Have you ever programmed in any language? If not, maybe you should start with a Lego Mindstorm kit and the visual "programming". Or, start with BASIC as I think it is a simpler language to learn because the syntax is simpler and much less fussy than C.
You learn the fundamental concepts of procedural programming without getting bogged down in minutiae. I think it would be easier to focus on programming the robot if the language doesn't get in the way.
Mind you I love the C programming language, and prefer it for robotics programming, but it is a fairly steep learning curve for someone totally new to programming and programming languages. And in my limited experience so far, programming robots to do anything remotely complex is not easy at all.