Java, lol

I was told by a game developer at this seminar that if I want to learn how to program games, a good way to start is with Java and making cellphone games. I plan on learning C++ before Java anyway but around how long would it take a newbie to learn Java or when would it be a good idea to learn Java if not at all?

applications with a slighly less than 'large-scale' nature, i would say