Well I'm not a computer geek (who am I kidding *sobs*) but I'll see if I can answer
This is what I tell a lot of people about Java. But before I start please (PLEASE!) don't base your career, course or any other important choices on something I say.
Learning your very first programming language is always quite hard (assuming it is your first). But once it's done it becomes so unbelievably easy to learn pretty much all the others
So yes it will be very useful, even if you never do any Java programming again in your life.
IMHO, Java isn't the best language to start with. It has a lot of unnessicary (damn, I can't spell that word
) complexity. But that said, it's not the worst either, by a long way. And I found, the more you do the easier it gets.
Although I have no idea of your career aspirations or specific situation, in general I'd say. Yep it will be useful. Yep it will get easier. And nope it's not really hard (but it isn't the easiest).
Again, please don't listen to me to any great extent. Please wait to hear from more nerds
-Kev
P.S. I actually hate Java, but my opinion is irrelavent because it just depends on how your brain works as to which programming languages you like best.
Edit: I see the other have already responded, look at their puny answers. pfft