[ronyeh]

When you say "learn Flash" I interpret it as "learn how to make animations in Adobe Flash Professional, the product with the timelines and keyframes."

If your bro wants to make fun animated cartoons, I think it's a great way to start. He can also learn little bits of scripting, using ActionScript 3.

The other interpretation of "should I learn Flash" is "should I learn ActionScript 3 & Flash Builder (Eclipse)?" You can use AS3 and Flash Builder to make web apps, along with really intricate animations or video games. This is a tougher question, because many people are moving toward HTML5 nowadays.

However, if he wants to make simple videogames, I still think of AS3 as a good way to learn programming! In syntax, AS3 is very similar to JS. However, AS3 also includes a static/strong type system, which is a nice way to ease into "scarier" languages like Java and C++ and Objective C.

AS3 has a nice method for loading & animate sprites. It also has many 3rd party libraries. AS3/Flash also handles sound effects for game audio pretty well. If he wants to distribute his game to his friends, he usually doesn't have to worry about cross-browser issues. :-)