In my uni they still teach C++ as a first language, that's why the "don't learn it as a first language" got me confused. The core language is very useful for learning programming, it is actually very clean.
Maybe he only knew C as you say. I did C++ professionally for a while. Not properly, just updating models in derivatives trading systems. I remember reading 3 Scott Meyer books, the Effective Programming series, at the time, they were a tour de force. Loved that guy. I've lost track of everything since 11 or whenever they introduced move semantics. One day I might go back to it.
