[dvdkon]

C# would be a better choice. In addition to top-level statements, the standard API seems much less "dogmatically" OOP. Reading a file is just one static method away. Unfortunately, it's still not possible to have top-level functions, right?

[kaba0]

But C# on the other hand is a very very complex language, with almost double the keywords compared to Java.

[dvdkon]

Yes, but I think the learning curve matters more, especially for students who are going to be mostly writing code, not reading existing projects.