Wants to make apps, specifically for Android, with a preference for native code, but tangentially interest in game dev.

Frankly that's Java. Im not the biggest Java cheerleader by any means ( IMHO, Java is a worse C#... But we wont go there ). Given the criteria he has listed though, without another factor, Java is the best recommendation.


Oh, and my grammar nazi alter ego can't let this slide... Learn't? Really? ;)

To the OP you need to realize something right away with computer languages... There is rarely ever a "best" at least not in a generalized sense. There is a reason why so many programming languages exist and are in popular use. Hell just in the realm of Gamedev youve got, lets see... C C++ C# Java Objective C ( ick ) Lua Python Perl ( double ick ) Ruby JavaScript, then domain specific languages like HLSL or GLSL, SQL, up and coming languages like RUst and (sorta) D, then you can go down the functional road with F#, LISP, Haskel, or parallel with Erlang. Then of course you may find JavaScript unpleasant so instead work in TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Kotlin or Dart. Etc, etc, etc...


Eventually for many programmers, languages eventually become like picking a tool out of a tool box.