and C++ Books and References - Cprogramming.com

P.S.
You should consider Python too.
Extremely easy to learn and write, flexible, purely awesome and can do pretty much anything that Java and C++ can but with much shorter development time.

 

[Savior]

Java is rather hard to learn as a beginner language, however some of the books mentioned above might be handy. I'd recommend Absolute Java 4th edition by Walter Savitch, it assumes you have no previous experience in programming and is very easy to understand.

Also the best way to learn to program is to actually go to school for it.

 

[Jolin88]

Useful languages I know of :
C/C++ : those bundle together and are useful to code just about anything you can think of, as long as you master them
Java : There's no doubt that the cross platform power of Java makes it a good choice, even if it's slower than C/C++
PHP Javascript and HTML : for websites of any kind
and if you wish to make flash games you can add actionscript to your list, I suggest actionscript 3.0, it's more efficient and works more like a java than actionscript 2.0

for beginners however you could take a look at BlitzMax, it's an upgraded version of the old PureBasic, it has easy syntax, is faster than Java and includes internally a lot of stuff that usually requires you to use big sometimes confusing libraries, also keywords in Blitzmax and documentation are straightforward, you want to load an image you use LoadImage you want to draw it you use DrawImage. That's how I got started

 

[s-p-n]

Nothing is ever easy. Java is not a language for beginners. Learn a different language and go back to Java later.

Learn structured or procedural programming languages before moving on to an object oriented programming language.

Even if you think you're learning something with Java, you will be doing and learning it wrong.

 

[Basic]

Thanks for the tips, I have just skimmed over them I will read more later.
The main reason I am asking is I want to just know and be able to use this for fun and maybe something more later on. It's always good to know.


I decided to attempt Python, learn that for about a month then move onto something else.

Python is turning out to be awesome.