The guy who designed Delphi moved onto designing C#. I couldn't imagine starting out with C unless I was going into embedded development (designing hardware). I'd much rather start with a nice easy to understand IDE like Visual Studio 2010 (or the free express version) with C#, or using Eclipse and learning Java.
As for VB vs C#... the majority of samples you will find out there will be in C#. It's just easier to get help with.
Well I think I'll stick to C for now and then move onto C# after having finished C. Also you say embedded development is that something in the line of BIOS and Drivers?