i dont think you should choose a language on what the model behind it is , rather that it does what you want it to do.
Personally you have to force me to write in java, if i'm offered work in it i tend to turn it away or pass it on to friends, i find the toolset to be really immature (for the field i'm in)
But its a reasonably simple language, no tricky pointers to worry about, cant really do much damage with it, unless you use extensions , so its a good starter language.
http://java.sun.com is the best place to start for tutorials etc.