I was a teaching assistant for intro classes to C and C++. I agree. I think C and C++ are good languages to learn about memory, python is good for beginners because they can easily translate their pseudo-code into execution quickly, without spending too much time fighting with the language. Borrow checking is definitely a hard concept, I think C++ references starts to exercise the purpose of borrow checking in other languages. Learning about pointers in C, and then references in C++, they’ll feel like the borrow system in Rust is the next evolution of memory management, no longer writing const everywhere.