In my opinion, Java has far too much nitpicky details to begin with.
First, every time you want to make a new public class, you have to make a new file with it inside.
This forces you to import loads of files for small projects.
In the other hand, C allows you to declare all the data structures in the same file (not recommended

) and you don't have to worry if they are or are not in the same file.
In C it's easier to make mistakes, but then again, you learn a LOT with them. It's a bit funny when your first programs start spitting out wierd characters or just seg fault because you moved too far into that array...

Has it was said before, after learning C, Java will look like a simplified version of it. Sort of.

If you're just learning the basics, there's no point in going over interoperability, because the standard C libraries are avaliable for every system.
C is also great to learn how some higher level functions work. You can very easily manipulate strings, lists, arrays and trees in Java, but it's not nearly as fun!

Why? Because you'll
WANT to do them all by yourself some day, because that existing tree type doesn't do stuff the way you'd like it to. Up goes the home-made one!

Sure you can do all that in Java as well, but let's say Java doesn't encourage that much by having all those things ready to use.
All in all, I (as you may have noticed because, oh I don't know, I didn't talk about anything else this whole post) voted for C.
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