Answer 1

C even though difficult but it's still a not bad programming language to start with!
It actually depends on what you want to do with coding. If you want to be a Web developer, developing websites and stuff, the first language should be HTML.
If you want to do game development, then it depends on which of the game engines you want to use. For example with Unity, you use C# as your scripting language while in the case of Unreal Engine, C++ is used.
If you want to be a sport programmer(i.e participate in programming contests), then you need some low-level languages since they typically run faster. C is good in this case. You can also use C++, Java etc.

Answer 2

If you're patient and can handle it, it will definitely not hurt you to become good at C.

You'll have a deeper understanding of what's going on within the computer, and every language after that will be easy.

But you can decide on the road. Everybody is different. If after a while you feel it's too hard and you're just treading water, you can still start another language (for example Python).