Learning can come from unexpected directions. With my base of GWBasic, QBasic and Turbo Pascal I tried and failed learning C more than once. (Admittedly, most attempts where trying to learn C and win32 API at the same time, that might have been a bit much at once - particularly using the exotic GCC ports of the day). Then I spent a year or two diving into POV-ray SDL, with its heavily C-preprocessor inspired syntax. After that, C came surprisingly easy.

StackOverflow still gets conio.h not found questions.

> Is that better or worse

1000x better, and I am damn serious.