The best way to choose a language is always to look at what problem you're trying to solve and what kinds of problems the languages you're looking at aimed toward.
If you're not familiar with programming already, python has a very low cost of entry and a massive following.
If you're familiar with programming and looking to get into functional stuff, Haskell will give you a pretty good start.
I guess what jesse_m had in mind were the mini languages from the article. I'd say 'calc' looks like a good starting point, but I agree that picking an order is hard.
Yeah I'm familiar with OCaml I wasnt sure if there was a language progression that was suggested to go through. I was actually interested in using Menhir more too.
If you're not familiar with programming already, python has a very low cost of entry and a massive following.
If you're familiar with programming and looking to get into functional stuff, Haskell will give you a pretty good start.