In case people missed the man saying so, he can't watch videos. Sure, there's sometimes transcripts, but these're not necessarily the best way of approaching the subject.
Heh, I missed that. You can still stream videos, just leave Youtube on for half a day to download it while you do other stuff, as you won't really watch more than an hour a day. Unless you're paying for it by data use, where videos are a bad idea.
Not really a fan of learning programming from books, though. It's like learning a language from a book, you get the grammar and syntax and stuff, but not pronunciation, good habits, get corrected on bad habits, etc. I'm especially skeptical on the stuff like "C++ for dummies" because they normally just teach the language. I remember using a few of those Dummies book for technical stuff and it never helped as it just didn't go into enough depth. I can't really recommend classes either, as a lot of them are no different from books. University is good, as you have real programmers with experience pointing out common mistakes.
So, yeah, I'd say learn Python by yourself. Find examples and dissect them, preferably after trying to do what those examples try to do first. Some people recommend Haskell as a first language, but I never learned it myself.
I'd discourage C as a first language if you're learning it by yourself; C is a difficult language that's a bitch with a lot of things. You'll make a lot of mistakes, C won't tell you (and do a half-assed job at fixing them). You'll spend days/weeks debugging it, where an experienced programmer will be able to spot that you left out a semicolon or ampersand or used pointers all wrong. A lot of the more modern languages are more forgiving of mistakes and abstract out stuff, and have similar speed (just less control). C is more of a language that has nearly the control of Assembly, while not being as damn unreadable, which is why it's so popular.
And hey, don't give and don't take shortcuts. It takes only a few hours to program something and a few days to debug it. Or a day to write pseudocode, a few minutes to program, and a few hours to debug. Programming has a rather steep learning curve, but once you get your first language, the others are relatively easier.
how come everyone else is lucky enough to have proper english speaking lecturers who have advanced past the OHP stage? 
Eh, not really. Lecturers are often chosen on their ability to research rather than teach. In fact, my relatives/friends who went to Harvard/MIT say that going to the best colleges doesn't mean you get the best teachers. You just get the ones who (really) know what they're talking about and those who can give you harder exams.
The really charismatic/dedicated lecturers usually teach first year subjects, where some people go in knowing nothing, and need really good teachers to pick it up and catch up with more experienced students.
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Topic: Were too start, programing (Read 2074 times)