Re: silly things you had done during programming
It is good practice to have the knowledge of SQL script. I am not DB developer, but it does not mean that I am unaware of writing sql code, sometime when application needs specific task there you need to write required stored procedure by yourself. I dont think it is big deal. it is quite easy language.
As Joel mentioned that Pascal is procedural language, and consider in early generation of programming language. It is always good idea to start with it. It is pretty classical in nature and cover all basic programming concepts like data type, arrays, pointers, function, procedures, etc etc.
C is also good language for beginners who want to learn programming.
no C is not similar to jave, but C++ and Jave are quite common in term of object oriented programming.
You need to focus on java very carefully, it is not tough but for beginner it is not good choice. again your university/instructors are in favor of it.
.Net is not for net technologies, it is just the name of platform and you can develop either desktop, web application, mobile application. etc etc.